MEZBAN

As the name implies "HOST" in Urdu, this place is just good at it, hosting and serving. Located at the heart of the city, Asma Tower - Mavoor Road , it is highly crowded on weekends and holds an image more of a family restaurant. I consider it a restaurant for authentic cuisine of Calicut, let it be seafood or other dishes.

Staff is extremely friendly and help you with the dishes, since you may not be a Keralite and have a tough time pronouncing or understanding the names. The interiors are calm with everything in white such as seats, lights and paint. The tables are mostly for 4 or more people and even though it is located at a crowded spot of the city, it holds a large space for parking and saves you a lot of time. We visited in a group of few friends and tried some seer fish curry and fry, as seer fish is the only type which my north Indian friends are aware of, chicken biryani and mutton biryani. I prefer my biryani and especially my Indian seafood to be spicy but I still enjoyed their fish curry though it wasn't spicy at all and also enjoyed mutton biryani except for the reason that it had capsicum and large cubes of onion which I guess is common in Calicut cuisine. Recently, I tried their North style biryani which was again good but I feel they are best at their Malabar biryani or it might be that after trying biryani in almost every restaurant of Kozhikode, I am almost addicted to Malabar biryani. Later I have visited this place for their Fish meal and Kingfish fry, the meal was great but the fish fry was too spicy for me.

I would suggest you to visit this place to try the authentic seafood and it is the best place to spend time with your family  or I must say extended family on a weekend. I was shocked to know that this restaurant never had the need to place a name-board and yet it stands to be one of the famous restaurants in Kozhikode. This place is a package, good ambiance, good food and great service and looks best during evenings (once the lights are switched ON)

AMMA HOTEL

A small place like a shack which resides in a corner of the city, a small alley (next to the canal) ahead of Chunky Chicken takes you towards this restaurant. I found this place online where it was mentioned that it is known for their fish fry. It is very crowded during lunch hours, is open only for few hours and closed on Sundays. I was hesitant to enter this place as it looked very shabby but I saw groups of college students and ladies sitting, so I pushed myself to give it a try.

They serve only one thing that is the typical Kerala meal on a banana leaf with french beans, fish curry, sweet mango pickle, matta rice, Aiykoora fish fry (KingFish) and hot rice water (water which remains after boiling rice). First thing I tasted was the fish fry, which was extremely oily, salty and spicy. If you are health conscious and not used to visiting small and dull restaurants, then this is not the place for you. The food was good but I wouldn't say great, but if you want to get a feel of the typical Keralite meal then I surely suggest this place for you.

This is how the food here looks like.

TOP FORM

After reading the reviews on several websites and failing to find the Vishu Sadya (Vegetarian Traditional Meal served on banana leaf) anywhere, and since most restaurants were closed on Vishu, I finally entered this restaurant. It is located right opposite Hotel Sagar or KSRTC bus stand on Mavoor Road.

On a glance from outside, this restaurant looks a small one but when you enter it you realise that it is gooa amount of space to occupy many and also has a separate space for families. It was heavily crowded on Vishu and most people preferred biryani and after looking around I also chose to try their biryani (as usual). They were very quick to serve the food and the ambiance was simple and dark. Again looks to be more like a family restaurant with most tables for four or six. The biryani was just fine, in fact nothing amazing.

SALKARA

This restaurant has many chains, two at Nadakkavu, one at railway station and one at Hilite Mall. The first time I visited this restaurant, was the one at the railway station and it was for breakfast. It was early morning around 5:00 am and they were open, the staff  was extremely friendly and explained me what an Idiyappam is and served it with the usual Kadala curry (black chickpea) and a cup of tea, it was the first time I tried Idiyappam and found it good. After this I have tried their biryani and paratha with egg curry, for each of my visits, both were again good.

The next time I visited one of their Nadakkavu outlets and while going through the menu I found that all their biryani items are striked out as they don't  serve them in this outlet. I still insisted being a biryani freak, so they told me that they can serve a kadai chicken biryani, I have no idea what all available curries were blended to make one but it tasted great and was more towards the North Indian style. All these restaurants in the city have simple ambiance and prices are similar to other restaurants.

SIXTH AVENUE

They are located almost opposite to Downtown Cafe at P.T. Usha Road, in the building which comprises Natural's Salon and Talwalkar's Gym. This restaurant doesn't need to keep a selfie contest or to keep their customers busy with books, as most people come here for selfies or 'USIE' ( a group selfie), LOL! just learnt a new term. It has a good ambiance, walls painted with shades of one of my favorite colors (turquoise) and I just loved the shade of turquoise which their staff wears.

I visited this place on a sunday evening at around 6:00pm, but I guess it was a wrong time as they hardly had anything that I finalised on. I asked for hot dogs, chocolate lava cake and some sandwiches and none were available. Finally I selected some veg sandwich but I really enjoyed it. Entire time I just noticed people posing andhopping from one table to another to get a better shot. I can't review much about the food but I might edit this post once I visit them again. But I would say that this restaurant is known for their ambiance and will the most preferred spot for selfies. I badly wanted to try their nutella waffles which almost all of my friends love and will surely visit this place again to try them.

PARAGON

Again among the most famous restaurants of Kozhikode, located at Kannur Road, just under the bridge. I have visited this restaurant several times with different people, project groups, with family and friends. They are known for their Fish Mango curry, Chicken Biryani and Dancing tea. We ordered fish mango curry, mango curry, dancing tea, puttu, chicken biryani , chicken onion fry and some vegetarian dishes, I guess it included Mix veg curry and while ordering we mentioned that we want the vegetarian dishes to be spicy. This was the place where we discovered wheat paratha just to realise that it is served everywhere else.

The biryani was again the typical Calicut biryani which tasted nothing different, my friends loved the fish mango curry , mango curry wasn't great as per the vegetarians, the vegetarian dishes we ordered were not at all spicy, I have no idea if that was a communication problem or that was the highest spice level they could serve, puttu was again as usual, dancing tea is like! (below image) and what I actually liked was the chicken onion fry even though it had big cubes of coconut. The ambiance is good, service is mostly good but sometimes slow and pricing is similar to most restaurants.

MOMO MIA!

Since my foodie friend is from Lucknow and she always craves for momos, I googled for 'momos in Kozhikode' and some how found this place which has been newly opened at Convent Road, next to Five Star Chicken.

They have a limited menu divided into three parts- Veg, Chicken and Beef. They serve both steamed and Fried Schezwan momos. I selected the classic chicken steamed momos and my friend selected the classic veg steamed momos. I have noticed that in Kerala every restaurant takes time to serve vegetarian dishes, I guess my friend is the only one who asks for them. In MomoMia as well, veg momos took time but were served hot and fresh whereas my chicken momos were cold and dry, each with red spicy chutney. I didn't enjoy them much, but my friend loved them and I guess she will visit this place again each time she craves for momos. They are reasonably priced for around Rs 50 or Rs 70, but according to my friend they are obviously pricier than those in the North India. Finally, it is a good place for momo lovers, as there are only few places in Kozhikode which serve MoMos!

Classic Chicken Momos

BUNCLUB

A cafe which I have not just visited several times but explored completely. Though I have tried literally everything from here, I can assure you that the desserts served here are good. Currently, they have two cafes one located at VeePee Space, near civil station, Eranhiphalam, this one has a better ambience and is spacious, and the other one is located at Asma Tower on Mavoor Road and is smaller with a limited menu but a place to have a quick meal.

The staff here has never disappointed me except for once when they took really long to prepare a smoothie, but you can expect that much delay due to the huge crowd sometimes at this cafe. The service at the smaller cafe is really quick and this one is mostly crowded. The larger one is open till late on weekends and you will still find it fully occupied at this time. The lava bun, donuts , French Elysee, BC Special Pasta and Mojitos are a must-try. Though they have a variety of buns, I always prefer the regular lava bun with kadak chai (a good combo). This is a place for people with a sweet tooth and for people like my friends who get hungry late night. I have visited this place on many weekends and after exams to relax and have a nice dinner, and I feel I still can't get enough of it.

DOWNTOWN CAFE

I guess this was the first restaurant I visited in Kozhikode as it was suggested by many of my seniors at college, and the first thing I ordered was I think BBQ Chicken Burger, which was just fine. For my next visit I ordered Lasagne and an Americano, both were too bad to gulp and I must say that they have their own recipe for Lasagne which I don't prefer at all. My friends chose to have a steak and a hot dog, and till now we haven't found any place in Kozhikode which serves good steaks but they enjoyed the hot dog. I have visited Downtown several times after that, and have tried literally everything in their menu (I don't like the new menu design). Out of all we have tried we visit this place often just for one thing, that is their  Sizzling Brownie. I also would suggest them to improve on the way they serve food, such as avoiding serving in paper packages.

They have two cafes one at PT Usha Road and the other at Bypass Road. The ambiance is simple and the staff is very friendly. They don't have WiFi facility and keep books for customers to read, which I highly appreciate. At their P.T Usha outlet I have always seen every model of Royal Enfield parked and I have no idea whom they belong but if you are a biker or a bike freak then you can always visit this place to have a look at a collection.

KOZHIKODE!

Kozhikode has been known to be the city of spices, but for me it has always been a city of foodies. People here not just love food but embrace it, they love trying new things and prefer meals with their families.

Though I landed in Kozhikode due to my studies, I realised I have spent more time outside campus either exploring new places or trying food at different restaurants. After noticing non-existence of any restaurant discovery sites or blogs in a foodie city like Kozhikode and after trying biryani in almost every small and big restaurant of Kozhikode, I decided to create a blog which will help foodies like me to explore this city of spices.