Pench’s Traditional Fare – Best Places to Dine
While in Pench, you might often feel like you are in the middle of a vast nothingness that gently envelops you, giving you space to shed your real-life worries. Your time here will be a true break away from the tightening noose of everyday life. The cuisine of Pench is naturally influenced by this isolation of life in the forests- you will need to pick from a limited number of hotels, resorts, and lodges for your meals. It will hardly be a problem for tourists as every restaurant serves delicious selections of local food like dal bafla, biryani, smoky kebabs, juicy rogan josh, and much more!
Restaurant at Mahua Vann
Location: Mahua Vann Resort, Pench National Park, Village Kuppitola, District Seoni, Madhya Pradesh
Cuisine: Multi-cuisine
Open: 9am - 11:30pm
Pocket Pinch: ₹ 1000 for two
If you are staying near the Village Kuppitola within Pench, your best choice for lodgings would be the Mahua Vann Resort. The beautifully named resort houses an amazing kitchen that can whip out several mouth-watering dishes at your command. You also visit the restaurant while staying somewhere else. You will be lulled into a comforting stupor by the pretty twinkling evening lights, the gentle clink of silverware, and the ambient chirping of crickets at night. This is a place to enjoy a hearty meal with your friends and family as you swap tales about your day’s adventures.
Must Savour:
Baghvan
Location: BaghvanTaj Safari Lodge, Pench National Park
Cuisine: North Indian, Chinese, Other Indian cuisines
Open: 8:30 am - 11:30 pm
Pocket Pinch: ₹ 1500 for two
The Baghvan restaurant of the posh Taj Safari Lodge is only operational for dinner service- a meal at this restaurant is about as opulent as your forest journey can get. As a part of the Taj franchise, the food bears the hallmark deliciousness of the super talented chefs. They make your experience more multi-faceted by presenting each dish with special concepts that add cultural and aesthetic layers to your enjoyment of the food- especially their spicy and rich chicken curry. You can enjoy the succulent meats on the deck right over a dry riverbed or even on a wooden machan that looks like something right out of a movie set. It is a pricy dinner and has limited seating but it is an experience that you should not miss out on.
Must Savour: Chicken curry
Pench Jungle Camp
Location: Near Turia Gate, Avarghani, Kurai Tehsil
Cuisine: Chinese, North Indian, Continental
Open: 10:00 am - 11:00 pm
Pocket Pinch: ₹ 500 for two
Your jeep safari through Pench will invariably lead you to the Pench Jungle Camp as it is a hub for tourist activities like outdoor camping, bird watching, night safaris, and much more. These have also drawn attention to the Camp’s in house restaurant which is essentially one large, open-plan dining hall that gives you a wonderful sense of community with a number of your fellow tourists. You can pick your favourites in North Indian, Chinese or Continental from a decently priced menu, and their sandwiches and kebabs come highly recommended as evening snacks. You can also find further entertainment at the open bar called Chaupal which shares a compound with a grand campfire.
Must Savour: Sandwiches, North Indian platter
Kipling’s Court
Location: Turia Gate, Khawasa, Pench National Park
Cuisine: Chinese, North Indian, South Indian
Open: 10:30 am - 11:30 pm
Pocket Pinch: ₹ 750 for two
The name of the Kipling’s Court resort conjures up Pench’s most glorious legacy in Kipling’s The Jungle Book”. This resort, located at the Turia Gate, is closest to the inner circles of the National Park so tourists staying or dining here may easily have the luxury of spotting a tiger or leopard in the vicinity. An affordable menu, and wooden decor that reflects the flora and fauna outside, as well as exquisite dishes prepared with utmost care- you will wax lyrical about your dining experience at this extraordinary hotel! Their South Indian dishes, like crispy dosas buttery and spicy poha, are the jewels of the menu that you can team up with sweet lassis or tar sugarcane juice.
Must Savour: Dosa
The Habitat
Location: Tuli Tiger Corridor Resort, Pench National Park
Cuisine: Chinese, North Indian, Continental
Open: 9:00 am - 11:30 pm
Pocket Pinch: ₹ 650 for two
The Habitat restaurant within the famous Tuli tiger Corridor resort offers quality food in North Indian, Chinese and Continental cuisines as well as a great peaceful ambience enjoyable by forest lovers. The food is so fresh and wholesome that it will make you drool and rave in pleasure- be it the creamy dal bafla or the biryani and korma dripping with flavour, followed up with piping hot jalebis and ghee laddoos- all of which are made with locally sourced organic products. Your experience doesn’t end with the meal itself. You should explore the premises of the resort itself, spend some alone time in the well-furnished library, or wander along the wide-open decks overlooking the forest!
Must Savour: Rice dishes
