Varanasi is a city that eats before dawn. The morning ritual — ghat, puja, chai — is followed by breakfast at one of the kachori shops that open around the time the sun clears the river. By 8am the best seats are taken. By 9am the kachori is gone. This is not a city for people who eat late.
Kachori at Kashi Chat Bhandar
Kashi Chat Bhandar in Godaulia is not a restaurant in any formal sense. It is a counter, four feet wide, behind which two men have been frying kachori since 4am. The Banarasi kachori is different from the Jaipur variety: smaller, thinner, filled with a spiced lentil and fennel paste, and served with two chutneys (tamarind and green) plus a potato sabzi that functions as a sauce. Cost: ₹25 for three kachoris plus one helping of sabzi. The line at 7am is twelve people deep. It moves in four minutes.
Thandai at Blue Lassi shop
The Blue Lassi shop near Vishwanath Lane has been making lassi since 1925. The thandai is the best item on the menu — milk infused with cardamom, saffron, rose water, and poppy seeds, served cold, in a clay kulhad that you are expected to smash on the ghat stone after drinking (the traditional way of disposing of clay cups). Cost: ₹80–120. Do not ask for bhang thandai unless you understand what that means and have four hours free with no plans.
Banarasi paan for the end of everything
A Banarasi paan is not the same as paan anywhere else. The betel leaf is different (grown in specific gardens outside the city), the kattha paste is lighter, the supari is sweeter. The paan wallah near the Dashashwamedh crossing has been rolling them for thirty years and can do it in eleven seconds. End every meal in Varanasi with a sweet paan. It is a full stop that the food requires.
Where to stay
Frequently Asked Questions
The overwhelming majority of Varanasi restaurants are vegetarian — as a holy Hindu city, beef is not served anywhere and most establishments avoid all meat. The few restaurants that serve mutton or chicken are in the cantonment area, away from the ghats.
Bhang is a drink made from cannabis leaves, traditionally consumed as part of Shaivite religious practice. It is legal to buy at government-licensed bhang shops near Manikarnika Ghat. It is potent. Consume a small amount, don't drive, and give yourself an afternoon of no plans.
