India Guide
Kerala
Eating
1 Kalavara Press Rd One of the city's most popular multi-cuisine restaurants, down a sidestreet off MG Rd. You can eat in their dowdy first-floor dining room or, from 6.30pm onwards, on the more attractive rooftop terrace under a pitched-tile shelter. The furniture's plastic, but the food (mostly non-veg) is tasty and inexpensive: fish, beef, mutton and pork dominate the menu, plus they do fish curry "meals" from 12.30 to 2pm.
2 Maveli Café next to the bus station on Station Rd, Thampanoor. Part of the Indian Coffee House chain, this bizarre red-brick, spiral-shaped café (designed by the recently deceased expatriate British architect, Laurie Baker) is a Thiruvananthapuram institution. Inside, waiters in the trademark ICH pugris serve dosas, vadas, greasy omelettes, mountainous biriyanis and china cups of the usual (weak and sugary) filter coffee. An obligatory pit-stop, though a grubby one.
3 New Mubarak off Press Rd, Statue Terrific little no-frills backstreet joint that's famed for its wonderful Malabari-Muslim dishes, especially seafood. In addition to the usual masala-fry pomfret, kingfish, seer fish and pearlspot (avioli), you can order huge jumbo prawns, squid and crab, served with proper tapioca (kappa) curry and the famous house seafood pickle – at prices undreamed of in Kovalam. It's tricky to find: you have to squeeze down a narrow pedestrian alleyway off Press Rd (find your way to the Residency Tower hotel and ask there). Price: Most mains Rs75–150
4 Swagat Comfort Inn Grand, MG Rd Fine vegetarian Indian food (both north and south) served by black-tie waiters in a blissfully cool a/c dining hall, with tinted windows and discrete Carnatic music in the background – just the ticket if you've had enough of the heat and humidity outside. Their Rs100 "Swagat Special" thali is one for monster appetites.