Smile Restaurant

You can find us at the Old Check Gate area in Atharnala. Puri is a town where people are always on the move, especially pilgrims and travelers coming through the main gates. Our restaurant is just a simple building where people can sit down and take a break from the heat. We don't have air conditioning in every corner, but the breeze from the fans helps. The menu is mostly local stuff that we know how to cook well. We get our fish from the local market and the vegetables come in fresh every morning. It's a family-run place, so you might see the kids hanging around after school sometimes. We don't have a big staff, just a couple of us in the kitchen and one person taking orders. Sometimes when the festivals are happening in Puri, the street outside gets completely blocked with people. Those days are exhausting, and we often run out of certain items by the afternoon. We don't use fancy ingredients. It's just salt, oil, and spices from the shop down the road. The tables are a bit old, and maybe the paint is peeling in some spots, but the food is why people come back. It's just a regular spot to get a meal before you head back out to the temple or the beach. We usually stay open until the last customer leaves, which varies depending on the day. The fans are a bit noisy and the lighting is just simple bulbs, but we keep the place as clean as we can. It’s the kind of spot where you can sit in your flip-flops and not feel out of place.