A Great Guide to Eating Around in Srinagar by well known Food Critic Marryam Reshii

You can check out her Website here https://marryamhreshii.com/ And follow her on Instagram @marryam

A holiday in Kashmir involves much travelling around by car from Srinagar (not only the capital but the base of most visitors), a shikara ride, walking around markets and the Old City – a heritage site in its own right. That’s all very well, but it is convenient to know where you can grab a bite, preferably in the area where you are seeing the sights.

From Dalgate to Nehru Park – a distance of approximately 2 kms – is the showpiece road of the city: the Boulevard. One side of the road is lined with hotels and handicraft showrooms; the other side is the Dal, with its unending row of houseboats. This is the nerve-centre of the tourist world and here is where you will find restaurants: Le Delice, Winterfell Café, Stream Restaurant, Lhasa Restaurant, Shamiana Restaurant and many others. Le Delice is the city’s top patisserie, with seating space. All the pastries, donuts and tarts you see in the glassed-in counter are from Le Delice. The sandwiches and snacks on the menu come from the kitchen. The counter and the kitchen are separate entities. Very handy for a cold coffee and an above average quality pastry at down to earth prices. Every hotel on the Boulevard has a restaurant, most of which welcome non-resident guests. You are assured of finding North Indian and a smattering of popular Kashmiri wazwan dishes on the menu.

One iconic Chinese eatery of the 1980s was Lhasa, with its own garden. Of late, it has lost some of its shine, and though it does not overlook the main road, it is both homely and popular. Hotel Imperial Lake View is located at the very end of the Boulevard, opposite Nehru Park and overlooks the largest shikara stand on the Dal, with gorgeous sunset views of the most iconic part of the lake. The food tends to take a backseat, but this is one of the best viewpoints when you want to sit back and drink in the sights.

At the opposite end of the enchanting Boulevard with its glorious views and endless taxis disgorging excited tourists, is Shamyana Restaurant. You can sit inside the eatery or in the spacious garden. Nearby is Wok to Walk that serves Asian food and is a good spot for people watching because of its floor to ceiling glass walls that affords a picturesque view of the lake and the passers-by.

Other restaurants and cafes in the areas frequented by tourists are located in Dalgate, off Boulevard, and include Jan Bakers, excellent for cookies, tea cakes and chicken patties. There is no seating here. On the M A Road that runs perpendicular to Dalgate is GN Bakery, famous for ginger biscuits, cream buns and savoury biscuits, especially kulchas (Kashmiri shortbread, nothing to do with the kulchas of the plains that are eaten with qorma!) The parallel Residency Road is a cornucopia of restaurants, cafes and bakeries, all unmissable. Tao Café is right opposite the Indian Airlines office (and the polo ground) and is as popular with locals as with tourists. The seekh kebabs here are what sell the most: juicy and with a bite (no toothless nawabs in this part of the country!) Mutton is the favoured meat in Kashmir and in Tao as everywhere else in the city, is what is served. Walk on a bit, under the chinar trees and reach the bustling part of MA Road. Chai Jaai is the most famous tea room around. You can taste salted tea latte here, cream teas, kahwa or even Chinese teas. The snacks are well above the city’s average and being an Instagram-friendly spot, it is always a scuffle to bag a table here.

Further up the road is the famous Ahdoo’s Hotel, where, on the first floor, you can dine in relative luxury on Kashmiri wazwan. They have a small snacks menu at tea-time when the enormous restaurant is full to capacity with old-time residents of the city. It is the primary choice for locals to host out-of-town friends and for tourists who have the restaurant on the top of their Must Visit list.

Downstairs, Crème, part of the hotel, is well-known for pastries and Kashmiri tea-time biscuits. With a tall glass of iced coffee and a pastry, it is a great spot for people-watching. Opposite the road are two unmissable spots for food, both vastly different. Pick and Choose is a supermarket where you can buy selected dishes from the famous wazwan in cans. Great as a memento of your holiday and also as edible gifts. All of them are meat-based. In addition, the Kashmiri spices brand Kanwal has a Kashmiri taste-maker called ver. A spice paste that can be added to cooked dishes like aloo ki sabzi or dal (or meat curry) in the final stage, it will exude the aroma of Kashmiri food at very little outlay (contains garlic). Around the supermarket is a small cul de sac with a strictly local restaurant on the first floor. Called Kareema, it is off the tourist circuit, though right in the heart of the tourist area, and it serves a seven course wazwan. Not a la carte menu: you just grab a seat and the rest works with efficiency and precision. Nobody will ‘walk you through the menu’ because Kashmiri is the language spoken here and the eatery has a slightly rough and ready appeal, but it is very well worth the brusque service.

From Regal Chowk to the heart of the Old City – the beating heart of Srinagar, situated on both banks of the River Jhelum – is a short ride by auto-rickshaw. Ask to be dropped at Habba Kadal, the second bridge. In the lanes and alleys of the area are a plethora of bread bakers that bake bread in tandoors fastened to the floor. It is one of the most fascinating professions of old and every neighbourhood has several. Breads are made at various times of the day, so any time after 6 am should get you an eyeful. For an outlay of Rs 10, you can buy a tchot or dimpled tchochvoru that has been famously compared to the Jewish bagel. Slathered over with butter, it is a treat that is delightful for its unexpectedness. Needless to say, Habba Kadal is being mentioned here because of its proximity to the hotel district, but bread bakers can be found throughout the Old City. There are two kinds of bakers.

Ones who sell cookies and savoury biscuits have brick and mortar stores and can be found in certain places, most prominent being Janta Bakery near Aali Kadal (fifth bridge) and a group of bakeries, some specializing in unique breads not far from the shrine of Shahi Hamadan on the main road at Fateh Kadal. It is on this stretch of road that you will find a couple of famous pakoda sellers. Kashmiri pakodas, collectively called nadru moinj, are a local favourite snack. The rice flour batter makes them crunchy and the fillings are usually sections of lotus stem cut lengthwise and roasted gram. Eaten with spicy, sour onion chutney, this one is messy and spicy. And delicious. Nadru moinj sellers dot the old city, some better-known than others.

There are Tibetan-run restaurants in many parts of the city: there is one in Rajbagh called Everest Kitchen, high up on the second floor (good views of the Jhelum River and beyond from the verandah) and Tibetan Momo House in a small cul de sac off Residency Road, next to the State Bank of India, is extremely popular for their soups and noodles. On the other side of the city, enter the historic wall around Hawal (enter through Singeen Darwaza) there is a Tibetan colony that has a dozen tiny eateries, all family run from a room in their homes. Tibetan Kitchen is the best of the lot, but do go around to find your own favourite. Noodles, thukpa, shaphalay and momos are what you can expect here at prices that will not break the bank.

Finally, tujj! It is the name given to the metal skewer on which kebabs are threaded. There are two kinds of kebabs: tikkas and seekh kebabs. They are sold in certain parts of the city. One faces the Dal Lake, a couple of kilometres past Nehru Park and is known as Makkai Point (it used to feature corn on the cob sellers a few decades ago). Full of mobile stalls selling mutton tikkas, the fragrance by the early evening can be discerned even by passing cars. The other place is Khayyam Chowk, at the beginning of the main city. Ignore the dozen or so rough and ready dhabas and head for Imran ‘Café.’ It’s not a café of course, but the smokiest, best marinated tikkas and seekh kebabs anywhere in the city, accompanied by chutneys that used to be well-made in the old days.

Box
Top edible picks
Mutton kanti
Wazwan
Coconut macaroons
Kahwa
Chicken patties
Tchot from a traditional bread bakery
Rajma
Haakh
Trout