A place is known closely by the Food it serves. When visiting any city, most of us explore the places that serves the best dishes and are highly recommended to try by locals and other travelers. My city, Dehradun is known for serving diverse food options from Chinese, Tibetan to local pahadi cuisines. The hilly city has a number of restros and famous food joints that serves diverse cuisines enough to make you drool.

We all love going out and eating, especially at the places that have earned the “legendary” tag or have grabbed popularity by word of mouth. In my opinion, taste is something that only matters irrespective of how hyped the food place is! What might be good to one, could be average for another’s palate.

Here, I have listed some hyped food places in Dehradun that were (infact, are) highly popular yet have lost all their charm now.

Please note that the list is based on mine as well as other user experiences over platforms like Zomato, Tripadvisor etc.

Kumars Sweets and Restaurant

Being known as one of the biggest home grown Sweet shop of Dehradun, Kumar Sweet shop is like a shopping complex serving almost every sweet you can imagine. The shop is said to be established in the year 1948 as a small Mithai shop near the Clock Tower. Today it has 50+ franchise outlets in Dehradun and nearby cities and is known as the top player in the category Sweet Shops in the Dehradun. But is it worth giving this title? With so many competitors offering unique specialties at much genuine rates, Kumar’s has lost somewhere in the market now.

Brought these pinni laddoos and they were full of lots of sugar with no taste of other ingredients being used.

Sardar Ji Pakode Wale, MDDA Rajpur

This pakora shop is owned by a Sikh family that is managing the legacy of providing hot, steaming and delicious mixed pakoras since generations. Once being telecasted by a popular TV channel, this pakode wala is being listed as the “Must Try Street Food Joints in Dehradun”. For most of the young crowd and tourists heading towards Mussourie, Sardarji’s yummy pakoras with the delicious imli chutney along with a cup of garam Chai was the perfect idea of a lazy and peaceful evening.

Well, not anymore! The quality is degraded to the worst. I wish they would have maintained ‘that’ taste which is still there on my taste buds.

Nath Chinese, Silver City

Located at Silver City, the place is known for serving best Chinese food across Dehradun. Their customizable menu at pocket-friendly prices is something I used to appreciate much during my college days. Some of their specials include spring rolls, schezwan noodles, chili potatoes, gravy momos, veg steamed momos, veg manchurian, chicken lollipop etc. Yet, the quality of some items are highly compromised now. To my recent visit, I found no taste in their gravy momos and just a bland mix of noodles they served. Got highly disappointed! The place is slowly loosing its charm now!

Laxmi Dosa, Paltan Bazaar

As one of the oldest operating restaurants in Dehradun (since 1943), Lakshmi restaurant is highly popular for their South Indian cuisines especially Dosa, Vada Sambhar and Idlies. With so many competitors available in the city now, the place has lost its charm ! One can find much better South Indian delicacies at places like Tirupati, Vango, Udupi, and even road side Madrasi dosa outlets.

Bikanerwala Franchise, Rajpur Road

I have been a big fan of this franchise yet Dehradun’s one is quite disappointing. Except for sweets, there is nothing worthy to talk about. Tried their Thaalis, Dosa, Chhole Bhaturey, Kachori and regretted later.

Any more in your mind? Please share in the comment section below!