Koshy's Parade Cafe on St. Mark's Road has been open since 1940 and is the closest thing Bangalore has to a literary institution. The long dining room with ceiling fans, slightly worn furniture, and a menu that has barely changed in decades draws journalists, academics, students, and old-timers with equal loyalty. Politicians eat here; writers come to argue; students nurse a single coffee for two hours. The combination of cheapness, eccentricity, and genuine good food makes it unlike anything else in the city.
The menu covers egg curry, chicken roast, devilled kidneys, fish cutlets, and filter coffee — Anglo-Indian comfort food at prices that have stayed remarkably reasonable. The mutton pepper fry is the thing to order. Koshy's is open from breakfast through dinner and closes relatively early; it is at its best mid-morning, when the dining room is full but not chaotic and the ceiling fans are doing their work.