Leh’s Foodie Delights – Best places to eat in Leh

In spite of it being a remote city, tucked in between the mighty Himalayas; the city of Leh has to a lot of diversity to offer, in terms of food.

You can enjoy both their staple favorites as well as the common Indian favorites.

Heres a review of the restaurants we dined in, while in Leh. We feel these are best to explore, if you love having delicious Ladakhi Staple food, continental cuisine as well as some baked international delicacies.

All the restaurants we covered were budget friendly!

1)Gesmo’s 

This is quaint little food joint in the old Leh area. We found this place accidentally, when we had lost our way to the hotel. So basically it was a blessing in disguise. Its a bakery cum restaurant, filled with delicious aroma of Baked lovelies and heartwarming savory dishes.

We had a Chicken sizzler and a Yak Cheese pizza. The Sizzler was unique and had a subtle taste that would be favored more by the foreigners. But we loved it too. It had the right amount of gravy and veggies. Since Yak is the major domestic animal here, Yak cheese is very famous in Leh. The Yak cheese pizza was delicious and did not taste much different than our normal Pizza though!

The restaurant interiors are quite friendly, warm and homey!

2)Lamayuru 

This one’s right beside the Gesmo’s (check out in the above picture!). Again a small and cozy place. We had the Ladakhi Staple – Thukpa here. Its a soup – noodle – veggie dish, with very fine subtle flavors. Ladakhis love their food with less salt. You might have to pep this one up with sauces and stuff. We also had a sizzler again, as it convenient to share.

3)Aa Ka Ma

This restaurant has a complete Tibetan feel to it, with prayer flags and Buddhist paintings on the walls. Quite budget friendly. We had another Ladakhi Staple here – lovely Steamed and Fried momos with fiery chutney, which the waiter had already warned us about. Nevertheless it tasted good when we mixed it with some ketchup! This was followed by ordering some fiery honey chili potatoes and Kitchen Special noodles!

The tables here have a glass covering under which visitors write their reviews on a piece of tissue! We did it too!

4)Cafe Rendezvous

This is basically an area with a group of small foodstalls and bakeries. It’s crowded by Israelis and other foreigners. We passed by this place a lot of times, thinking it would be heavy on the pocket. But to our surprise when we checked one of the the menu cards, it was quite affordable. So on our last day in Leh, we finally halted here and tried their Pizza, Lasagna and Chocolate pancakes. And I gotta tell you! The lasagna was so damn delicious. Perfectly layered and stuffed with gooey melty cheese and veggies. This would be my most favorite thing, I had in Leh.

5)Neha Snacks

I wish I wasn’t lazy or shy enough and had captured the lovely Samosas, Dosas and gol-gappas in my camera ! You guessed it right. This is the only place in Leh that serves Mumbaiyya or Delhi like street food. It’s a small place with hardly four tables and you have to wait to get a seat. Don’t ever miss this place as it will remind you of your own city and its street food.

We also visited some other places which were sort of okay, and don’t need a review.

I wouldn’t deny saying it, that Leh is an absolute delight to have delicious food in a mind blowing atmosphere!