#blahvsfood: How Bangalore Became India’s Hottest F and B Destination

I moved to Bangalore almost seven years ago and found myself in a culinary wasteland. Moving from a city with Masque and The Table, Americano and Bombay Canteen… I found myself in bleak landscape of generic microbrewery food, dosas, and local biryani/thali joints. 

Yes, some of the local restaurants showcased amazing regional food. And the dosas were and are the best in the world. But this was food cooked and served the way it has always been. There was zero application of thought or imagination. After the burst of creativity in the first half of the decade that gave birth to Monkey Bar and Permit Room and Bengalooru Oota Company and Toast and Tonic, Bangalore’s food scene had atrophied.

The food of Bangalore was defined by comfort and familiarity. No new faces. No new ideas. No spark.

Cut to seven years later and the same city is India’s hottest food and drink destination. A city that has gone from zero cocktail bars to half a dozen world class bars. And a city where every  month we have new restaurants that feel new and fresh and exciting and that the whole country talks about.

Giant cookies. Late night scoops. Cafes. Kopi shops. Asian food. Fancy cakes. Vinesh Johnny is the man with the Midas touch.

How did this happen? Mumbai’s food renaissance was based on patterns of migration and reverse migration. From Gauri Devidayal to Samir Seth, Prateek Sadhu to Alex Sanchez, Mumbai was where India and the world intersected, a place where global ideas and exposure found a natural home in a city that aspires to be compared to New York or London or even Dubai rather than be clubbed with Bangalore or Delhi.

Bangalore had no such burst of new people bringing new ideas. Every single place that people talk about in Bangalore has been created by locals. It is a scene that has exploded but a scene that is entirely home grown, without any sort of external catalyst, a transformation that feels inexplicable at some level. 

If there is a moment where the new Bangalore was birthed, it was in 2020, during the pandemic. Bangalore is a place of abundance, as is the state of Karnataka. Rain, soil, irrigation, weather... Karnataka has never had to fight the elements to live well. And that bounty of abundance leads to a culture of comfort that has always defined Banglore, the city of good times and good weather. 

The pandemic jolted Bangalore out of its sense of comfort, erasing all our assumptions and truths. It feels trivial to connect a human tragedy with something as rooted in privilege as food that went beyond sustenance. But an uncomfortable truth doesn’t stop being truth. And the lockdown meant that privileged Bangalore, the Bangalore with disposable income, soon grew tired of home cooking and wanted more. The first building block of Banglalore’s food revolution was privileged boredom. 

This led to a bunch of home chefs but people wanted more. And that’s where the newly formed The Soul Company stepped in. Working with the likes of Bengaluru Oota Company and Navu and Gautam Krishnakutty and Vinesh Johnny, they didn’t just help the leading chefs find an at home audience. They actually encouraged the chefs to go beyond the menu and cook the food that excited and inspired them, in limited batches, without the constraints of a traditional restaurant service. Whether it was Vinesh’s gigantic soul cookie with hazelnut and nougat or the dabba mash ups with different chefs, they brought a sense of elevated discovery to Bangalore. 

Somanna Muthanna, Founder of The Soul

Company

If the pandemic drops whetted Bangalore’s appetite for experimentation, Akhila Srinivas and the Courtyard Community turbo charged it with rocket fuel. Yes, Conosh and Soul Company were doing these international popups at the Five Star hotels. But Akhila brought the best in Indian food to Bangalore every single week in a way that felt relevant and rooted. That didn’t just allow Bangalore to discover diverse cuisines, it also allowed chefs to discover Bangalore and its diners. If that wasn’t enough, her space was ground zero for the hottest new ideas and chefs in the city to find their voice. An early iteration of Navu. The birth of Naru. Aditya Kidambi’s burger drops. Anurag Arora’s chefs table. Everything was born at The Courtyard. 

Akhila Srinivas is the most culturally significant figure in Bangalore and it’s F and B scene since Manu Chandra 

Whatever the cuisine, however knew the idea, Bangalore showed up every time there was good food on offer. It turned out that Bangalore’s obsession with comfort food was a supply side issue rather than a demand limitation. At some level, this feels intuitive in hindsight. This is the most cosmopolitan city in India.. one without a single truly dominant community. It is also a city that has a strong meat eating culture, contrary to the “idli dosa” vegetarian stereotypes about South India. A meat eating culture that isn’t chicken centric, that includes mainstreaming things like bheja and offal that are typically not part of “upper caste” cuisine in North India.

It was around this time that I started putting together dinners under a simple premise. I would ask a chef what they always dreamt of cooking but were unable to because they weren’t sure they would find an audience. Then  I would ask how many people they needed to make it happen and at what price. Whether it was a truffle tasting menu at Navu, or lost Parsi dishes like paya cooked with masoor dal at Fia’s lounge and kitchen, or Chef Tam’s home Thai dishes at The Oberoi’s Rim Naam, these dinners for small, intimate groups of 10-20 people sold out rapidly and became places for community and connection that went beyond food. 

When the Blah Dining Society became a thing...

Over the course of a few years, Bangalore’s  heterogeneity and open mindedness finally found expression and allowed chefs to realise that there was a Bangalore that was hungry for more than comfort. Chefs and entrepreneurs saw this new energy, were inspired by it, and rose to meet the moment. Their big business insight was to realise that as long as they stayed away from large vanity projects, they could build restaurants that truly represented them creatively and artistically. And while there are successful large restaurants like Muro that have emerged recently, most of Bangalore’s newer favourites are smaller and tighter focused, with a strong design philosophy, than the generation of restaurants before them. Kavan Kuttapa’s Naru Noodle Bar showed the way, but it’s an approach followed by several recent success stories. There is a clarity of thought and intent that is reflected in shorter menus, strikingly designed intimate spaces, sharp brands and food where every dish feels thought through and cohesive. Navu. Soka. Comal. Guerilla Diner. Beyond Burg. Fireside. Fervor. Mylari Malgudi Mane. All successful. And all at the opposite end of the spectrum from the Byg Brewskys of the world. 

The other big difference in the new wave of Bangalore restaurants is the focus on intimacy. I find that Delhi and Mumbai are still very driven by flash. Size, bling, glamour, celebrity, power. Bangalore still has some of that but significantly less so. There is much less of a “place to be seen” culture. We don’t consume brands. We consume food and support the people who give us joy. Even Farm Lore, with its globally renowned tasting menu, feels intimate and small compared to the grandeur of its peers like Indian Accent and Avartana. And whether it’s Naru or Navu, Beyond Burg or Spirit Forward, the success of these new Bangalore favourites is not driven by PR or big marketing budgets, but by a group of regulars who feel a sense of connection to the place and the people, who come back again and again, who evangelise and bring their friends, who feel a sense of true ownership towards these places. 

Farm Lore showed a more rooted, organic way for a restaurant to put itself on the global map compared to the hype machine.

That brings me to the single biggest reason why Bangalore is India’s hottest food destination. It is because it is the only community driven food scene in India. The traditional power brokers in India’s food scene (industry folks, influencers, PR people) are irrelevant in Bangalore. A founder in Bangalore doesn’t need to waste time trying to figure who is “important”. Do good work and the community will discover you and support you and ensure you find success. I’ve seen this happen with Sarposh. And Navu. And Fireside. And all the restaurants I’ve mentioned in this piece. They will all tell you about how their tipping point wasn’t a piece of coverage or an Instagram post. It is a community of diners discovering a place, and the place achieving organic success through word of mouth. 

The FDC is one of the communities that have transformed Bangalore’s F and B Culture

Have clarity of thought and honesty of intent. Control costs, especially capex. Don’t waste your time on marketing and buzz. Just cook the best food you can and create the best guest experience you can. Have faith in yourself. Have faith in your guests. That’s the Bangalore formula. It sounds simple enough. Almost old school. But it is something rare and unique.

We live in an inauthentic age in an inauthentic world. But in the middle of this performative era, the new generation of Bangalore’s F and B talent have found a way to keep things real. And that’s what makes Bangalore India’s hottest F and B destination.