kochi-style biryani on shanmugham road, short-grain and gentler than the malabar version. the one ernakulam actually queues for.

the one that brought mandi to kochi. fragrant rice, slow-roasted chicken or mutton, lightly spiced, built for sharing.

open all night, every night, on the bypass. the chaya is the thing, whatever hour you turn up.

the busiest veg room in the city and still consistent. puttu, dosa, appam, idiyappam, and a lunch that costs nothing.

old teapots on every shelf and burnt yellow walls. assam tea, cheesecake, and an afternoon that goes slower than planned.

in the avenue regent on mg road, and on the list for how long ernakulam has been meeting here rather than for anything on the menu.

the fort kochi seafood room everyone ends up at, and it holds up. meen pollichathu and prawn coconut roast are what to come for.

where ernakulam eats breakfast without thinking about it. idiyappam with stew, appam, puttu, done properly and fast.

a full kerala sadya on a leaf, any day of the year, which almost nowhere else in kochi will do for you outside onam.

sixty years on mg road and the fish curry meal has not moved. karimeen pollichathu if you are treating yourself.

everyone in mattancherry calls it balan chettante kada. porotta, vellayappam, and beef chops that have been slow-roasting since before you arrived.

an evening ritual more than a restaurant. after seven it is fried rice neypathal with beef stew, and that is what you order.

unlimited brown rice and a fish meal that people plan their day around. mullet curry, squid kanthari, prawns fry.

a courtyard, a gallery and the biennale crowd. coffee and homemade cakes in the leafiest room in fort kochi.

kayikkante biryani, since 1948. lightly spiced, fragrant, and gone by the time most people think about lunch. mutton with date pickle.

a neighbourhood lunch room near the harbour. plain kerala meals and whatever came in that morning.

pineapple jam rolls and not much else. soft sponge, restrained sweetness, real fruit, which is rarer than it sounds. the shop opened in 1931 selling two things, plum cake and this, and has had the years since to stop getting it wrong.

a yemeni kitchen doing the real thing. mandi, haleem, and portions that assume you brought people.

kochi shaap food at its most famous. duck roast, beef fry, crab, squid, meant to be shared and eaten slowly.

a whole restaurant built around kanji, which no other city bothers to do. plain, payar, jeerakam, pazhankanji, all day.

a thattukada that grew up. opens at eight, runs till two, and is the answer when everything else in kochi has shut.

chocolate cake and omelettes, and cold drinks that save you in april. small, easy, on kb jacobs road.

chocolate taken seriously in a city that mostly does not. single-origin cocoa, brownies, and a burnt basque cheesecake worth the detour.

you eat while the container ships go past. grilled pomfret, fried prawns, squid, and the harbour doing the rest of the work.

a cart, a stove and a queue. beef curry and filter coffee that beat rooms charging five times as much.

puttu at nine at night, steaming, with beef or prawn or fish curry. the reason people drive to kumbalam after dark.

pazhampori with beef curry, which sounds wrong until you have it. evening only, and the queue tells you when.

the highest-rated place on this list and the hardest to get to. super-fresh local catch, cooked simply, on the water at kumbalangi.

out on mulavukad island, and worth the drive. fish roe, crab thoran and karimeen pollichathu with gravies that do not hold back.

a proper bakery counter, breads and pastries made the long way, and coffee good enough to sit down for.