Breakfast
Most of us riders like to ride out reasonably early in the morning. That’s when the roads are empty and the weather is nice and fresh. Bangalore is blessed with brilliant weather all year long and early mornings are usually crisp and cool. Even in the rainy season it is rare to find showers on a morning.
They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Therefore stands to reason that, one of the most important things of a morning ride is the need to have good breakfast.
Consequently most of the bike riders around have their favorite breakfast joints mapped out.
What makes an ideal breakfast joint?
It should be a reasonable riding distance from home. Not too far and not too close. Typically if you are on a big bike you want it to be between 50 or 100 km from home in the least. That gives you the opportunity to ride a little before reaching the breakfast joint.
Then of course the breakfast joint should open shop early. Since we ride quite early around 6 to 6-30 a.m. on most days we end up getting to the breakfast place by about 7-30 or so. No point going to a place that does not open till much later if you are hungry at 7-30 or even 8 in the morning.
The route to the breakfast joint should have good quality roads, preferably with very little morning traffic.
And finally, last but not least, they should serve good hot tasty breakfast.
Most importantly they should have very good coffee.
Thus with all these conditions if you cast your net around there are only a few breakfast places that emerge. In this post I will talk of a couple of them.
Of course on the particular day where you decide to go depends entirely on how much time you have before returning to domestic duties. Weekends as we all know are full of domestic stuff and rides are the small islands of pleasure we get to enjoy between the immersion in domesticity.
I live in South Bangalore, J P Nagar. Therefore it is easiest for me to head out of the city to the south.
For most of us heading out of the city to the south, Kanakapura road is typically the road to take.
Going south on Kanakapura road, you hit Harohalli in about 40 KMs from JP Nagar. Here is a simple basic small restaurant “Upahara Darshini” – it is right on the main road and is open by 6:30. Though he doesn’t have a full menu ready to serve till about 7 a.m. His stuff is quite nice, always freshly made. The place might not be spectacular but he makes a very good cup of coffee. It is a place where plenty of motorcyclists and cyclists both hang out to have a bite. There are plenty of locals around too. It is always a nice pleasant coffee pit stop. Not only do our very short rides end up here for breakfast, we often stop here when we are driving out on a holiday. Undoubtedly one of my favorites for a quick pitstop. You might have seen this place mentioned in some of my other posts.
You would see this on most weekends, a number of motorcycles lined up for a cuppa ~
Nothing like some good coffee and conversation
Even on weekends when we don’t have much time on our hands we will make the trip up to here 🙂
Further down Kanakapura road you come to the town after which the road is named, Kanakapura. Here there is a little stand and eat joint tucked away in a corner of the main street. This place serves a very nice Dosa and also good coffee. While it gives us an opportunity to ride a little further it has a couple of drawbacks, stand & eat, there is no seating, and it is always quite crowded. This is a good thing of course, it means he makes good stuff and it is always freshly made. But this is a rare stop on our trips not one of our favorites. But the quality of the dosa and coffee draws us there once in a while.
Next up, a bit further out, turn right in Kanakapura town (there is a board showing directions to Ramanagara) you can get to the Silk town in about 20 – 25 minutes from here.
This is a lovely picturesque road with fields, villages and rocky hillocks. A place made for taking photos on the bike or off it. This is not a road where you can speed though, it is a road meant to be savoured. There are plenty of sweeping turns on the road and you do need to keep an eye out for village traffic. But none of this takes away from the fact that it is a pretty ride.
Lovely back-road between Kanakapura and Ramanagara
After 25 minutes of this you get to Mysore road where on turning left you will see Kamat Lokaruchi in a few minutes on your right hand side. Bikes get to park right up to the entrance just next to the jalebi stall.
Harleys and Jalebis
With the discovery of this inside route of getting to Lokaruchi it is becoming a firm favorite. Going by Mysore road is a chore even at 7 a.m. that road is busy with a number of 4-wheelers jockeying around for position and overtaking from left & right. Completely avoidable for those out to enjoy a bike ride.
Lokaruchi has two options, a full spread breakfast buffet very reasonably priced and of course the a la carte menu. We typically go and order the stuff we want. We typically avoid the buffet since one does tend to over-eat at a buffet, especially if it is as tasty as they make it.
My favorite dish at this place is the ‘chow-chow’ – a small serving of upma (khara bath) and sheera (kesari bath /halwa). They do a brilliant job of both. I would absolutely recommend it the next time you are there. There is also hot-jalebi being made there all the time in case you have a sweet tooth. Their coffee is excellent too.
I have heard good things about their Jowar roti meal but since I am usually there at breakfast time and not had occasion to try it.
One heads up about this place though, it is immensely popular so if you are not there by 8 latest you can expect to wait for a table. The buffet section takes a little longer to fill up but after 9 there is a long line of people waiting to be seated. So if you want to hit this joint get there early.
The way back from Lokaruchi we can take Mysore road, since at that hour there are not too many people heading to Bangalore.
Once you cross the traffic signal in Ramanagara it is straight through till you get to NICE expressway. at 8 or 8-30 in the morning Mysore road in this direction is a pleasure to ride on. The other direction is a total pain and best avoided. You can make it from lokaruchi to Konankunte cross in about 35-40 minutes on the way back. So that works out very nicely for the domestic types.
I do believe this will be my favorite breakfast destination for the near future. ride about 100 kms get a good breakfast and ride back about 50 kms with a nice warm feeling in the tummy. The best way to start a weekend morning.
Shortly, I will post about some of our favorite joints further afield.
Until then…..
Keep riding & stay safe….
Keep Riding !
