Mysuru Food Guide: Mylari Dosa, Mysore Pak and Where to Eat

Mysuru is a small city and its food is spread across a few clusters rather than one street. The Nazarbad and Lashkar Mohalla side holds the famous breakfast and the older meat kitchens. Devaraja Market and Sayyaji Rao Road hold the sweets. Gandhi Square and the streets around the palace hold lunch and evening snacks. Almost everything on this page is within about 3 km of the palace, so you can eat well without a car.

Hours and prices change often and the sources we used disagree in places, so we show ranges, flag conflicts and tell you what to confirm. If you are building a whole visit, pair this page with the Mysuru 2-day itinerary and the Mysore Palace guide; for dishes across the state, see our Karnataka food guide.

Each entry below appears in at least one recent food guide. Distances are from Mysore Palace where a guide gave them. Closed days and hours come from those guides and may be out of date, so call ahead for anything you plan around.

Mylari dosa is a small, thick, very soft dosa served with a pat of butter and white coconut chutney, with a potato filling in the masala version. Outlook Traveller compares its softness to a cheesecake. It is the dish people travel across the city for, and it is also the most copied.

Which Mylari is original

Outlook Traveller reports that at least three outlets claim to be the original, that fake signs and misleading map listings are common, and that the family-run original sits at 79, Nazarbad Main Road, near the police station, in Doora, with a green board reading ‘the Old Original Hotel Vinayaka Mylari’. Other food guides we checked also send you to the Nazarbad Main Road address, so use the address rather than the name when you navigate. Another outlet, Vaibhav Fast Food on Ars Road, serves its own Mylari-style dosa from 5 pm to 10:30 pm at ₹30–₹60 a plate, which is a reasonable evening fallback but not the original.

What to order and when

The menu is short, about five items by Outlook Traveller’s count: Mylari dosa, masala dosa and idli, which comes without sambar. The kitchen reportedly sells around 200 idlis on an ordinary day and up to 300 at weekends, and items run out by evening. Go early. The same article records a Wednesday closure and a break from about 1:30 to 3 pm, while a newer guide lists a 6:30 am opening and does not mention a closed day, so verify both on the day. Prices differ by source (₹50–₹80 a plate in one, about ₹500 for two in another); take that as a spread of what two people eat, not a contradiction.

Plan around the palace: the Nazarbad address is about 2 km away, so a 7 am breakfast followed by a palace opening-hour entry works well. Our Mysore Palace guide has the timings.

Mysore Pak is made from gram flour, ghee and sugar, with cardamom in some versions. The Newsminute describes two forms: a soft, almost fudgy kind and a firmer, porous block. It also notes the ‘pak’ in the name is traced to nalapaka, a Kannada word for the person who makes sugar syrup, a derivation the Guru Sweet Mart family also gives.

Who invented it

Most accounts credit Kakasura Madappa, a cook in the Mysore royal kitchens. The details do not agree. Outlook Traveller tells an accident story in which he improvised a dessert for a lunch that had none and the king asked its name, and places it in the 19th century; Wikipedia says the early 20th century under Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV; and the Guru Sweet Mart family disputes the accident version, saying the king asked for something new. Treat the neat origin story as tradition, not record.

Guru Sweet Mart

The shop run by Madappa’s descendants is on Sayyaji Rao Road, near Devaraja Market, and began as a stall outside the palace grounds. Sources conflict on when it opened: The Newsminute says 1957, another guide says 1935. One guide places it inside Devaraja Market itself. Either way, the area around the market is where to look. Listed prices are ₹400–₹600 per kg, and the shop is described as selling both ghee and vanaspati versions, so ask for the ghee one if that is what you want and check the label for shelf life before you pack it.

Buying tips

• Buy small boxes first and taste; the soft and firm styles are quite different.
• Ask the shop how long it keeps. We found no verified shelf-life figure, so do not assume.
• If you are carrying sweets onward, see our what to buy in Karnataka guide for other edible souvenirs.

Non-vegetarian

Hotel RRR at Gandhi Square is the usual first answer: Andhra-style mutton and chicken biryani and meals served on a banana leaf, listed at ₹150–₹300 a person and open 11:30 am to 4:30 pm and again from 7 to 11 pm. Expect a queue at lunch. For pulao rather than biryani, Hotel Hanumanthu on Akbar Road in Mandi Mohalla is known for firewood-cooked mutton and chicken pulao. One guide shows it under a vegetarian breakfast heading, but the same guide’s text describes mutton pulao, so it is a non-vegetarian kitchen. A business listing gives its start as 1930, which we could not confirm elsewhere. Nasheman Hotel in Lashkar Mohalla is named for mutton biryani, but its hours are irregular, so confirm before you cross town.

Vegetarian

The Karnataka-style meal on a banana leaf at Sandhyas House in Krishnamurthy Puram is listed at about ₹1,000 for two and is lunch-focused. Mahesh Prasad at Balla Circle is an old-school stop for benne masala dosa, bisi bele bath and a thali. For quieter tiffin, GTR in Chamundipuram and Hotel Ramya on Vani Vilas Double Road are named for coconut chutney, sambar and sweets, with Monday and Tuesday closures respectively. Vegetarians visiting the district’s temples will find our Chamundi Hills guide useful for planning meals around the hill visit.

These prices come from a single guide, so treat them as a range. Street stalls move pitch, shut for festivals and change hours without notice. Choose busy stalls with fresh frying, carry small notes, and avoid raw chutneys and cut fruit if your stomach is sensitive.

The spend column is our estimate, built from the listed price ranges above and adding hot drinks and a margin; it assumes sit-down breakfast and lunch and street snacks in the evening. A premium dessert or a heritage-hotel dinner will push it up well beyond this range.

Mistakes to avoid

• Turning up at a place on its closed day. Check Monday (GTR), Tuesday (Hotel Ramya, Dosa Point) and the reported Wednesday closure at Mylari.
• Arriving at Mylari after 11 am and finding items sold out.
• Following a map pin to an imitation Mylari instead of the Nazarbad address.
• Visiting during Dasara without a plan. Queues, closures and hotel prices change; see the Mysore Dasara guide.
• Buying a kilo of Mysore Pak without tasting a small piece first.