Our curated list of Onam sadyas in Bengaluru

Our curated list of Onam sadyas in Bengaluru Onam is right around the corner and if you are looking for your sadya fix in Bengaluru, we pick out five of our favourite restaurants to head to for the festival.

Key points

• Helmed by Avinash Kapoli and chef Sombir Choudhary, Kalpaney is a modern Indian vegetarian restaurant.
• A 20-year-old institution, Anju's Cafe is located inside Ranga Shankara theatre and is much loved for its sabudana vadas and akki rotis.
• Banana chips are an significant part of any Onam sadya Photo Credit: iStock Images.
• Rooted in Kerala culture, the restaurant has been the number one place to head to for Onam sadyas in Bengaluru for plenty of years now.
• Bengaluru is teeming with restaurants serving Onam sadyas, the traditional banana leaf spread for the Malayali harvest festival.

Bengaluru is teeming with restaurants serving Onam sadyas, the traditional banana leaf spread for the Malayali harvest festival. While earlier it was available in a few Kerala restaurants, now gastropubs and five stars hotels have all joined in the celebration. We are spoilt for choice. The Hindu Metroplus team picks out five curated Onam sadyas that you can enjoy this August.

Helmed by Avinash Kapoli and chef Sombir Choudhary, Kalpaney is a modern Indian vegetarian restaurant. With two branches in Indiranagar and JP Nagar, Kalpaney's decor and menu are both rooted in Indian culture as well as, global in its appeal.

For Onam this year, the restaurant has a traditional sadya served on a banana leaf. The 27-dish meal has offerings such as mezhukkupuratti, cabbage thoran, kaalan, olan, avial, koottu curry, and erissery. End the meal with their palada payasam and the, jaggery-flavoured parippu pradhaman.

Notably, a 20-year-old institution, Anju's Cafe is located inside Ranga Shankara theatre and is much loved for its sabudana vadas and akki rotis. Nevertheless, every Onam owner Anju Sudharshan opens up the space for her special sadya. "We began making our sadya 20 years ago, only for family and friends. But plenty of residents wanted to join in, so we opened it to the public." The dishes are cooked in a centralised kitchen with support from her family, and it is a homely affair. Notably, the spread includes traditional dishes such as avial, kaalan, erisserry and paalada payasam. "It is like walking into my house, " she notes warmly.

Located in Indiranagar, this restaurant is named after a funny scene by actor Mohanlal in the 1986's Malayalam film Dhoore Dhoore Oru Koodu Koottam!, where he mistranslates the dish 'upma' as salt mango tree. Rooted in Kerala culture, the restaurant has been the number one place to head to for Onam sadyas in Bengaluru for plenty of years now. The spread has festive dishes such as avial, payasams, thoran and chips, all served with red rice. You can even order their payasams for takeaway. August 22 to August 30, 11.30 AM to 4.30 PM. At Indiranagar. Call 96863 65602 for reservations.

Chef Sinu Swaminathan runs Aakraantham, a Kerala-specialty cloud kitchen. This year she is teaming up with the restaurant Daak 64, a micro-regional Indian restaurant at Jinvara, a community space in north Bengaluru. Comprising 30 dishes, with some unique offerings such as ripe mango curry, banana flower thoran, and banana stem pachadi. Sinu makes most of the dishes in her own kitchen, and even the chips, are all cooked in coconut oil. "We do not reuse the oil, we make food in small batches and focus on quality over quantity." Apart from the lunch at Daak 64, Sinu additionally makes sadyas that can be ordered from her cloud kitchen.

In short, our curated list of Onam sadyas in Bengaluru is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.