Jaunted

Restaurants

Eating in India: Koshy's

April 3, 2006 at 12:59 PM | 0 Comments

It can be hard to figure out why many of the "classic" restaurants mentioned in guidebooks are in there -- if they ever had any flair, it's usually gone by the time someone thinks to write the place up.

At least one long-standing place mentioned in most Bangalore guides has enough class to make a visit worth it -- Koshy's. More of a coffee shop with a full menu than a full-service restaurant, Kosky's has been in the same spot for over 50 years, since shortly after Independence, and many of the customers appear to have been coming for at least the last few of those decades.

Koshy's smoking section is where the action is -- it's on the left as you enter (the room to the right is a little frou-frou and therefore suspect). In the slightly tatty smoking section, there are a few old portraits scattered on the wall, with fluorescent lights and indifferent fans on the ceiling. At the tables, businessmen, journalists and others argue and make their deals over tea, butter chicken, fresh lime sodas, and Kingfishers.

There are definitely other places with food as good as or better than Koshy's, but few of them are going to give you as good a sense of what the city's like when all the tourists have moved on down the road out of Bangalore.

[Image of Koshy's Patron via RS2802/Flickr]

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