After spending a good 2 weeks in Mcleodganj and roaming around the by-lanes of Dharamkot & McLeodganj, I have come up with a list of Top 10 places to eat in McLeodganj. The last time I was in Himachal (Spiti Valley) the food options were rather limited, but this time I had no such complaints.
This list includes cafes, roadside eateries & some fancy restaurants as well. The list also is varied enough that you can pick places as per your budget. Whoever said good food is meant to be expensive, didn’t eat on Indian road side stalls & dhabas.
The idea is to give you a list of places along with the items that should be ordered from the menu as well as their location so you don’t need to search again. Just bookmark this page and enjoy the virtual food tour.
Price Notation : ₹ – Cheap eat, ₹₹ – Budget, ₹₹₹ – Expensive
Ratings are out of 5 stars.
Top 10 places to eat in McLeodganj – YouTube Video
If are short on time, checkout the video. For a more detailed review along with location and other stuff read on.
Top 10 places to eat in McLeodganj
1 – Bohra Tea Stall
The reason this figures as no. 1 in my list of Top 10 places to eat in Mcleodganj is because they serve super tasty food at super cheap prices. If you have breakfast here you are mostly set till evening. Also you won’t find it on most people’s list unless you have eaten here. If you live near McLeod square then this has to be your breakfast place.
The specialities are the super sized, tasty and economical paneer parathas. I bet you can’t finish 2. Even after my morning walk of 10 kms, I could only finish 1.5, the remaining half I got it packed and enjoyed while sitting at Bhagsunag waterfall.
My good friend Shivam introduced me to this place and I am glad he did.
Food Rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Price Rating – ₹
Location – Borah Tea Stall, Mcleodganj
Things to order – Aloo paratha, Gobi paratha & must order Paneer Paratha.
2 – Nick’s Italian Kitchen
Next up on the list Top 10 places to eat in Mcleodganj is Nick’s Italian Kitchen – The default choice for desserts. Don’t even think about any other place. The cafe as the name suggests is also famous for its Italian pizza’s and pastas but frankly nothing beats their pastries/cakes. Not only are the pastries cheap but super tasty and yummy.
Try the Banoffee pie and we can debate it if you don’t like it. This was the best piece of Banoffee pie I had in my 50 days trip and trust me I tried the Banoffee pie at June 16 & Silver Linings Cafe (both in Bir) as well.
Food Rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Price Rating – ₹₹
Location – Nick’s Italian Kitchen
Things to order – Banoffee Pie, Cheese cake, Carrot cake, any other damn pastry of the menu. Also the pizzas & pastas are good as well.
3 – Trek & Dine
Before I visited this place, I somehow had an intuition that this place won’t live up to it’s name. But I was proved so wrong & I am happy for it. It features no. 3 on my list of Top 10 places to eat in McLeodganj because if you just want a place where you can order anything from the menu without thinking, this is the place. Almost everything we tried was tasty.
The Chef’s special pizzas are lip-smackingly good. The falafel and hummus were equally good. In fact the food was so good, this is probably the only place in this list (Nick’s & Friend’s Corner were exceptions) that I visited more than once.
Food Rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Price Rating – ₹₹
Location – Trek & Dine, Dharamkot
Things to order – Pizzas, falafels and hummus. Even some of their shakes & hot chocolate are damn good.
4 – Illiterati Cafe
This is a perfect choice if you want to work quietly with a view. Located in Dharamshala, the cafe also has a separate co-working space with proper cubicles to attend your calls/meetings. Personally, while the ambience is great and the Chicken Schnitzel & cheese cake were both awesome; carrot cake was bit of a letdown (specially when you compare it with Nick’s Italian Cafe)
Food Rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Price Rating – ₹₹₹
Location – Illiterati Cafe, Dharamshala
Things to order – Chicken Schnitzel, cheese cake, burgers & continental food.
5 – Morgan’s Cafe
One word – Pork pepperoni pizza. One of the simplest and classic combination but made so well, loved every bit of it. Even while writing this I can feel the taste on my lips. Also, this cafe can arrange hard liquor for you, so thats a bonus.
Also, now that I think about it I shared this pork pepperoni with Amel (Rahman). See that’s the beauty of food, religion divides but food unites.
Food Rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Price Rating – ₹₹
Location – Morgan’s place, Dharamkot
Things to order – Should I really say it again, Pork Pepperoni Pizza. Actually went there a couple of times, but we were late most days, so just tried this 1 dish.
6 – Moonlight Cafe
Located right next door to Trek & Dine, this is also a decent option specially if Trek & Dine is closed or full. The food is somewhat similar but just lacks that wow taste of Trek & Dine.
Food Rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Price Rating – ₹₹
Location – Moonlight Cafe, Dharamkot
Things to order – Pizzas & shakes.
7 – Tibet Kitchen & Takhyil Peace Cafe
You can’t come to Mcleod and not have a taste of the local Tibetan food. Some of the things to try include Lamb momos, Thupka & chicken/pork phalay.
If you are adventurous enough, you can even find Yak meat at some of these Tibetan restaurants.
Food Rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Price Rating – ₹₹
Location – Tibet Kitchen, McLeodganj / Takhyil Peace Cafe, McLeodganj
Things to order – Momos (personal favourite Lamb momos), Thupka & Phalay.
8 – Yak Cafe
Most of the clientele here is firangi and I can see why they come here. It’s a small cafe with barely enough place to sit 8-10 people. But the pastries are good (no where at Nick’s level but a close 2nd).
Food Rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Price Rating – ₹₹
Location – Yak Cafe, McLeodganj
Things to order – Lemon tart (the best), banoffee pie, brownie, apple pie, carrot cake (served without the frosting though 🙁 )
9 – Namgyal Cafe
It was an impromptu decision to eat here as couple of our friends had a bus to catch and we had some time to kill. This is actually a very popular pizza place. It’s famous for all its pizzas. As a bonus the pizzas are large but cheap. Definitely try out the pizzas here.
I loved the pizzas, but personally I loved the pizzas from Morgan’s and Trek & Dine more.
Food Rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Price Rating – ₹
Location – Namgyal Cafe, McLeodganj
Things to order – Order any god damn pizza, everything tastes good.
10 – Friend’s Corner (if you are staying at Zostel or in Dharamkot)
The Zostel cafe owners won’t like this, but frankly the food is average and over priced. So if you are staying in Zostel, the best option for breakfast would be this cafe called Friend’s corner located around 50 meters from Zostel.
Food Rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Price Rating – ₹
Location – Friends Corner, Dharamkot
Things to order – GLH (ginger lemon honey) best of the entire trip, thalis, parathas, porridge bowls, cornflakes and they even have an espresso machine now.
Other Honorable mentions
Making a list of just 10 places is tough, as a result I had to exclude quite a few places where I had some great food. I wish to mention them here, so that if you have the time & the chance you can visit them and try out the delicious food.
- Ever Green Cafe, Dharamkot – Mind blowing thupka & hummus.
- Buddha Delight Cafe – Overall food.
- Family Pizzeria – For the pizzas
- Heena Cafe – She makes the most amazing shakes. Specially the Banana Nutella
- Woeser Bakery – Many must be surprised that I excluded this from my top 10 list. Frankly even though I liked their pastries they all paled in comparison to Nick’s.
- Momo’s near the McLeod temple – Try them all. Cheap and tasty.
- Labooze Cafe Bar – Pub with a salsa class held on some days. Yeah, a poor girl had the misfortune of doing Salsa with me.
If you feel I have missed out on adding your favourite place to this list of Top 10 places to eat in McLeodganj, feel free to drop a comment or leave a DM on Instagram. Would be good to know what I missed out on, so that I can try it next time I am there.