Bangalore: five ways to get the best out of a visit to India's IT hub

Craft beer, bolts of silk and scrumptious street food: the city - also known as Bengaluru - may be modernising rapidly but it still retains much charm

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Scooter riders pass street art in Bangalore, India. Photos: Ekaterina Zhilina

Mischa Moselle

Published: 3:01pm, 8 Oct 2015

1. Where to eat

For a south Indian thali, head to one of the four daily sittings at Mavalli Tiffin Room, a favourite among the city’s foodies. A small army of waiters distribute compartmentalised trays and dosa pancakes, crisp on one side, fluffy on the other. Next they dish out rice and as many as 10 different curries and condiments from spotless silver pails. Don’t ask for more – you have to tell the waiters when to stop. Arrive early to beat the queues.

Foodies also head to the VB Bakery (Old Market Road, Vishweshwarapura, Basavanagudi), not only for its selection of cookies and breads but because it is at the top of Food Street, a 150-metre strip of stalls selling many variations on the samosa, idli (steamed rice cake), and creamy potato and crunchy onion-stuffed dosas, often dotted with mild black mustard seeds. Wash it all down with a lassi (drink made with yogurt or buttermilk) garnished with chocolate chip and glacé fruit and served in an earthenware pot. Bring wet wipes and be prepared to eat standing up, sharing the space with dogs, motorbikes, cars and the odd stray cow.

There are few places you can go in India without encountering a stray cow on the street.

2. Where to relax

Bangalore’s IT crowd have some money to burn – see the Porsche and Lamborghini showrooms for proof. Some of that new money gets spent in places such as The Biere Club and Infinitea Tea Room and Tea Store.