What to eat in Goa : Book Now
Dishes such as Vindaloo and Xacuti (pronounced Cha'cuti) will be familiar from Indian restaurant menus, and are originally Goan dishes.
Brito's, Baga - Known for its Mix meat platter, this place serves continental cuisines, The deserts offered are to die for.
Montego Bay Goa (Morjim)- full fledged restaurant serving Continental, Indian, Seafood and the local Goan Cuisine
Cavala, Baga- Beautiful authentic Goan food in a charming setting. Also great entertainment is often featured!
Bella Ciao The Italian Restaurant at La Calypso Hotels, Saunta Vaddo, Calangute Baga road, Baga, Goa - 403516 - Phone: 0832 2275821 Italian
Mirabai Goan Village, off Baga Road, Calangute. Phone: 98 22176808- The best! Authentic Goan food, excellent sea food, charming knowledgeable owner
Souza Lobo - Calangute (Its on the beach, you won't miss it)- King Fish and Seafood are excellent
After Seven Restaurant, Calangute (on the border of Candolim-Calangute). Telephone 91-832-227957. easily the best restaurant in Goa. It continues to be the benchmark for all other restaurants. Started by Leo, who speaks 4 languages and has travelled the world with the reputed Taj Group of Hotels, this restaurant has been around for 9 years. The chef used to head the culinary department of the famous Caribbean Cruise liners. The restaurant was formerly known as After Eight Restaurant, till Nestle decided that the restaurant was so good that it would prove competition to their mints, asked Leo to change the name, which he did in 2005.
Value for money eateries
SOMEHOW only the big and luxury names seem to ever get written about in Goa. But if you're looking for taste, and not ambience, here's where you could seek. Caution -- some of these places are really rough, though tasty:
Aflatoon Hotel,near the masjid alongside Alankar cinema in Mapusa. Be prepared to share tables with the scruffiest of characters and dig into tasty mutton biryani (Rs 40), beef biryani (Rs 20), soft parathas (Rs 5), seekh kababs (Rs 10) and the rest...This is Muslim-style food.
Goan-Nonveg fast-food joints (they run out of adapted handcarts) at Santa Cruz (near the church) and Miramar (adjoining Clube Gaspar Dias). Meat-based sandwitches for Rs 10, tasty and easy-to-carry. (Couldn't we learn to use less plastic though?) Real home-style food at down-to-earth prices. No wonder one outlet at Miramar sells 800 bread a day! You can also get similarly delicious Goan cooking at the roadside in Agaciam (just before the bridge) or sausages ('choris-pao') at the Agaciam market.
Ajanta, near the Old Panjim Bus Stand, just before you new bridge over the Pato creek. Typical Pernem-style Goan food. Simple, tasty fish-curry-rice. Spicy too. A favourite when we worked nearby, when riceplates were Rs 5 in the mid-eighties. We journos had this joke about writing a book 'How To Get The Most For Rs 5 At Ajanta'. Now, the standard meal costs Rs 20-25. The special dishes (chicken, occasionally crab) are fiery hot and spicy.
Alisha, opposite the new Goa legislative assembly. Both these above come from the cuisine of Hindu Goa (there are some variants among this too, depending on region, class and caste).
Sarovar. What can you get for Rs 25? Two parathas, butter-milk, three curries, curd, rice, a sweetdish, pickle... Naturally crowded in the afternoons. Even more naturally, the waiters can be quite friendly since at this value-for-money it hardly hurts to give a five rupee tip (great by local standards) each time!
GENERALLY, almost every Udupi or 'Kamat' restaurant in the state. This cuisine finds its origin outside Goa's borders, along the south Karnataka coast. But, what the heck, the food maintains its standards and taste, that even some among the local Christian population (who's diet is or has been actually non-vegetarian) have developed a taste for this. Standard meals average Rs 20-30.
The lone 'shack' (at the time of writing, 2003) on Siridao beach. This fishing village is tucked away off the Panjim-Margao highway, just before the Agaciam-Cortalim bridge. Fish dishes, it's speciality naturally.
Hotel Mangalore, by the roadside about a kilometre away from Canacona's main tiny town, Chaudi. Don't get misled by the term 'hotel', this is a roadside eatery. It's close to Char Rasta, literally, Four Roads, the point where they meet. Not to be confused with another restaurant of the same name, that lies closer to the petrol pump. The 2002-end prices were pegged at 'deluxe fish c. rice' (the 'c' is for curry) at Rs 80, a semi-deluxe version for half that price, and a 'local' equivalent for one-fourth. Obviously chicken is its specialty.
Check the fish preparations of the restaurant that's under the bridge at the Cortalim end. Traditional Catholic Goan style, good value for money.
Cafe Prakash, a tiny hole-in-the-wall in Panjim. Near the Azad Maidan close to the ferry jetty. Nothing exceptional here, except that some of us local journalists consider it to be the "unofficial" press club of Goa each evening (lots of gossip!) and you could dwadle over a cup of tea (Rs 3) for three hours