Kochi Best Restaurants

• Malabar Junction – To begin with, check out Malabar Junction…Chic and quaint, the restaurants at Malabar House Residency is a heritage building that once housed the tea traders and bankers of old Cochin. It is a clever blend of the old and the new, walls washed in contemporary colours and balanced out with a large collection of special antiques. The restaurant carries the same theme, is simple and extends from a veranda of sorts to a garden, a perfect setting for an evening of food and a glass of wine. Owned by a German-Spanish couple, the fusion food, a deliberate blend of Mediterranean and Kerala, is meant to cater to many tourists who visit the town.

Address – Malabar Junction, 1/268, Parade Road
Fort Kochi, Kerala

• Fort House – Located close the water, Fort House is best known for its seafood and homely cuisines. Part of a home run hotel, the interiors of the restaurant offer a rustic feel drawn perhaps from the thatched roof and old furniture. Interestingly, a part of it carries forward to a jetty that juts out into the sea. As expected, the view from this perch is spectacular and as you dine al fresco fishing boats and canoes ply across the waters. The cuisine is largely Keralite with flavours of Cochin’s foreign influences as well as from recipes of the Latin Catholics, fisher folk who live along the coast of Kerala.

Address – Hotel Fort House, 2/6A, Calvathy Road
Fort Kochi, Kerala

• Upstairs – Ideal for pizzas, Lasagna, fritto-misto or an array of salads, it is run by an Indian-Italian couple. The interiors are simple and essentially in white and blue. The restaurant is the upstairs of an old structure that has been converted into a one room diner – thus the name – with ample light and air flowing through. The menu drawn up by the owners, who personally cook everything, focuses on authentic Italian. There is freshly baked bread, celery-walnut salad, blue cheese pizza besides a choice of desserts like affogato or apple cake to be washed down with plenty of coffee.

Address – Upstairs, The Italian Restaurant
Next to Santa Cruz Basilica,
K B Jacob Road, Fort Kochi, Kerala

• Tea Pot – A quaint stop for that cuppa…this is a tea-room where one can savour the antiquity and charm of Fort Cochin’s Old Portuguese homes. Converted recently into a café, much of the structure’s original style and lines of architecture have been retained. The interiors are warm; tea crates act as tables, a collection of kettles and teapots adorn the place and tea stains decorate the walls. There is enough on the menu for a meal as well: prawn curry and rice or appam and stew. And if that still keeps you hungry, just ring the little brass bell on your table. The stewards would be glad to help.

Address – Tea Pot, Peter Celli Street, Fort Kochi, Kerala

• Kashi Art Café – Started for the sole purpose of art, it later saw the addition of a café…Kashi is where one can relax, almost endlessly. The ambience entices a visitor to stay, best with book for company. The décor is warm with red-oxide flooring and handmade furniture from local coconut wood. Aspects such as an old sewing machine placed as a table and an ancient tea-maker adds to the décor. There is plenty of contemporary art on the walls, mostly for sale.

Address – Kashi Art Café, Burgher Street. Fort Kochi, Kerala.