What to Eat in Cox's Bāzār Town Beyond Seafood

Start the day with khichuri and boot er daal in Puran Bazar

Puran Bazar, the old town market area around the main bus counters and the Dhaka–Cox's Bāzār highway, is where the town eats breakfast. Look for small tin-roofed kitchens serving khichuri — rice and lentil cooked soft with ginger and turmeric — alongside boot er daal, a warm yellow pea curry finished with chopped onion and green chilli. Expect a plate in the low tens of taka rather than hundreds. Portions are generous and the clientele is almost entirely local: bus crews, market traders, schoolteachers. Go before about nine in the morning, when the pots are freshest and turnover is fastest.

The single best-value variation is a full breakfast set: khichuri, daal, a piece of beef bhuna or an egg, and hot tea in a small glass. It is heavy food for a beach holiday, but it makes sense if you are heading to Himchari or Inani for the morning, where the roadside restaurants are pricier and slower. Vegetarian travellers should ask for the set without meat; the daal and khichuri alone are filling. Carry small notes, since change is limited and the queue behind you is not patient.

Bhorta, bhuna and the Bengali rice plate

Inland Cox's Bāzār eats rice with bhorta — mashed vegetable dishes made with potato, aubergine, tomato or dried fish — plus a thin dal and one protein. The strongest concentration is in the lanes behind the Sugandha beach entrance and around Kælātali, where family kitchens with four or five tables serve lunch from about noon. Ask for bhorta bhaat, or point at the trays. A mixed plate of two bhortas, dal, rice and a chicken or beef portion is a filling lunch before an afternoon on the sand.

Beef bhuna in this part of the country is slow-cooked and dark rather than fiery, and it appears on nearly every menu. Look for the roadside places along the road to Mōeskhali rather than the beachfront hotels, which mark up similar food three or four times. If you are staying near Kolātali, a short rickshaw ride inland puts you among cheaper kitchens. Mid-range hotels in Cox's Bāzār town commonly sit in the ranges that Bengali families and Dhaka weekenders pay; it is worth booking a hotel a block or two back from the Hotel Motel Zone for lower rates and easier access to these local restaurants.

Street snacks between the beach and the bazaar

Afternoon snacks are where Cox's Bāzār is genuinely strong. Around the beach entrance at Sugandha and along the main road to Jhilongja, vendors sell chanachur, piaju, beguni and hot jilapi; a paper cone costs a few taka. Chotpoti — chickpeas with tamarind, chilli and chopped egg — is served from carts near the bus terminal and the hospital roundabout from mid-afternoon. This is the food worth walking for, and it is cheaper and more interesting than the ice-cream and juice stalls lining the sand.

Fuchka is popular but varies a lot; try one cart, watch the turn-over, and move on if the pan looks tired. In the evening, look around Kælātali bazaar for roasted corn and pickled fruit. Bottled or filtered water is sensible throughout, and snacks that are fried in front of you are the safer choice. If you want to sit down, the small eateries on the road along the Bakkhali river serve a morning or evening plate of snacks with tea and are calmer than the beach strip.

Rakhine and Marma dishes worth seeking out

Cox's Bāzār's non-Bengali food is the real draw for curious eaters. Rakhine cooks in town prepare a thin rice noodle soup with dried fish, groundnut and chilli, often called Rakhine monti, plus a light prawn curry with sour leaves. The few places that serve it are small, family-run and in the lanes off the main road rather than on the beachfront, and they open mainly at lunch. Prices are in the low hundreds of taka for a bowl and a side.

Marma and Chakma kitchens inland of the town offer bamboo-shoot curries and sticky rice, usually as part of a set. Ask your hotel reception to point you to a place they recommend, since signboards are often in Bengali only. I would book a room in the town centre rather than right on the beach if these dishes matter to you: a hotel near the bus terminal or Kælātali is within a short rickshaw ride of the local kitchens and a 10–15 minute walk from the sand. Skip the imported fast-food chains and the big beachfront buffets, which serve food indistinguishable from Dhaka.