New Restaurants in Vadodara (September 2026)

TL;DR 🍲

• Five new South-focused restaurants have opened in Vadodara, all specialising in Kerala and South cuisine
• Malayalee Kada, Priya's Kitchen, and Banana Leaf Restaurant are among the most notable new arrivals
• Madras Bhavan brings a structured South dining experience with a franchise network behind it
• Taste of Kerala is currently temporarily closed — worth tracking as it reopens
• Hours and closed days vary across venues, so check before visiting

Why Kerala Cuisine Is Having a Moment in Vadodara

Vadodara has long had strong culinary identities of its own — the Gujarati thali, street-side sev usal, the farsaan-heavy snack culture — but September 2026's restaurant openings tell a different story. The most significant new arrivals are almost all pointing in one direction: Kerala.

This is not incidental. The city's pharmaceutical, manufacturing, and chemicals corridor along Padra Road and the GIDC industrial zones has drawn a steady inflow of professionals from Kerala and Tamil Nadu over the past decade. The result, now visible in restaurant listings, is a small but real cluster of South-focused establishments catering to a community that has long had to improvise for its cravings. That community is now large enough to sustain dedicated kitchens.

For the rest of Vadodara's diners, this means access to a cuisine that Gujarat's restaurant scene has historically underserved: coconut oil–based curries, appam, banana leaf rice, seafood preparations, and filter coffee served in the traditional davara-tumbler set. None of these are easily replicated at home without specialist ingredients, which makes a good South kitchen genuinely valuable in this city.

The New Arrivals

Malayalee Kada

Situated at Shop No. 18, Sainath Avenue, Abbas Tyabji Road — near Emperor Building, opposite Bhavani Footwear — Malayalee Kada is one of the newer additions to the city's dining map, operating primarily as an evening joint. Hours run Monday through Friday from 6:30 PM, Saturday from 7 PM, and Sunday from 1 PM, closing at 11 PM across all days.

The name itself is the clearest statement of intent. Kada in Malayalam means a small shop or roadside joint — a reference to the casual, no-frills format of Kerala's most beloved neighbourhood eateries. This kind of cooking prizes freshness over presentation: fish and chicken dishes made to order, coconut-heavy gravies, and rice preparations that match what you would find in Thiruvananthapuram or Kozhikode. It is exactly the format that expat communities seek most urgently when they relocate.

Taste of Kerala

Listed near bridge road in Vadodara, Taste of Kerala operates on a wide daily schedule — 9 AM to 11 PM, Sunday through Saturday — which signals a kitchen set up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner service. A window that broad in a Kerala context typically means puttu and kadala curry in the mornings, rice meals at lunch, and parotta with curries through the evening. At time of writing the restaurant is noted as temporarily closed; check current status before planning a visit.

Priya's Kitchen Authentic KERALA Veg-Non Veg Homemade food

The full name — and it is a committed full name — does the positioning work directly. Located opposite Maruti Wood Art at C30, Vadodara, Priya's Kitchen runs a split schedule: lunch from 12:30 PM and dinner from 6 PM daily, with extended closing on Sundays and Saturdays. The kitchen serves both vegetarian and non-vegetarian preparations, and the "homemade" framing is a deliberate signal. This is not restaurant cooking in the hotel-dining sense; it is the kind of cooking associated with a specific person's kitchen — smaller batches, more personal sourcing, gravies with a depth that comes from time rather than shortcuts.

For Vadodara's Kerala-origin residents, a place like Priya's Kitchen fills a gap that no amount of Gujarati or Punjabi restaurants can substitute: it is the taste of a particular place.

Banana Leaf Restaurant (Kerala Restaurant)

Among the new arrivals, Banana Leaf Restaurant at 101, Sapphire Complex, Old Padra Road (near Anupam Nagar, Sahkar Nagar, Tandalja) has the most established footprint. Open Tuesday through Sunday — 9 AM to 3 PM and 6 PM to 10 PM, closed Mondays — the restaurant takes its name and its central offering seriously.

A banana leaf meal is not merely a presentation choice; it is a full ritual, with sambar, rasam, chutneys, rice, and the day's vegetable and non-vegetarian preparations served in a prescribed sequence on a fresh leaf. The leaf adds a mild fragrance to the food and keeps the meal at temperature longer than a steel plate. Of all the new arrivals, Banana Leaf Restaurant has the most infrastructure behind it — a listed phone number at +91 90095 22211 and an active web presence — suggesting a kitchen built to last.

Madras Bhavan

Rounding out the South surge is Madras Bhavan, whose Gotri location is part of a growing chain (details at madrasbhavan.in, contact at madrasbhavangotri@mail.com). The name anchors the restaurant in the Tamil culinary tradition, and the menu positions it as "an authentic South Indian restaurant with a speciality in traditional cuisine" — which in practice means filter coffee, South-style idli-dosa breakfast service, and rice meals. A franchise structure typically implies more consistency in quality than a solo-owner startup, which is either reassuring or less interesting depending on what you are looking for.

What to Order

First-time visitors to Kerala cuisine have a few orientation points worth knowing. Breakfast or early lunch is the best entry point: appam — a fermented rice pancake with a crisp lacy edge and a soft steamed centre — paired with stew (a mild coconut-milk curry with vegetables or chicken) is one of the most accessible dishes in the canon. Puttu, a steamed rice-and-coconut cylinder eaten with kadala curry (spiced black chickpeas), is similarly gentle in heat while being distinctly Kerala in character.

At Banana Leaf Restaurant, the full banana leaf rice meal is available during the lunch window. The spread includes rice, sambar, rasam, three or four vegetable preparations, and a papad — accompanied, if you choose, by a non-vegetarian main. At Madras Bhavan, the filter coffee is worth ordering on its own: brewed strong and served in the traditional davara-tumbler set, it is a corrective to the instant-powder alternatives that dominate most of Vadodara's non-South menus.

Insider Tip: At Banana Leaf Restaurant, the full banana leaf rice meal is served only during the lunch window (9 AM–3 PM). The evening menu shifts to à la carte dishes. Arrive by 12:30 PM on Sundays to avoid a wait — the lunch period fills fastest on weekends.

FAQ

Are these restaurants vegetarian-friendly? All five carry vegetarian options. Priya's Kitchen and Malayalee Kada serve both veg and non-veg. Banana Leaf Restaurant's full leaf meal has a complete vegetarian version. Madras Bhavan's South menu skews heavily vegetarian by tradition.

Which days are these restaurants closed? Banana Leaf Restaurant is closed on Mondays. Taste of Kerala is currently temporarily closed — check before visiting. The remaining three operate daily with varying hours.

Is Kerala food very spicy? It varies by dish. Coconut-heavy preparations like stew and avial are mild. Coastal curries — fish curry, prawn masala — can be assertive in heat. Most kitchens will adjust on request.

Does Madras Bhavan have a website? Yes — madrasbhavan.in. The Gotri location can also be contacted at madrasbhavangotri@mail.com.

What is a banana leaf meal? A full rice meal served on a cleaned banana leaf rather than a plate, with sambar, rasam, chutneys, rice, and multiple accompaniments. The leaf format is a traditional serving style from Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Bottom Line

Vadodara's September 2026 restaurant openings tell a clear story: the city's growing South population is now large enough to sustain a dedicated cluster of Kerala and South cuisine establishments. Malayalee Kada and Priya's Kitchen serve the comfort-food end of the spectrum; Banana Leaf Restaurant makes the strongest case for the cuisine as a full dining experience; and Madras Bhavan covers South breakfast and coffee with chain-backed consistency. Taste of Kerala is worth revisiting as it reopens. For Vadodara's Malayali community, and increasingly for the rest of the city's diners, the options have meaningfully improved this season.