Laguna Anjunas Guide To Anjuna And Goa

Laguna Anjuna offers our own somewhat eccentric guide to Anjuna.

There are any number of good restaurants, speciality cuisine restaurants, and most of them are well advertised and covered by the various guide books, so we are only going to name some of the others. Some small places are delightful though very basic, often without licenses, and have survived being overwhelmed only because they are away from the glare of publicity, and are known only to locals, including the longer staying tourists and anyone with an “I want to be part of it” attitude.

Sadly, many good locally run places for great Goan food have been forgotten in the in the phenomenon of chic “resto bars,” “lounge bars”, and the wannabe desperation ” to have a rocking time” and to “be with it”. For these come and talk to us personally. Also, interesting places come up and are run for a season or two, we’ll tell you about these too.

Some of our lesser known, consistently good and favourite “insider” eating places (besides of course our own!) are

1. Sri- Richard runs a restaurant in an old house near Vagator which makes great use of local produce and serves vegetarian and sea foods in Goan, Indian mildly spiced fare. Try the coconut based Fish Khurana.
2. Bomras- Bomra is a chefs chef, his restaurant has won awards for Burmese and fusion cuisine, expect to eat well, and enjoy exotic cocktails
3. Sakana-The best place for brilliantly and artfully served Japanese food in North Goa. Vagator, Anjuna.
4. Anand- Goan seafood , always fresh, is just so good.
5. Curlys – On beautiful South Anjuna Beach, their friendly and helpful attitude, music and food have made their reputation as one of the coolest beach shacks in the world.
6. Artjuna- A garden cafe, for great coffees, shakes, smoothies, salads plus handicrafts, jewellery. Its become a centre for Yoga practitioners, kick boxing and other activities.
7. Bean me Up-Near the Vagator petrol pump, this restaurant serves tofu, tempeh along with other  vegetarian fare.
8. Slow Tide-One of the best places to enjoy a sundowner on the beach, with great cocktails and coastal Malabar food.
9. Ramesh ran a  4 table restaurant from his home in Peddem. Known for freshly caught fish. Sadly Ramesh was a victim of Covid, his charming daughters now run the restaurant very ably and offer wholesome deliciously cooked Goan seafood and vegetarian fare.
10. The German Bakery has been going strong year after year and is one of the better healthy vegetarian options. Great choice of breads of all grains.
11. Baba au Rhum, run by former residents of Auroville, a spiritual centre in South India where many French settled, is a French style cafe set in the fields, very good menu and often great music.
12. Laguna Anjuna-for beautiful ambience, old world style and sea foods. Classic dishes from French, Goan, Parsi and other cuisines.  Add an absinthe and cocktail bar, its difficult to top Laguna Anjuna!

Surprisingly good live performances from artistes from all over the world, from Bengal’s charismatically wild Baul singers, sitar and tabla artists, percussionists, Indie bands, rock musicians. Medieval music artistes, fusion music performers, didgeridoo performers, stand up comedians with hilarious stories of the hippy years are some of the people who show up at different times and places. You can hear about these on the grapevine!

At Laguna Anjuna we have many such performances, for several years now Graeme Hamilton, formerly of UB40 and Fine Young Animals fame has been belting out his reggae songs of protest, freedom, love and life under the 100 year old Mango tree in the Laguna Anjuna courtyard.

Bookshop : “The Other India” bookshop near the Mapusa Clinic is exactly what the name suggests, and has lots of intelligent material on Goa.

The nearest airport is now Mopa, North Goa, some 26 km  away. Dabolim, the first airport in Goa is 29 km away from Panaji and 47 km from Anjuna. The nearest railway station is at Thivim, 20 km away from Mapusa and 29 km from Anjuna. Once in Goa, many people prefer to rent motor bikes and scooters.

Alternatively small taxis are a good way of getting around and seeing other parts of beautiful Goa. There are also self drive cars for rent.