Varanasi for first-time visitors

Best restaurants

Varanasi's restaurants split into a few honest categories. There are ghat-side kitchens catering to pilgrims who want their vegetarian thali plain and their hours long. There are traveller cafes tucked into the alleys behind Assi and Dashaswamedh, feeding students and long-stay foreigners a mix of Indian and continental. There are lunch houses along the market roads where the crowd is entirely local and the menu is whatever the cook decided to make that morning. And there are late-night ice-cream and juice counters that keep going long after the aarti crowd has gone home. The list below is twelve places that are mapped, addressable, and reachable by number, with the honest note that many of Varanasi's best kitchens are unsigned, unwebsited, and rely on regulars to keep them full. Skip the hotel dining rooms chasing the tourist rupee; the cooking that has kept this city fed for centuries is happening on the market lanes, at the ghat guest houses, and along Ravindrapuri and Durgakund roads. Bring cash, a notion of when you want to eat, and a willingness to ask twice for the door.