Eat some more!
Thank heavens Pondy is walk-friendly. Otherwise, this foodie paradise will turn into a calorie-rich guilt trip. So here’s a quick round-up of other places worth your appetite
Of course we had to stop by Alliance Francaise’s canteen-style Café de Flore (8.30am-7.30pm, open all days; meal for two Rs 400; 37, Rue Dumas; 2225868), and while AF celebrates 125 years in Pondy this year, its visitors catch the sun by the pillared garden over a snacky menu.
Nostalgia also drove us to Kasha ki Asha (10am-7pm, Sundays closed; 23 Rue Surcouf; 2222963; kkapondy.com), a charming boutique and rooftop café (American-style pancakes and European thalis!) through all of November.
The Indian Kaffe Express or Tike (8am-10pm, Wednesdays; meal for two Rs 800; 3, Rue Dumas; 2339945) is a vibrantly colourful café with quirky touches and a menu that veers from espresso panna cotta to Bengali-style egg pakoras with aplomb.
Le Mission Café (6am-10pm, open all days; snacks and beverages for two Rs 250; 170/180A, Mission St; 4204210) is less than a year old but already gaining renown for its organic, single-estate (it’s TN’s Balmaadi) French press coffee, besides espressos, lattes and the ‘Buma Devi degree kaapi’. Also try their sherbets, ice creams, breads and cakes, and the ‘toffee in a drinking form’ called kaapi mittai (espresso pulled over rich condensed milk).
Atithi’s rooftop restaurant, The Grill, has good seafood and vegetarian platters, and Toxic is their skybar-type hangout. The big wood-fired oven that looms upon the entrance is what keeps drawing folk back to the otherwise unremarkable
Café Xtasi (11am-10.30pm; open all days; meal for two Rs 500; 245, Mission Street; 4209062, 90430-23470; cafextasi.com) — just go for the pizzas and pastas like a local would.
The name is rather more ambitious than the space available to LB2Lounge (10am-11pm; days closed; meal for two Rs 500; 2, Labourdonnais St; 4209941), a compact bar and restaurant with a rampantly multicuisine menu. They have nevertheless managed some lounge-style seating, and a few tables, some of which are made with polished stone and kept outdoors, secluded by the artifice of potted plants.
Legumes (12.30-3pm; 7.30-11pm; all days open; meal for two Rs 1,000; #1, Tilagar Nagar, Ellaipillaichavady; 2299000; theaccordhotels.com), the Pondicherry Accord’s rooftop fine dining restaurant (there’s open terrace seating as well), opened just a fortnight ago, to offer a vast, multi-cuisine, vegetarian-only buffet with eight starters and Indian breads brought piping hot to the table from the separately maintained kitchen, plus a whole table given over to eggless desserts.