I am always excited about the “Since 1XXX” titles on any restaurant. I love to checkout such places and know how it has made through so many years. There is usually something unique about such places if it can hold the interests of the people for so long. There are many legendary eateries without any dates mentioned and which are popular only with locals, I find pleasure in finding out about such places and making it more popular on the maps for any new person to easily identify and have the experience.
Recently I have been exploring the “military hotels” within Bengaluru city. The word “military” on many hotels which are not at all related to each other always caught my attention. I was curious as to why in a city like Bengaluru where you hardly see any military activities you find hotels with such name. Interestingly these places are located in older area of the Bengaluru. With some research I was able to find out that these places were historically run by the Maratha descendants who were mostly military people serving the armies of both British and India before independence and hence the name military. Not many places can boast of having such history !
I started exploring and visiting these places and it turned out to be the best thing I ever did for my taste buds in my entire lifetime. There is so much legendary about many of these hotels. Many of these hotels have not changed the way they source the ingredients/spices for the dishes also the traditional methods have cooking is still being used. So much attention is given to every procedure of cooking starting from sourcing of the ingredients till the way in which the food is served.
There are many places other than the military hotels which are being run by generations of a single family maintaining same taste and quality. Many of these places are hard to notice and might not even have proper name boards. They have their own loyal customers and they do not see any need for advertising. New people may not find it interesting enough to step-in to such places.
Sharing reviews and photos of such places gives me immense joy. Making people know about the authentic local cuisines and making sure the legend continues for ages to come !
Here I list a few of them.
Ranganna Military hotel - Jayanagar
Shivaji Military Hotel - Jayanagar