Food

Seafood in Honavar

Honavar is a fishing town and its kitchens cook the morning's catch with coconut and spice. Here is what to order and where, taken from the restaurants' own menus.

Fish thali

Rice, a coconut-based fish curry and a fried fish on one plate: the classic Honavar lunch. Hotel National has served it since 1974. At Samudra it comes with clams. Karavali Shailiya Mane Uta cooks it the way families do at home.

Fries and roasts

Rava fish fry is fish coated in semolina and fried crisp. Navarathna Fish Land does ladyfish, silver fish and prawns this way. Nagvekar's in Kasarkod is known for its rava and tawa fries.

Ghee roast is a rich red roast of ghee and roasted chillies. Order prawns or crab ghee roast at Navarathna Fish Land, or prawns at Udupi's Pingar Dhaba.

Clams and crab

Clam sukka (moravai) is dry-cooked with roasted coconut. Find it at Navarathna Fish Land, Samudra and Nagvekar's. For crab sukka, go to Gajanana Fishland in Kasarkod.

Tips

Lunch is the main meal and the best time for fish. Ask what is fresh today, as menus change with the catch. Few places serve neer dosa: Navarathna Fish Land is one that does.