Ultimate Guide To Kochi's Oldest Restaurants
Kochi’s diversity comes together beautifully in its cuisine. The city’s culinary influences include traditional Malayali, Anglo-Indian, Dutch and Jewish ones. While global cuisine has begun to dominate the restaurant scene in Kochi, some old eateries have stood the test of time. These eateries are an important part of Kochi’s heritage and tell the story of the city through the ages.
Grand Pavilion
Grand Pavillion by Grand Hotel is a plush restaurant to savour North and South Indian delicacies amid opulent interiors and well-organised dining. They have soups, starters, Chinese, Continental, biryani, and Kerala-special dishes. For seafood lovers, a few must-try delicacies here include meen thakkali roast, prawn biryani, fish biryani, fish and chips, grilled fish, and braised fish. North Indians can try mutton biryani, chicken steak, lehsuni paneer tikka, aloo tamatar sabzi. They also serve chocolate ice cream, spinach and corn sandwich, and blueberry cheesecake.
Bharat Coffee House
As the Broadway area in Kochi underwent changes, Bharat Coffee House remained firmly rooted. Over 60 years old, the eatery sees regulars who visit for a slice of history and the tasty snacks. Founded by B Govind Rao in 1956, the restaurant has had the same menu for six decades. Choose from dosa, idli, vada, puttu kadala and banana roast.
Kayees Rahmathulla Cafe
Kayees Rahmatulla Cafe is known for serving the best mutton biryani in the region. Established by V.K. Kayee in 1948, the restaurant is a favourite with celebrities. Besides biryani, the menu also includes fish roast, egg roast, beef roast, pathiri and ghee rice. The cafe now has several branches in different areas.
Hotel Colombo
Hotel Colombo was founded in 1952 and has even appeared in the 1989 film Varavelpu, in which one of the actors recommends the beef at the restaurant. The menu features Indian-Chinese soups, egg preparations like egg chilli fry, egg curry, egg masala and egg roast, and breakfast snacks like bread with butter and jam.
Quality Bakers
Known for the breudher (a Dutch cake), Quality Bakers was established by C. V. Chandran who recommended eating the cake/bread with mutton kurma. Breudher can also be found in Dutch colonies around the world, like Sri Lanka and Singapore, but bakeries in Kochi have made it their own by adding spices and ghee.
