Best cafes & food trucks of Palampur and some local food

Anumeha Mittal
Aug 2, 2021
3 min read

Palampur is famous for its tea gardens. Hence, I was surprised to find so many local house blends for coffee. For #coffeeaddicts like me, this was a bonus. 😊 There are a lot of good options for eating & coffee/tea but it’s definitely not like the crowded Dharamshala, McLeodganj, Dharamkot food triangle. You head West from Kangra for Dharamshala region and you head East for the beautiful Palampur.

You can check out the full Palampur guide along with the perfect secluded staycation accomodation in my previous blog.

You can also check out the best cafes of Dharamshala region in one of my old blogs.

1. Cliffy’s cafe

This is undoubtedly the most famous and the best cafe of Palampur. Good food, ambience, service, location, everything. It is famous for fusion South Indian and Italian food. What we loved: Pizza dosa, cheese masala paniyaram (puddu), mixed sauce pasta, coffee, mocha, shakes, lemonades. It is also a cosy place to work in comfort with a good cup of tea/coffee.

2. Captain’s cafe

A local recommendation by our stay host. The cafe has comfortable floor seating along with regular high chairs. We spent a lot of time at this cafe working in the afternoons with the comfort of good food & good coffee. They have their own house blend and we loved both americano and iced latte. Food that we tried: Pollo e Riso (fresh chicken & Rice), Chicken Pizza (loved it), waffles (suggest not to order), peri peri cheese omelette (recommended).

3. Coy’s cafe

Explored it for brunch. They have a good house blend and loved their cinnamon iced latte. What we loved: coffee, pancakes, burrito bowl, momos, burgers. What we didn’t expect: fruit platter (never seen such a sad one… oopsie!), hash browns, and super slow service (this might be due to the lack of staff due to weather conditions etc… So, let’s give a fair chance again) but had to cancel our order for dosa & calzones.

4. Terrace cafe

Tried it for an early morning breakfast after our fun in the river. It is located on a terrace in Sarovar Portico and has a good spread - buffet/ a la carte with great views of the valley. We loved the eggs especially with mushrooms, sausages, saute veggies, cold coffee, sandwiches, and parathas. It can get crowded with time as in-house hotel guests also come for breakfast there.

5. Food Truck with river view

It is difficult to miss this food truck with the best river views of Palampur. Tried the egg rolls, burgers, and banta (lemon soda). All was good with the view. The service might get slow on weekends.

Bonus: Food Truck near Himalayan rocks (enroute near Kangra)

I think this was the best discovery - Himalayan Food Express. We ate literally everything from this food truck. Pizza, burger, momos, maggi, mango shake, lemon soda, coffee, and also got freshly plucked jamuns (Indian blackberry) for free. We spent time eating and enjoying the amazing views there.

I would also like to mention Chaudhary Chai point enroute near Kangra as they helped me discover a new way to eat egg bhurji i.e. sprinkled with Maggi magic masala.

Last but not the least, the food and service at our staycation - Seclude Palampur was one of the best. Loved trying the local flavours of Himachal such as lungdu there. For non-vegetarians, they have awesome fresh chicken and mutton. I also have Pattrota on my list for next time. 😉

Do not miss to subscribe to foodinza.com. Do check out my Palamour food stories on my Instagram feed @foodinza. Feel free to comment and add more to this list. Contact me for more details. Happy to help. Enjoy your food journey. Bon appetit!