Manek Chowk is Ahmedabad's most theatrical urban space — a single rectangular plaza in the heart of the old city that changes character three times a day. Mornings it is a vegetable market. Days it becomes one of India's busiest jewellery bazaars, with hundreds of small gold and silver shops along the surrounding lanes. After dark, beginning around 10pm, it transforms into a vast open-air food market that runs until the early hours.
The food is the famous part: pizza-dosa hybrids, ghughra (sweet stuffed pastries), pav bhaji with extra butter, chocolate sandwiches, kulfi falooda. Every stall has a number and a specialty. It is loud, slow, gloriously crowded, and the heart of Amdavadi late-night life.