Cafes in Manali: where to eat in Old Manali and beyond

This is one part of our Manali guide.

TL;DR summary

• Hours checked: 8 Oct 2026. Closing times and price bands are as of that day. They shift with the season, so phone first in winter.
• Latest closing: 3:30 am. Cafe 1986 on the Mall. In Old Manali, Sunshine Cafe closes at midnight and most others between 9 and 11:30 pm.
• Siddu: ₹90 to ₹200 a piece. Cafe and street prices differ.
• Trout dish: ₹600 to ₹1,000. Typical range for restaurant trout in Manali.
• Typical cafe band: ₹200 to ₹1,200. Price per person. Some bands rest on only a handful of customer reports.
• Coworking listings: 1. Seekers Co-Work and Stay in Old Manali, closing at 6 pm. Ask for the day-pass price.

Manali cafes compared: area, known for, price and closing time

Most cafes in Manali are on one lane. Manu Temple Road in Old Manali holds the biggest cluster, and on 8 October 2026 closing times there ran between 9 pm and midnight. The Mall and Hadimba Temple Road side has a second group, Vashisht a smaller one, and the left bank a few places that need a ride. Prices and closing times are in the table above. Hours change with the season, so phone first in winter.

Some older lists still send people to Born Free Cafe and People Cafe on Manu Temple Road. Both have closed for good.

What to eat in Manali: siddu first

Siddu, sliced to show the filling. Photo: Gannu03, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Start with siddu. It is steamed wheat bread stuffed with poppy seeds, walnuts or lentils, served with ghee or chutney, and at ₹90 to ₹200 a piece it is the cheapest way to find out whether you like local food. Local women sell it on the street.

Two Old Manali places are built around it. Mehak General Store is a vegetarian restaurant rated 5.0 from 355 reviews, and Desi Street (Siddu Corner) on Manu Temple Road is a takeaway. Both shut at 9 pm, so make it a lunch or an early dinner. Rocky’s, Chopsticks and The Corner House also serve siddu, for when you would rather sit down with a full menu.

Trout in Manali: where to eat it and what it costs

Grilled whole trout.

Have the trout once, and have it at lunch. It is farmed in the valley, and the farm-gate price is ₹750 a kg in Manali against ₹1,000 a kg for fish sent to Delhi and Chandigarh. On a plate it costs ₹600 to ₹1,000.

For trout near the source, the Himalayan Trout Fish Farm on the left-bank road is also a restaurant, but it closes at 6:30 pm. In town, Johnson’s Cafe serves ten preparations, including baked trout with almond sauce and trout curry, and Drifters’, Sunshine and Cafe Evergreen serve it too.

Manali momos, thukpa and dham: prices and what to expect

Thukpa, a Tibetan noodle soup. Photo: Scudsvlad, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Momos and thukpa are the easy second dish. Thukpa runs ₹100 to ₹200 and momos about ₹100 a plate on Mall Road. Chopsticks does momos and a hot pot called gyakok, and Rocky’s does Himachali momos and thukpa.

Dham is the festive Himachali thali, and the real thing is cooked at weddings and festivals, so don’t count on it on an ordinary Tuesday. Restaurant versions run ₹300 to ₹400. If a host or neighbour invites you to a village meal, go.

Old Manali cafes on Manu Temple Road: what to order at each

Spiced chai in a mug.

Manu Temple Road is the spine, with Club House Road below it near the bridge. Ratings are Google’s. Menus overlap, so pick by the hour you want to eat and the mood you want, not by the name.

Sunshine Cafe. The safe all-day pick. Order wood-fired pizza or trout. It stays open until midnight, and you can try it for laptop work, but ask first. Rated 4.5 from 1,730 reviews.

The Lazy Dog Lounge. Come for the river view and a western pub menu, with house-made apple cider. It can be a bit pricey, and parking is worth arranging ahead. Weekdays are quieter, so aim for a weekday evening. It shuts at 11 pm, and a laptop session can work if you ask first. Rated 4.4 from 8,842 reviews.

Cafe Evergreen. Order the trout. The menu also has Israeli and Tibetan dishes, and the kitchen runs to 11:30 pm, later than most on the lane. Rated 4.2 from 1,460 reviews.

Renaissance. The one to pick if you eat vegan or gluten-free. The menu is Italian and Mexican, and madra is ₹180 to ₹220. It closes at 10 pm. Rated 4.4 from 771 reviews.

Come a Napoli Pizzeria. A pizza place on Clubhouse Road, opposite the bridge. Rated 4.6 from 714 reviews.

Dylan’s Toasted and Roasted Coffee House. A coffee stop rather than a meal: espresso, cookies, cheesecake and pancakes. It closes at 9 pm. It suits a short laptop session, not a long one, so we’d treat it as an hour or two in the daytime. Rated 4.2 from 1,197 reviews.

Drifters Cafe, Bar and Inn. Good for breakfast: eggs benedict, waffles and pancakes, with trout later in the day. It has free wifi and can suit a laptop session. It is an inn with a bar, so phone for kitchen hours. Rated 4.7 from 1,043 reviews.

Rocky’s Cafe. Himachali momos, thukpa and siddu in one place. Weekday afternoons suit focused work and evenings can be loud, so leave the laptop for the afternoon. It also lets rooms, so phone for hours. Rated 4.4 from 2,546 reviews.

Backyard Cafe is also on Manu Temple Road, rated 4.5 from 748 reviews, and closes at 11 pm.

Cafes in Vashisht: Rasta Cafe, World Peace Cafe and Basho

Vashisht is about 3 km from Manali across the Beas, known for its sulphur hot springs. The hot springs and nearby falls are in the things-to-do guide. There are fewer cafes here than in Old Manali, and three stand out.

Rasta Cafe. Wood-fired pizza and momos, with art walls and a Rohtang view. Service can be slow and the food uneven, so we’d treat it as a stop for the view, not a planned dinner. Rated 4.5 from 402 reviews.

World Peace Cafe. Vegetarian Israeli, Tibetan and Indian food, with homemade soups, open until 11 pm. Rated 4.1 from 56 reviews.

Basho Mud Huts and Restaurant. Order the butter tea, ₹50 to ₹100. It is a guesthouse with a restaurant, so phone for hours. Rated 4.9 from 504 reviews.

Restaurants on Mall Road and Hadimba Temple Road, Manali

Momos, sold on and around the Mall.

Siyal, Model Town and Mall Rd all describe the same central zone. It is where Volvo buses arrive, and taxis are easy to find.

Il Forno. The sit-down dinner. Italian food, wood-fired pizza, calzones and lasagna, in a rustic 19th-century lodge with its own garden, until 10:30 pm. Rated 4.4 from 1,425 reviews.

Johnson’s Cafe. The trout place on this side, in a 3-star hotel on Circuit House Road. It is a hotel restaurant, so confirm it is serving when you arrive. Rated 4.3 from 4,910 reviews.

The Corner House Restaurant and Bar. Indian food on a rooftop, with siddu at ₹90 to ₹100 a piece, open to 11 pm. It is sometimes placed in Old Manali, but it is on Model Town Road, on the Mall side. Rated 4.3 from 2,607 reviews.

Chopsticks Restaurant. Chinese, Tibetan and Nepali dishes, momos and gyakok hot pot. It has the lowest rating of the well-known places here, 3.9 from 4,748 reviews. Food quality can vary, so read the recent reviews before you commit.

Cafe 1986. The late one. An Indian restaurant on the first floor of the State Bank of India building on Mall Road, open until 3:30 am, the latest of any place listed here. It is also the most reviewed, at 4.6 from 12,643.

Southern Souls Cafe. South Indian and pure vegetarian, beside the Government Primary School on Hadimba Temple Road, rated 4.9 from 2,149 reviews. On a Thursday evening it was closed until 10 am Friday, so phone before you walk over on a Thursday.

Cafe 1947 near Bahang, north of Manali on the highway

Cafe 1947. It is near Nehru Kund on the Leh Manali Highway at Bahang, north of town, though it is sometimes placed in Old Manali, so check the map pin before you set out. It serves Italian food and wood-fired pizza, with cocktails, and closes at 11 pm. A meal runs about ₹500 to ₹1,600 for two. Don’t count on it for laptop work. Rated 4.1 from 8,052 reviews.

Cafes on Manali’s left bank: Fat Plate at Shuru and the trout farm

Fat Plate. A garden for apple pie and chocolate cake, with Indian and European dishes made from homegrown ingredients, and it is known for its views. It is at Shuru on the Kullu-Naggar-Manali road, so you need a ride, and it closes at 10 pm. Rated 4.2 from 1,312 reviews.

The Himalayan Trout Fish Farm is covered under trout above. It sits on the left-bank road south of Manali, so check the map pin for the village. Rated 4.3 from 508 reviews.

Work friendly cafes in Manali: one coworking space, mixed advice

For a proper desk there is one coworking space: Seekers Co-Work and Stay, on an unnamed road in Old Manali (workfrommountains.co), rated 5.0 from 55 reviews and closing at 6 pm. Ask for the day-pass price. Urban Monk, near DPS School, is a cafe with glass cabins rather than a coworking space (4.7 from 479 reviews, closes at 10 pm).

For cafes the advice is mixed. Sunshine, Lazy Dog and Drifters’ can work, Dylan’s suits short sessions only, Rocky’s works on weekday afternoons but is loud in the evening, and Cafe 1947 is not a work spot. Old Manali cafes are quiet from about 9 am to 3 pm, and rooftop and orchard cafes tend to have stronger wifi than those beside the stream. Manali’s cafes with wifi score about 6.7 out of 10 for remote work, and its coworking 4.8.

Speeds and plug points vary from cafe to cafe, so test the wifi before you settle in. Jio is strong inside the town, so a Jio hotspot is a sensible backup.

Ask before you hold a table. Cafes in several Indian cities discourage laptops, and policies change. We’d order something every hour or two and avoid evenings, when the cafes fill and get loud.

Eating for a month in Manali: groceries, UPI, delivery and diet

Groceries: Manali Mart, opposite Hotel Park Paradise, is a supermarket that closes at 9 pm (4.4 from 31 reviews). It stocks groceries and daily needs. Ask your host where the nearest vegetable shop is, whether the water is safe to drink or filtered water is supplied, and how the kitchen cooks, on a gas cylinder or an induction hob. In December 2022 hoteliers in Aleo complained of erratic power and water, so ask about outages too.

Paying: UPI is widely used in the main town but depends on signal, so carry cash. ATMs are limited.

Delivery: a Jain thali at ₹341 can be delivered from a Model Town restaurant, so it works in the centre. For Old Manali, Vashisht, Prini and Aleo, ask your host what reaches the door.

Diet: Southern Souls is pure vegetarian, Mehak General Store is vegetarian and Renaissance has vegan and gluten-free options. At least one Jain burger in Old Manali has contained potato, so ask how a dish is made.

Daily cost: a coffee or tea with a snack is ₹150 to ₹250 and a full cafe meal ₹300 to ₹500. For a whole month, see the cost-of-living guide.

Downsides of Manali’s cafes: repeat menus, noise, floods, winter

Menus overlap. The same pizza, momo, Italian and Israeli dishes recur across cafes, so a second cafe may feel like the first. Quality varies: Chopsticks sits at 3.9, and service at Rasta can be slow. Evenings in Old Manali can be loud, with live music at some places.

The river matters too. The Old Manali bridge went in the flood of 26 August 2025, when the Manalsu overflowed, and a steel Bailey bridge replaced it about three months later. Cafes and hotels nearby were affected. On the highway, the riverside branch of Sher-e-Punjab in Bahang was washed away in August 2025, leaving a gate and one wall.

Winter closures differ by cafe. Some Old Manali cafes scale back from December to February while the core ones stay open, and Johnson’s, Drifters’ and Chopsticks run year-round. See best time to visit and phone first.

Where to eat in Manali: first night, laptop day, local dishes

Your first night. We’d eat close to your door and finish early, because the Old Manali lanes are awkward after dark with a backpack and you will be tired. On Manu Temple Road, Sunshine Cafe (midnight) and The Lazy Dog Lounge (11 pm) keep the latest hours. On the Mall side, Il Forno closes at 10:30 pm and The Corner House at 11 pm. Phone to confirm.

Your laptop. If you want a desk, ask about a day pass at Seekers, which closes at 6 pm. For a cafe, Drifters’ has free wifi and Rocky’s suits weekday afternoons, while Cafe 1947 is not a work spot. Go early, order often and ask first.

What you cannot get at home. Siddu at ₹90 to ₹200 a piece, a trout dish at ₹600 to ₹1,000, and thukpa at ₹100 to ₹200. Real dham is a festival meal, so take it if you are invited and don’t plan around it.

Frequently asked questions about food and cafes in Manali