Bengaluru’s restaurants stay low-key, but stand out

ON a dominicus afternoon, 23rd Street pizza pie is packed with a loretta young crowd together, ordination salads, potato wedges and of course, pizza. Sitting next to my table were two couples who said they were Gujaratis raised in Bengaluru. They ate out five to 6 times a month, mostly trying non-Indian food. 23rd Street Pizza with its New York style pizza and photos of the Big Apple on the wall was one of their favourites.I was there to try different restaurants as part of the new Restaurant Week India (RWI) 2026. For ten days in April, participating restaurants charge a flat fee of about ₹1500 per person for a prix-fixe (fixed-price) menu with select items. Diners get an appetizer, a main course and dessert. Three cities are participating this year—Delhi, Bombay, and Bangalore. For restaurants, this is a way to expand their client base. For young diners, it is a chance to try new restaurants. When held annually, the cities that host restaurant weeks build a buzz around them and attract tourists as well.In Bengaluru, 17 restaurants including Comal, Kopitiam Lah, Kappa Chakka Kandhari, Muro, Lupa, 23rd Street Pizza, Middle Room, Bistro Cameo, Olive Beach, Bar Sama, Pizza No Cap, Fervour, Fireside, Woodside Inn, Tijouri, Spice Terrace and The Hood are participating.The burning question that arises, of course, is how are these restaurants selected? I asked Aatish Nath, co-founder of Restaurant Week India. “The honest answer is that we eat our way to the list,” he replied. “There is no application, no fee, no committee voting on spreadsheets… (but based on a) very simple question about every kitchen under consideration: Does this place have something to say?”The restaurants get to keep the money that they make during Restaurant Week, because the parent organization runs on a sponsorship model. That said, not all restaurants want to join, because some perceive it as a loss of revenue because they are setting a flat rate. “It is usually owners and restaurants that have lived or worked abroad who understand its potential and end up joining,” said Nath.Bengaluru is a particularly interesting city because it is arguably India’s “third place”. If Delhi is about power and Mumbai is about money, then Bengaluru dining is about value for money. It does things quietly, without showing off or announcing itself with a bang. In fact, the opposite. More and more venues in Bangalore are popping up as secret spaces known only to the city’s cognoscenti. Naru, the noodle bar where you have to waiting with lightning fingers on a particular day in order to score a reservation is a good example of this city. “Bengaluru diners are, in the best possible way, harder to impress, and that makes them the most rewarding audience in the country to cook for,” said Nath.In contrast, Mumbai diners are worldly for sure, but they respond to the energy of a newly opened restaurant. They have money to spend and a Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) when it comes to dining at the newly anointed “it” place. Mumbaikars are willing to overlook a restaurant’s shortcomings just to be part of the buzz. Delhi diners, as Nath said, prefer legacy over everything else and bring a certain authority to the table; they know what they want, what they’ve had, and they will tell you both.In Bengaluru, we don’t flaunt our wealth or our knowledge. My friend Avinash has eaten his way through Tokyo and can take apart every Japanese restaurant in the city. Another friend, Heemanshu, is a design obsessive who is tired of aping the West. Shree loves eating out and knows exactly where to take her friends at 1:00 a.m. For the perfect cocktail and snacks.At 23rd Street Pizza, I watched a table of diners debate fermentation while drinking kombucha. What this knowledge and passion produces is arguably the most exciting dining culture in the country. As Nath said, “Because when a kitchen knows the people sitting in front of them care—not performatively, but genuinely—it cooks differently.”Over the last 20 years, I have observed Bengaluru building this culture largely without the fanfare that Delhi and Mumbai attract. Even though its food scene has exploded, Bengaluru is slow to follow global trends. Instead, it makes its own rules. That gives the city a restaurant culture where cooking and eating take place with depth and authenticity, a rare combination.(Shoba Narayan is Bengaluru-based award-winning author. She is also a freelance contributor who writes about art, food, fashion and travel for a number of publications.)