Mannar's Restaurant

What to eat: South and North Indians Meals

Where: Mannar's Restaurant, Narayana Shastri Rd, Mysuru

Verdict: Today we had plans to try the meal also known as thali for lunch. But being walked several kilometers for continuous 4 days, we had no energy to walk long for food. Hence decided to have meal at Mannar's Restaurant located adjacent to our hotel.

Ordered for south indian meal(70₹), mannar's Special meal(100₹) and North indian thali(120₹).South indian and special meal are almost same with the contents like rice, sambar, rasam, curd, appalam, butter milk, milk sweet, chapati, sagu(poriyal), palya (kurma). Special meal got veg rice bath and fruit salad with Ice cream additionally.

North Indian thali got a cup of tomato soup, veg briyani, 2 tandoori roti, dal fry, roasted papad, palak mutter and milk sweet. After a long time my wife ate a veg meal at a restaurant without any complaints 😁. It means Mannar's got scored well.

Shree Mahalakshmi Sweets

What to eat: Ghee Mysore Pak

Where: Shree Mahalakshmi Sweets, Devaraja urs road, Mysuru

Verdict: Though Mysore Pak was introduced by the ancestor of Guru Sweet Mart, nowadays the taste over there is not amazing. That's why we were suggested by locals including auto driver, hotel manager to visit "Mahalakshmi Sweets" for this sweet.

The sample given to us was too yummy and mouth watering. Bought few kilos (440₹ per kilo) and some other items for friends , neighbours and most importantly for my colleagues.

If you have sweet tooth like me, then you must never miss this shop when visiting Mysuru, Mandya, Hassan or Bengaluru. Yep. They have branches across all 4 cities in Karnataka.

Breakfast at Indra Cafe Paras Restaurant

What to eat: South Indian Breakfast

Where: Indra Cafe Paras, Near City Bus stand, Mysuru

Verdict: Its our third visit to this eatery in this Mysuru trip. We had a pitstop for breakfast at this cafe whilst going towards Chamundi hills. Let me cut the story and come to food straightaway.

Plain dosa(45₹) was thin and crispy. My wife was happy on seeing the sambar served with the dosa. Generally they don't serve sambar with dosa in this city.

Poori set(55₹) had 3 pieces served with coconut chutney and potato masala. Loved the crispiness on the poori despite the fact that the aloo masala was quite different than we get in Tamil Nadu.

Chow Chow bath(60₹) is nothing but a big scoop of rava upma and sweet kesari accompanied with white chutney. Wife was giving a look like "இங்கயும் உப்புமாவா" 😁. But I loved it a lot. More than the food I just love Mysuru. Its very much affordable, greenish, less polluted city compared to Chennai.

Dinner at Indra Cafe Paras Restaurant

What to eat: South Indian Tiffin

Where: Indra Cafe Paras, S.R. Rd, Mysuru

Verdict: Bored of sitting idle at the hotel room, we decided to go for little shopping near Devaraja market. Eventually we ended with dinner at Indra Cafe.

Indra Cafe has been in the food business since 1956. Seems to be a quite famous one in this locality. North indian food is served only in the first floor. We decided to have only south indian, so got a table in the ground floor restaurant.

Today we want to taste something different. So ordered for basundi(35₹), rava idly(26₹) , rava dosai(55₹) and then a scoop of pista ice cream(40₹). Never thought of having pretty big cup of basundi for 35 bucks. It was super tasty with lot of thick milk subtances and few badam flakes.

Rava idly was quite unique with soft core with few shredded carrot and coriander leaves. I even picked a cashew nut out of it. Rava dosai was just ok. We were bit skeptical as sambar was not served with idly or dosai. However the fresh and spicy coconut chutney and potato peas gravy made it perfect to go.

I did not had the ice cream as the mysuru climate was like being in the refrigerator. However heard it was nice and not feels like a packed one. This cafe also sells various varieties of sweets like peda, chiroti, pheni,... if one wants to buy for friends and relatives back home.

Red Pepper Restaurant

What to eat: Chicken Biriyani

Where: Red Pepper Restaurant, Near Woodlands Theatre, Mysuru

Verdict: If you look for chicken biriyani similar to chennai style in Mysuru, then you should visit "Red Pepper" in Mandi Mohalla. Had a chicken biriyani (184₹) with masala Omlette(53₹). Ambience is pretty much okay for families. Kids would love to watch the small aquarium kept at the entrance.

Only complaint is the accompanied raita was very dilute with too little onion. Biriyani was certainly better than the one we had at Hotel RRR. However omelette is not great, but I just want to have it as I had one long back.

Hotel Cafe Mysore

What to eat: Mysuru style Breakfast

Where: Hotel Cafe Mysore, Ittige Gudu, Mysuru

Verdict: Our driver took us here for breakfast before driving to Nanjagud. He said that tiffin is not good outside Mysuru and it's better to have it in the city. It was a wise decision indeed.
We don't want to try Idly due to a bad experience yesterday. So ordered for pongal, vadai, plain dosai, mysore masala dosai. Pongal was quite different from the one we get in Tamilnadu. It had peas, lot of dal and served along with coconut chutney, sambar and a tamarind based sweet chutney. Vadai was as usual big and crispy outside.

My wife was bit disappointed to see a thick plain dosa as she was thinking of a thin crispy one. Mysore masala dosa was waffery thin with a thin layer of spicy chutney and some potato masala stuffing. I felt the mysore dosa was better than the plain one as it was crispy and topped with some butter.

Took some pakoda as take away. It is part of our culture to finish southindian tiffin with filter coffee...So we did it.

Overall a nice place for a quick breakfast, but not a place to spend long time with friends and family. Food for 4 of us set back by 384₹ including gst.

Evening Snacks at Indra Cafe Paras Restaurant

What to eat: Bonda Sambar with Coffee

Where: Indra Cafe Paras, S.R Road, Mysuru

Verdict: We want to have some quick bite before shopping in Devaraja market. Walked into Indra Cafe as I heard about it many times earlier.

Opted for bonda sambar(24₹) and filter coffee(18₹). It was a pretty big bonda soaked in enormous amount of udipi style sambar. Filter coffee was served hot in a big glass. It was quite stuffy and worth before an evening short walk. We have decided to come back for a morning tiffin in another day.

Let the pictures speak the rest.

Guru Sweet Mart

What to eat: Mysore Pak

Where: Guru Sweet Mart, S.R. Road, Mysuru

Verdict: Today evening we had a chance to taste MysorePak from its inventor's shop. The sweet dish was accidentally founded by the chef in mysuru palace when the king asked him to make something special. Maharaja liked it much asked to name it as MysorePak. Later the king asked the chef if he can open a shop outside the palace so that the people can taste the dish. That's how "Guru Sweets" was setup.

They have normal as well ghee MysorePak along with other Sweets and snacks. We had a sample of ghee MysorePak for 100gms (40₹) just to taste. To be frank, we didn't find much interest as we felt that the one made in Krishna sweets was better and softer than the one served in Guru Sweets. However we are happy to complete a task from our list.