Rediff On The NeT Travel: A travel feature on eating out at Kovalam beach in Kerala, India


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The Lighthouse beach front is a giant eats bazaar offering a variety of foods. Come evening and at the very edge of the beach - the waves nearly lap your toes - restaurants set up tables with candles and white tablecloths. On adjoining tables they stack up their selection of fresh seafood - tiger prawns, lobster, mussels, squid, crab - for you to choose from. Having made your choice (find out the rate of the piece you have chosen and don't rely on the menu rate) they will cook it for you in whatever way you desire. And well bon appetit. There are restaurants located a little away from the water's edge, in the coconut groves and the resorts have their own restaurants too. Some of the restaurants either on the beach or at the resorts stock beer and drinks. Others don't, so it is good to check before you sit down for a meal. A number of the beachfront restaurants are open till the wee hours.

There are limited vegetarian choices like pancakes, bread and spaghetti. And in the morning the standard western style breakfast of jam, toast, eggs, muesli, porridge is available. One beach restaurant is not that distinguishable from another apart from their tastes in music. You have a choice of wolfing down your lobster in accompaniment to Pink Floyd or a video show. If hygiene is upper most on your mind, it is recommended that you try the open-air barbecue restaurants (the safest way to eat seafood in India). However the fish recipes are not exceptional and the seafood is a bit overcooked and without flavour and often explaining more clearly what you want does not change that. Try the wet curries instead if it's taste that you want.

The Ashok Resort Hotel has a coffee shop offering limited South Indian food and some western style bites. Its expensive fish restaurant attempts to offer some typical Keralan delights and the usual Indian fare.

Surya Samudra Resort -- located on the beach at Pulinkudi, Mullar -- does great seafood lunches or dinners and one doesn't have to be a resident. It makes for a good excursion. Click to Surya Samudra Resort

Fruit sellers roam the beach. And toddy (light spirits distilled from coconuts) and feni (from cashew and coconuts; a taste close to the Greek ouzo) is available at Kovalam village.

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