Karthik C. S.

I follow a Lacto-Vegetarian diet and make an exception to eggs in baked food such as cakes. If you are in the Bangalore City area, then I recommend the restaurants and food places mentioned here.

Obviously, my dietary restriction naturally induces a bias in the list of places I recommend. Nevertheless, I have received good feedback on my recommendations so far. Finally, make sure to check out the notes (in the google map) on each of my recommended places, for the specific dishes that I think are great.

Roei Tell has generously provided some fantastic guidelines below on navigating Bangalore and other parts of South India as a foreigner, based on his own experiences. I strongly endorse everything he has written. In fact, I would go even further and recommend that if you are visiting Bangalore, you not only read his guidelines carefully but also internalize them to ensure you have a safe, smooth, and enjoyable trip!

Below are some of my own miscellaneous remarks which might be useful to know as well.

I cannot emphasize this enough—always drink water from packaged bottles. Avoid food that involves water (or even vegetables) that isn't thoroughly cooked as much as possible. All my friends who have visited India and followed this advice have stayed healthy during their trips.

I suggest you install the Uber app, as some other ride-hailing services may not work well with non-Indian phone numbers. Through the Uber app, you can even request Auto rickshaws as a mode of transport. Additionally, it's sometimes easier to secure rides if you set the mode of payment to cash instead of using a credit card.

If you're accustomed to eating a substantial amount of raw salads daily, it might be challenging to maintain that diet in India unless you prepare the food yourself. While cucumber and carrot salads are commonly available as part of South Indian cuisine, other types of salads are quite uncommon—unless you visit Westernized restaurants.

If you're interested in seeing local cultural shows, such as plays or comedy performances, you can use the Bookmyshow website to find current listings and purchase tickets. If you have a particular interest in theater, I recommend checking out Rangashankara.

Another interesting experience would be to check out any of our super markets.

These are a few tips based on a visit of mine in 2024 with my wife. The visit lasted 2.5 weeks, the first half being a road trip through rural areas in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka, and the second half being a city visit in Bangalore. So the tips are probably more suitable for travel in South India, and for travel that isn't confined only to fully Western areas in a big city. Needless to say, the tips are probably most suitable for people with background similar to mine (Israel, Europe, US, Canada).

My wife didn't experience any gender-related issues directed towards her (assault, harrasment, etc.), even in the few times when she walked around alone, except for sexist attitudes that also exist where we live (e.g., speaking only to me as the supposed decision-maker, not treating her seriously, etc.). So I can't speak for gender-related issues in travel, but I'm sure they exist, especially if traveling alone.

You can't drive. Not even for a minute. Driving a single stretch of road in India should not be part of your plan, you will be hurt with very high probability. You get around the city by autorickshaw (you can use Uber for that), and you get around rural areas by hiring a driver (you need a friend from India to arrange that).

When traveling we usually like to go off-off-...-off the beaten track. That was impossible in our India visit, since it got very inhospitable very quickly (awful roads, no facilities, wrong info online, bothering the people who live there, etc.). You can do off^n with n=1, you'll get plenty of "exotic" there; in fact, with n=1 it will already be "exotic" enough even for your middle-class Indian friends. Seeing cool stuff isn't hard in India, so there's no need to overdo it.
(For example, we were in Munar, which is a very touristy hill station in a rural area - that counts as n=1, and many parts of town were already too rugged. When trying to explore a village around "where people actually live", we got stuck and our local driver had to turn back before even arriving at the specific destination: impossible roads, no infrastructure, online info grossly inaccurate, and finally some people who lived there just asked us to please leave.)
(Another example, from Bangalore: KR Market is wonderful, and you can get lost for an hour in between the flower sellers and spice piles, or see how banana leaves are stacked. But it's definitely n=1, a bit too rough for many people; and you shouldn't try for n=2 and go to the shady upper floors -- that's unsafe.)

Booking hotels from outside India isn't as easy as you might guess. Even very respectable/fancy hotels might only accept domestic payment methods (we relied on a local friend to help us out), and/or communicate unreasonably poorly via email (WhatsApp is typically better, and was considered a standard communication method for businesses in 2024).

The vast majority of restaurants you see on Google Maps can be thought of as an illusion, since they are not for you. Don't get hung up on the diff between a restaurant with N reviews averaging 4.4 and a restaurant with 2N reviews averaging 4.2: both of them might be tiny tin stalls that you couldn't possibly eat in (see more on restaurants below).

In general, don't take Google Maps too literally. You're going to India, loosen up a little. The place might be there, might not, it might've moved, changed ownership or opening hours, the world is an unexpected and wonderful place.
(This applies both in rural places and in the city. Some examples: The supposed Scenic Point of View with many reviews was, perhaps, referring to one of the various curves along that stretch of road in which a car can stop for a moment, none of which had any facilities or markings beyond a Maggi stall; the famous waterfall was listed in four different locations, kilometers away from each other, some of them reachable by car and some requiring a hike; the largest market in a big town wasn't even listed, we accidentally ran into it; the known restaurant appeared in the wrong location, with the correct address, and in reality it switched ownership and opening hours several months back; etc.)

Hotel means restaurant, but also hotel means hotel.

Given the above, the following probably goes without saying, but still: Don't get too attached to your plans.

You're not being cut in line, people are just utilizing the empty space in front of you better than you are. They're being kind really, keeping things moving: If Indians would have the line etiquette of Canadians, the congested subcontinent would grind to a halt. So please also try to keep things moving quickly on your end. And don't worry, there's very little aggression to it - just complete disregard for irrelevant notions such as personal space.

Go to temples a lot! Leave your shoes at the entrance, be super respectful (really), and either find someone to guide you or join the crowds for the puja. Be brave, you can do it, and people will appreciate your participation rather than frown at your intrusion (but please be very respectful and careful). Circle the structures and idols clockwise, like everybody else is doing. Donate to the temple box or to the priest's tray, overpay the lady outside for flowers and small gifts for the idol. Bonus points if you chat with the priest and get them to follow you on Instagram (it happened to my wife!).
Temples in South India close around lunchtime and re-open around 17:00, so you need to visit either in the morning or in the late afternoon.

People everywhere will want to take selfies with you. They mean no harm. Similarly, the people who stare at you also mean no harm.

Many people speak very little English, even in a big Western city such as Bangalore, so using very direct and simple English is a considerate thing. Saying "would you mind handing us a couple of drinking cups please" is unkind, and you won't be understood. Just say "two cups", and do it with hand gestures and a nice tone and a smile. It'll be appreciated.

You'll be treated like an obscenely rich person in many places, especially outside the city but not only there. In several rural hotels we had dozens of people at our beck and call, doing every little chore for us, and looking at us attentively while we were eating or walking around. (It was hard not to feel like we're some version of 19th century British colonialists.)
This isn't something that I personally understand very well. Of course, people in North America earn a lot compared to local standards, but it's not only that. There are cultural and economic issues at play (e.g., unbelievable poverty in many areas, deep inequalities, and some cultural conventions around status), and also class and caste issues that even our Indian friends couldn't always perfectly explain.
Given a complicated situation that I don't understand, my suggestion is generic: Be kind, accept the service even if it's weird for you, tip frequently and really well. When it feels too much, say so - you're allowed your own boundaries.

Expect frequent openness and kindness from strangers, and rely on help. Obviously not at the entrance to huge tourist attractions, where scammers are abound, but in most other places - restaurants, shops, temples, markets, walking down the street. Strangers were almost always glad to chat a bit with us, answer questions, and offer detailed help and tips.

It's normal to be seated at a shared table with strangers in crowded restaurants. These are nice opportunities to chat with people.

We ate adventurously and creatively, completely avoided Western food, and didn't get sick. There's a luck element to it, obviously.

Water not in a bottle is evil. Don't drink the tap water, it's toxic (literally). Don't drink filtered tap water, you don't know if the specific filter keeps out the bugs that are dangerous to you (when's the last time that filter was changed?). Avoid ice, it's tap water. Don't drink mixed drinks that have water in them, it's hard to get people to use bottled water for those. Be very wary of fresh fruit/veg, they're likely soaked in tap water. Be somewhat suspicious of coconut chutney. Brush your teeth and clean your toothbrush with bottled water.
It's extremely easy to get bottled water everywhere, just stop at any respectable-looking grocery shop. Even restaurants and stores usually sell large bottles at retail price.

For street food, I'm sorry but your common sense still applies in India - you can't eat almost any of it. Don't be swayed when seeing many people eating unhygienic food, and don't lose your head just because you're traveling: If you wouldn't touch food made/kept in such unhygienic conditions back home, you can't suddenly eat it just because you're in India. Your friends who grew up there also wouldn't eat such food, unless they're knowlingly gambling on food safety (and are willing to take the obvious risks).
So all these stalls with rusty pans, oil that stood all day in smog and sun, and flies buzzing around, are strictly not for you. Sorry.

On the plus side, there are definitely still ways to eat a lot of street food. I know of three options:

1. For actual street food stalls - hardcore - get an Indian friend who grew up there to guide you. Your friend can recognize the (very few) safe stalls, you can't.

2. Best bet: Look for indoor places or store counters that are in between a restaurant and a stall, and that seem clean and have lots of customers. It should be indoor-ish, with food prepared more/less hygienically and away from the smog, but not a sit-down restaurant. There are actually tons of such hybrid places, and the main challenge is finding clean ones with great food. (It's best to do it after a while in India, when you already developed some perspective; and it's safer in a city.)

3. Eat chaats at a sit-down restaurant. Not ideal, but also not bad, especially at the beginning of your trip.

For meals, courage is your best defense: Eat at extremely crowded restaurants serving local food. Don't eat at your hotel, and avoid Western-looking half-empty restaurants: these places have relatively very low turnaround, and are exactly the ones most likely to serve you expired food that isn't cooked properly. In contrast, the restaurant that serves hundreds of customers for lunch of local food every day, with huge lines at the front and no English-speaking staff, is a very safe choice.
Put your name in with the host, sit down when called and order the thali, chat with people at your table and ask servers what are the dishes (remember: simple English, hand gestures). Your best bet for finding these restaurants is looking for ones with 10K+ reviews in Google Maps, and it's not crucial if their score is 3.9 or 4.1: there's a reason people eat there.
And don't optimize getting that specific dish you fantasized about back home; forget preconceptions, and just eat what the most crowded local restaurant is serving. Also, enjoy the eating style of a thali: It's different from thalis you get outside India, and extremely fun.

You don't have to eat with your hands, and basically all restaurants that are relevant to you have spoons. But do try it out. (We ate with our hands much of the time, but sometimes - especially after a while there - we just wanted the feeling of clean fingers.) Handwash stations are available at every restaurant and even near street food stalls, customers use them before and after a meal.

Crossing the road is genuinely dangerous, and still you have to do it. Don't be ashamed to shadow other people in the first few days, and no need to be stealthy about it - they know exactly what you're doing and are typically happy to help.

Except for traffic, Bangalore felt safe. Only the usual concerns of any big city. Also, the city is open and buzzing at relatively late hours, so you get crowded and safer streets in the late evenings.

Plan for A/C breaks during the day, the heat and smog can get to you after a few hours. To stress the point: The smog is serious business, and it might affect your breathing while you're there. Places with ceiling fans aren't perfect, but they do the job.

Rain in the city is a very welcome thing. You get a little wet, but it breaks the heat and smog, and it cleans the streets. Don't be afraid of it.

Rely on autorickshaws (Uber or otherwise) liberally and frequently to get around. If you're taking an autorickshaw from the street, use common sense to guess if the driver looks ok (they're usually fine, but...). Don't expect English, and don't be surprised if they drive against traffic, or seemingly into other cars or pedestrians.

Use public pay toilets. They're not clean, but are usually less bad than you imagine.

The back areas of markets sell meat, and sometimes they have live animals there. So avoid these back areas if you're sensitive to this, and in general try not to look too hard at meat shops.

You really don't need to haggle if you don't want to. Overpaying won't do you any harm.