Himachal Pradesh

The relaxed yet stylish garden-fronted restaurant at Johnson's Hotel frames a mountain view through foldaway windows, and its wood-fired pizza oven is cleverly positioned to warm the bar area in winter. Excellent...

Easily missed opposite the petrol station, around 2km south of central Kullu, Maitre is the most appealing Western-centric restaurant for miles around, with great cakes and coffees supplementing a wide-ranging...

Low-lit and atmospheric, this perennial favourite is reliable for a whole range of traveller munchies, and often serenaded by a Santana soundtrack.

For beautifully blended flavours, this all-vegan delight is hard to beat with its imaginative range of stews, delicious 'Buddha-bowls', soups and curries plus smoothies fashioned from non-dairy milks and...

The Deyzor hotel's restaurant is decked with artistic local photos and offers plenty to read, and there's an eclectic range of dishes, from Thai to thukpa to tandoori specials with an emphasis on seasonal local...

As well as McLeod's best barista coffee, this excellent gallery-cafe serves some very imaginative cuisine including brown-bread open sandwiches (try the roast aubergine with tomato coulis), Himachali thalis, and...

It's just four heavy wooden tables crammed into a bazaar-box shop-unit but the metalcraft lamps add character and the deliciously flavoured thalis (multicurry tray-meals) are a wonderful introduction to local...

This mood-lit bar-restaurant with a willow-shaded riverside terrace is popular for smoking shisha pipes (₹460) to an insistently upbeat soundtrack. It also serves good lasagne, thin-crust pizza and superb...

Gaur Niwas is a classical if mostly ungentrified heritage house where you can savour meals from tandoori trout to fair-value thalis to penne alla zingara sitting at little slate-roofed garden pavilions or on the...

Trancey vibes and dangling prayer-catchers set the tone, and there are plenty of chess sets on the wide sunny terrace, but what really makes the climb worthwhile is staring into infinity, contemplating the...

Fronted by an old Fiat 1100, the enticing Simla Times combines a wonderfully panoramic open terrace area with a casually cosmopolitan indoor section of distressed tables, books, bottles and a distinctive ceiling...

In a distinctive all-window circular building, Ashiana is an almost-elegant restaurant for snacks, Indian and (some) Chinese food plus a few Himachali specialities, including anardana (chicken in pomegranate) and...

This timelessly refined restaurant offers indoor, conservatory and terrace dining, the latter with superlative views towards the distant Himalayan panorama. It's open to nonguests but only with advance...

Upstairs, 250m south of the bus station, Vibes is a great place to try authentic, beautifully presented Himachali food that's rarely available outside local family weddings.

Just across the river from Old Manali, climb a short stairway to enjoy Bella Vista's high-quality vegetarian Spanish and Italian food served in a comfortably spacious setting with a florally feminine touch.

This slick restaurant-bar produces flavoursome international food – from roast-pumpkin soup to peri-peri chicken, quinoa salad to semi-deconstructed pad Thai (Thai noodles in tamarind sauce). The inside space is...

The Norbulinka's magical Hummingbird Cafe has a certain Tibetan elegance and outdoor tables that spill into the idyllic, tree-shaded rock garden.

This loungey restaurant-cafe with a mellow, jazzy soundtrack is good for hearty breakfasts, strong coffee and international dishes, from eggs Florentine to remarkably good Thai green curries.

One of McLeod's undisputed traveller hubs, with its shelves of books and very extensive rear terrace, well-run Nick’s goes well beyond Italian (though the thin-crust pizzas are good) to cover most veggie culinary...

'Celebrate, Meditate, Liberate' entreats this unexpectedly sophisticated cafe occupying a hard-to-beat panoramic viewpoint on a central knoll in Old Tosh.