India GOWhat to eat in Pune
Pune is famous for misal pav, the mastani milkshake-sundae and bakarwadi, the spiral snack that goes home in a tin. Add vada pav from the JM Road counters, bun maska with Irani chai in the old cafes, and a full Maharashtrian thali, and you have the city's food in six plates.
Misal pav
Pune argues with Kolhapur about whose is hotter, and the argument is the local sport.
Vada Pav
Maharashtra's own sandwich: a spiced potato fritter in a soft bun with dry garlic chutney. Credited to a stall outside Dadar station in the 1960s: hot food a mill worker could eat standing up, and still priced on that logic.
Mango Mastani
A Pune invention: mango milkshake so thick it is served with a spoon and a scoop of ice cream on top.
Shrikhand
Yogurt hung until it is thick as cream, then sweetened with saffron and cardamom. Cold, dense, and older than most of the recipes around it.
Puran Poli
A flatbread stuffed with sweet lentil and jaggery, rolled thin enough that the filling shows through. Festival food in Maharashtra.
Thalipeeth
A savoury multigrain flatbread: sorghum, millet, chickpea and rice flours mixed with onion and spice, patted out by hand. Maharashtrian home breakfast, rarely found outside the state.
Sabudana Khichdi
Tapioca pearls tossed with peanuts, potato and green chilli. Fasting food that outgrew the fast.
Bakarwadi
The tin that goes home with every visitor.
Bun Maska
A soft bun split and loaded with cold butter, served at Irani cafés with tea. Nothing more than that, and it does not need to be.
Irani Chai
Tea brewed separately from the milk and combined at the counter, thicker and sweeter than chai elsewhere. The café culture around it is older than most of the city's landmarks.
Piyush
A thick saffron-and-cardamom drink built on shrikhand (strained yogurt), let down with buttermilk. Sweeter and heavier than lassi, and specific to Maharashtra.
Batata Vada
The fritter from inside a vada pav, eaten on its own: potato mashed with mustard seed, turmeric and ginger, dipped in chickpea batter and fried.
Five things Pune is known for
Price marks from the India GO base: ₹ is cheap, ₹₹ is moderate.
Puneri misal (₹)
Misal is a curry of sprouted moth beans (usal) with a thin, spicy gravy (rassa or tarri), topped with farsan (crunchy fried snack mix), onion and lemon and eaten with pav, the soft bread roll. The Pune version is often sweeter and tangier than the fiery Kolhapur one, and the two cities argue about it. Bedekar Misal in Narayan Peth, a stall more than seventy years old, is the benchmark; Katakirr in Karve Nagar is the hot one, on a Kolhapuri-style red gravy; Shree Upahar Gruha in Sadashiv Peth (since 1980) is the mildest and comes with refills of rassa.
Mastani (₹)
Pune's own dessert: a milkshake so thick it is eaten with a spoon, crowned with ice cream and chopped nuts. Gujar Cold Drink House near Mandai (established 1923) is credited with introducing it; Sujata Mastani in Sadashiv Peth has made it since 1967 and now has more than thirty flavours across the city. Mango is the classic; sitaphal (custard apple) is the other one to try.
Bakarwadi (₹₹)
Crisp spirals of gram-flour dough rolled around coconut, poppy seed and sesame, sweet and spicy at once. The name in Pune is Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale, founded in the early 1950s; the Bajirao Road shop is the original. It sells in sealed packs that travel well.
Vada pav (₹)
A spiced potato fritter in a soft bun with dry red-garlic chutney, Maharashtra's street sandwich. Garden Vada Pav near JM Road is the counter most Punekars measure others against; Joshi Wadewale at Balgandharva in Shivajinagar has seating and branches across the city.
Bun maska and Irani chai (₹–₹₹)
A soft bun split and filled with cold butter, dipped in sweet tea brewed separately from the milk. The Irani cafes serve it: Cafe Goodluck on the corner of FC Road (since 1935), Cafe Yezdan in Camp (since 1964) and Vohuman Cafe near the railway station (since 1978). In Camp, Kayani Bakery (since 1955) bakes the Shrewsbury biscuits Pune buys by the box, and Marz-O-Rin on MG Road (since 1965) does chutney sandwiches and cold coffee.
The Maharashtrian thali and home food
Several dishes from the list above are Pune home food: thalipeeth, a hand-patted multigrain flatbread; puran poli, flatbread with a sweet lentil-and-jaggery filling; shrikhand, strained yogurt with saffron and cardamom; sabudana khichdi, tapioca pearls with peanuts that started as fasting food; pithla-bhakri, chickpea-flour curry with sorghum or millet flatbread.
The way to meet most of it at once is the unlimited thali, a steel platter refilled until you stop. Shabree, on top of Hotel Parichay on FC Road, serves pithla-bhakri, thalipeeth, koshimbir (a fresh salad), puran poli and shrikhand. Hotel Shreyas in Deccan Gymkhana has served a vegetarian Maharashtrian thali since 1966. Durvankur Dining Hall in Sadashiv Peth adds aamras (mango pulp) in mango season.
At Bedekar, misal is washed down with piyush, a thick saffron-and-cardamom drink of shrikhand and buttermilk. More on the Pune thali and sweets.
Where to go for what
The old city peths (Sadashiv, Narayan, Budhwar and Shukrawar Peth) are the misal and sweets quarter: Bedekar, Shree Upahar Gruha, Gujar Cold Drink House, Sujata Mastani, Chitale Bandhu on Bajirao Road, Durvankur, and Kaka Halwai (a sweets-and-farsan house dating to 1890) near the Dagdusheth Ganpati temple.
FC Road, JM Road and Deccan Gymkhana are the student mile: Cafe Goodluck, Shabree, Shreyas, Garden Vada Pav, Hindavi Swarajya for ghee-fried sabudana vada, Kalyan Bhel at the mouth of Law College Road for bhel puri, and the South Indian trio of Vaishali (since 1951), Roopali and Amrapali.
Camp, the old cantonment, is the Irani and Parsi end: Kayani Bakery, Cafe Yezdan, Vohuman, Marz-O-Rin and Cake N Counter (since 1986) for chocolate cake. Districts and metro stations: where to stay.
Good to know before you order
- Misal heat is adjustable — The rassa or tarri is the hot part, and you add it to taste. At Katakirr you can ask for less; a glass of taak (buttermilk) helps.
- Most of the classics are vegetarian — Misal, vada pav, the thalis, mastani and bakarwadi are all vegetarian; Sujata makes its mastani without egg. The Irani cafes are the place for eggs: bun omelette, kheema pav at Goodluck, cheese omelette at Vohuman. More on vegetarian food in Pune.
- Go early for the bakeries — Kayani's Shrewsbury biscuits often sell out by afternoon, and popular cakes at Cake N Counter are best ordered a day ahead.
- What to take home — Sealed packs of bakarwadi from Chitale Bandhu, Shrewsbury biscuits from Kayani and boxes of mithai from Kaka Halwai are the usual edible gifts. More in souvenirs; street stalls are in street food.
FAQ
What is Pune famous for in food?
Puneri misal pav, mastani, bakarwadi, vada pav, bun maska with Irani chai and the Maharashtrian thali. Wikipedia names Puneri misal as one of the city's popular vegetarian dishes.
What is Pune famous for in snacks?
Bakarwadi, the sweet-and-spicy gram-flour spiral sold by Chitale Bandhu, plus vada pav, sabudana vada and bhel puri from the JM Road and Law College Road counters.
What is the famous sweet of Pune?
Mastani, a spoon-thick milkshake topped with ice cream and nuts. Gujar Cold Drink House (1923) is credited with introducing it; Sujata Mastani has made it since 1967.
What food can I take home from Pune as a gift?
Bakarwadi in sealed packs from Chitale Bandhu, Shrewsbury biscuits from Kayani Bakery, and boxed mithai from Chitale or Kaka Halwai.
Is Pune food spicy?
It can be: misal is the hottest dish, but its gravy is added to taste, and Puneri misal is usually sweeter and tangier than the Kolhapur kind. Shree Upahar Gruha serves the mildest of the well-known misals.
Where can I eat a Maharashtrian thali in Pune?
Shabree on FC Road, Hotel Shreyas in Deccan Gymkhana (since 1966) and Durvankur Dining Hall in Sadashiv Peth all serve unlimited vegetarian thalis.
Sources (7)
Facts checked: 15 October 2026. Prices and hours are approximate; check locally.
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