Best restaurants in Bangladesh

At this iconic and wildly popular proletarian restaurant, the grade of cooking is nothing short of culinary wizardry. Bringing every possible permutation of local ingredients and flavours to your table, the al...

If you’ve ever been to a Bangladeshi-run Indian restaurant on London’s Brick Lane – where many of the restaurants are in fact run by expats from Sylhet – then you’ll recognise all your curry favourites on the...

Split-level brick-walled seating with high windows and chic bamboo furnishings make this the coolest place to eat in town. It also serves up Srimangal’s best local food – the bhorta preparations explode in the...

Indian street food served in a clean, trendy, air-con restaurant. Everything here is delicious, but the chaat (spicy snacks, Tk 50 to Tk 70) are excellent value. Choose a couple of those, washed down with a fresh...

Wildly popular with the locals, and rightly so, Al-Razzaque does delicious curries, biryanis and Bangladeshi breakfasts, but the pièces de résistance here are the plate-sized flaky rotis, which are absolutely...

Few locals visit the rajbari, but they do all visit this famous sweetshop, which makes the best monda (grainy, sweetened yogurt cake) in the country. Settle back in the tasting room, a delightful faded-yellow...

After being ransacked by militants in mid-2016, this top-notch bakery rose like a phoenix in a new (albeit tiny) address within a shopping mall in early 2017. True to its earlier reputation, it continues to churn...

With smart decor and obliging staff, this upscale restaurant serves a mouth-watering range of authentic Sri Lankan dishes such as oven-baked pol roti (flatbread with grated coconut) served alongside sambol (spicy...

This modest restaurant is the best place in town to sample Marma cuisine. The main themes are a mountain of ginger and a volcano of chillies, plus the novelty of finding pork on the menu. There's no English menu,...

Located deep inside a commercial building, this place probably does the best local food in town. Try the delicious haleem (meat and lentil soup) with naan for dinner, or go for an aromatic, slow-cooked kachchi...

A friendly neighbourhood restaurant where filling biryanis, tasty grilled chicken and fish dishes as well as a range of mouth-watering curries fly thick and fast during mealtimes, centrally located Pritiraj is a...

This stylish eatery on the 2nd floor of a shopping complex attracts college kids who file into its wood- and glass-panelled interiors to while away time over umpteen servings of frappe-style coffee and snacks...

This modern eatery stocks an assortment of pastries, sandwiches and cakes and, most importantly, presses fresh coffee. You could also try the tasty shawarma rolls, although they are far from authentic....

A Dhaka institution in its own right, this legendary store offers an amazing variety of traditional Bangladeshi sweetmeats, as well as a delicious mix of snacks and fast food. It has 14 showrooms scattered across...

Chili's runs a food empire of sorts, with three restaurants located on both sides of the main drag. While the cafe and the Chinese eateries both come highly recommended, this flagship Bangladeshi restaurant is...

This sprawling, shaded, Goa-style beach shack serves such tasty food in such cool surroundings that you probably won’t eat anywhere else once you’ve tried it. The fish dishes are sumptuous, but everything is...

A very pleasant coffee shop in a quiet, refined courtyard. The coffee isn't super-cheap (around Tk 140), but it's good and you can get great light lunches of wraps and south Indian dhosas (rice pancakes), while...

Sushi is relatively new in Dhaka, but Samdado is one of the city's oldest Japanese restaurants. The dark wood and bamboo decor here lends an appropriate atmosphere to the freshly prepared sushi and sashimi. The...

Bamboo Shoot is Dhaka's most reliable outpost for authentic Chinese cuisine and well worth a splurge. It's in the same building as Agora supermarket – a useful landmark for helping rickshaw drivers navigate. Sing...

This is a handy choice if you want to match good-value Bangladeshi and Indian meals with classy surroundings and good service. The competitively priced set lunches (available 1pm to 4pm) deservedly draw a good...