Restaurants in Bangladesh
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Mermaid Café
This Goa-style beach shack serves what is quite possibly the best food in all of Bangladesh. In fact both the food, the setting and the vibe are so good that we have received more positive reports from travellers on this one restaurant than everything else in Bangladesh put together! The gorgeous owners have gone out of their way to ensure that as many of the ingredients as possible are organically produced (a harder task than you might imagine as most farmers are hooked on the delights of pesticides and chemical fertilisers) in the local area. The effort has really paid off – even the rice is of a quality you will rarely have tasted before. In addition to the excellent…
reviewed
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Cofi Ii
One of the current hot spots with younger expats and locals for after-work drinks (non-alcoholic of course), stingy but enjoyable meals, and internet use. Try the chicken cooked in honey. It’s on the second floor of the shopping centre.
reviewed
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Club Gelato
Club Gelato is a perfect replica of an Italian café, serving posh coffee and every rainbow-coloured flavour of ice cream.
reviewed
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Quality Sweets & Restaurant
The Quality Sweets & Restaurant is overflowing with both character and drool inspiring food. It’s tucked down a little alley off the main drag – there’s no exterior English sign, but there is a small sign in English beside the interior door. The dhal here is especially good and much thicker than is normal in Bangladesh. Its sweet selection is deserving of the name.
reviewed
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Spitfire’s Barbeque & Grill
Located in the heart of the diplomatic quarter, the bevy of shiny 4WDs with ambassadorial standards and multi-national logos should tell you something about both the quality and price of the food here. Steaks are the staple, but you can also opt for quail and duck breast (but it would be cheaper to wait until you get back home). The atmosphere is far more relaxed than you’d expect.
reviewed
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Spaghetti Jazz
An excellent Italian restaurant, just off DIT II Circle, that produces pastas and pizzas stuffed with cheese in just the right places, and covered in tomatoes just where they’re needed. Very popular with expats.
reviewed
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Gulshan Plaza Restaurant
Cheap and basic workman’s restaurant that has all your Bangladeshi favourites, as well as kebabs and roast chickens – all of which are near enough perfect. The boss is English-speaking.
reviewed
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Silver Spoon
Enjoyable Chinese fare with a menu sensibly divided into single, half and full serves. It’s a good place to hide from the world.
reviewed
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Gopal Pali Prosida Monda Sweet Shop
Few locals visit the rajbari, but they do all visit the famous Gopal Pali Prosida Monda Sweet Shop, which makes the best monda (grainy, sweetened yogurt cake) in the country. Two hundred years ago the Pal family cooked these delicious sweetmeats for the zamindar (landowner), who liked them so much that he employed the family. When the landowner’s family left during Partition, the Pal family opened up shop and have been in business ever since. This isn’t just a shop though, oh no! Start thinking of a strait-laced Bordeaux wine chateau and you’re on the right track. The tasting room is a delightful faded-yellow room with hard wooden roof beams and a handful of polished…
reviewed
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Ahar Restaurant
At night it’s damn near impossible to miss this flashing Christmas tree of a restaurant. During the day it’s marginally more subtle, but even so the bright lights, bright pink interior and bright balloons are obviously of great appeal to the girls of Rangpur as this seems to be the only restaurant in the entire country where female diners outnumber male. The staff proudly announce that they can make ‘anything’, though they mean anything Bangladeshi. Still, the biryani is well worth the trip.
reviewed
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Nilkantha Tea Cabin
Nilkantha Tea Cabin The Nilkantha Tea Cabin, around 5km south of town, produces the almost world-famous Willy Wonka-esque five-colour tea. Yes, it does have five distinct layers of colour and five equally differing tastes. In addition to the five-colour tea (Tk 50), there are dozens of other flavours (from Tk 5) and the tea cabin has turned into a social institution for the young of the area. A baby taxi from town shouldn’t cost more than Tk 20.
reviewed
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Cozy Café
The Cozy Café, where the young of the town come to see and be seen, is Bogra’s trendiest eating experience and is very much a new concept for Bogra. The décor is dark and cool, the Chinese dishes really delicious, the staff will be genuinely pleased to see you and, if another reason were needed to stop by, they have a music collection that includes such old-school ‘classics’ as Bon Jovi, Europe and A-ha!
reviewed
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Marine Drop Restaurant
There is no dearth of shops and teahouses on St Martin’s. As you step off the pier you’ll walk through a strip of seemingly makeshift restaurants. Their fierce competitiveness makes for some great meals. The numero uno place to eat is the Marine Drop Restaurant, a wooden beach shack on the soft sands of the western beach. It offers delicious seafood and even hosts the odd barbeque night.
reviewed
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Aristocrat Coffee Shop & Restaurant
Locals dress sharp to come to this new restaurant and coffee shop situated above the Mercantile Bank. One half is a relaxed coffee shop with filter coffee, tempting cakes and a distinctly non-Bangladeshi vibe. The other half is the last word in Rajshahi sophistication and offers some of the best Indian and Chinese food you’ll find in north Bangladesh – the chicken tikka masala is spot on as is the service.
reviewed
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Grillhouse
Widely considered the best restaurant in Khulna, the locals rave about the kebabs and Chinese dishes (which form the bulk of the menu) at the Grillhouse, near New Market. There are also a few Indian and European dishes thrown in to leaven the mix. Be warned that the orange juice has salt mixed with it – apparently to improve the flavour of bad oranges! Fortunately the food doesn’t need much improvement.
reviewed
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Hamadan Restaurant
This is Sylhet’s special-occasion restaurant and it’s certainly a nice break from the heat and crush outside. Unfortunately the food, which is mainly Chinese and Thai, is hardly worthy of the fuss – we’ve had tomato salads that contained more meat than our chicken dish! To find it, take the escalators to the third floor and climb the stairwell at the back left-hand corner of the building.
reviewed
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Food Garden
A bright and cheerful new Chinese establishment that is popular at both lunch and dinnertime. It’s a great respite from the searing intensity of the streets, and the clientele, who are generally better off Bangladeshis, won’t overpower you with stares. It offers sensible half-portions and, should you feel like eating out on the dirty streets, take-away.
reviewed
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Chili’s
The Chili’s emporium has a flurry of restaurants in the centre. The main tiger-stripe building gives you the chance to get flirty with a tasty Thai or Chinese meal upstairs, while downstairs you will discover a kebab joint and a ‘fast food’ restaurant (though exactly what the difference between kebabs and fast food is, isn’t made clear).
reviewed
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Café Link
A cosy and intimate Chinese restaurant on the first-floor of a shopping centre (look out for the flashing fairy lights). There are only about a dozen tables and the service is fast and friendly. It also has a few lighter snacks such as sandwiches, and will box meals up to take away for picnic lunches.
reviewed
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Boaishaki Restaurant
This place is so popular it’s just silly, but as normal the locals know best. As well as delectable curries there are a few harder to come by dishes such as biryani. If the staff take a shine to you then you might find yourself leaving with a free red rose, and a cha or two better off.
reviewed
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El Toro
The dark and cool el Toro is the only Mexican restaurant in Bangladesh, and surely one of the best on the Indian subcontinent. The chunky chicken quesadilla is a Trojan Horse of flavour – it looks benign on the plate but stages a coup in your mouth. They even have cocktails...sort of.
reviewed
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Sureswar Hotel and Restaurant
Mongla isn’t overflowing with eating options. The local favourite is the Sureswar Hotel and Restaurant, located on the main drag, next to the Hotel Bangkok. It stocks the standards and has a handy ‘food catalogue’ painted onto the wall in English.
reviewed
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Bonanza Food Plus
You certainly won’t get sloppy dhal and stringy chicken at this sophisticated but well-priced restaurant. Many consider it to be the finest eating establishment in the city and it is, without doubt, the place to experience everything good about Bangladeshi food.
reviewed
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Hotel Sonali
Hordes of local students and workers enjoy the chance to eat for next to nothing in a place that, with its funky paint job and terrace seating, inspires lingering meals and lasting conversations. A rare find indeed in the world of cheap restaurants.
reviewed
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The Crystal Lounge & Restaurant
Sleek, modern and fashionable, you will feel like you’re in the city when you eat here. Meals are mainly Western based with lots of pasta and steaks, but there are also filling sandwiches, delicious fruit smoothies and some Thai treats.
reviewed