Odia cuisine is coastal, rice-based, and more subtle than many Indian regional traditions — less chilli heat, more use of mustard oil and the particular sweetness of freshwater fish and Bay of Bengal seafood. The thali in Puri is the daily staple: rice, dal, two or three vegetable preparations, perhaps fish curry, pickle, and papad. Look for chenna poda to finish — Odisha's signature sweet, made from cottage cheese mixed with sugar and roasted until its surface caramelises and chars slightly. It is genuinely excellent, and far less well-known outside Odisha than it deserves to be.
The most famous food in Puri is not available in any restaurant. The mahaprasad of the Jagannath Temple — cooked in clay pots by over 700 temple cooks over wood fires in the world's largest temple kitchen — is distributed at the Anand Bazar within the temple complex. It is open to Hindu devotees only, but its fame extends far beyond: this is food that has been offered to the deity and is believed to carry his blessing, and the tradition of eating it together, regardless of caste or social position, makes it one of Hinduism's great democratic acts. The mahaprasad includes rice, dal, khichdi, and a range of cooked vegetable preparations — simple food elevated by its sacred status.
Along the beach road and in the streets leading to the temple, you will find plenty of restaurants catering to the pilgrim and tourist trade. Quality varies widely. A few places on the beach road have been serving straightforward fish-and-rice meals for decades; these are generally the most reliable. Look for restaurants with a high turnover of local customers and daily fresh fish visible at the counter. Vegetarian options are plentiful — many pilgrims observe strict vegetarianism while in Puri — and the town's proximity to the temple means that sattvic (pure, no-onion, no-garlic) cooking is easy to find if you need it.