Things to do in Dhaka outside of tourist sites: Places to Eat, Party & Shop in Dhaka
Dhaka is a busy and crowded city. Bangladesh in general isn’t a country that people go for vacation, most of you are there is probably because of work. I absolutely love Bangladesh, it is a tropical beauty: green and full of energy. The people are kind, witty, and to sum it up ‘firecrackers’. The colleagues I had weren’t afraid to challenge my thinking, definitely helped me sharpen my ability to influence. Although I was there for a short time, I was fortunate enough to meet fellow foodies that introduced me to bomb food and fun places to hangout
Top 6 Restaurants in Dhaka:
Most of the time I spent Sunday-Thursday in the rural area eating local food, which are delicious and hearty (I am learning from a Bangladeshi friend soon on how to make the food: recipes coming soon). To this day I think the food I got in Dhaka isn’t as good as a local hole in the wall shop outside of the city for 1/3 of the price. Foreign food restaurants in Dhaka are expensive compared to local food, or compared to Cambodia for foreign food. Here are a few of my favorite restaurants
- Izumi Japanese Kitchen: Let’s just say wow. As soon as you set food into the door, the place grabs your attention and calm you down from the busy streets outside. Quiet, a beautiful Japanese garden, with water sound running in the background. You can tell the designer really put in thoughts into the experience he/she wanted to gave the guests. It is a place you go to enjoy a high quality, fresh, and flavorful meal. From ambiance, to food quality & taste, and service. It is probably the best restaurant that I have visited in Dhaka. PS the steak is amazing
- Lucknow: Indian cuisine. Lucknow is my favorite indian restaurant in town, I was recommended by my Nepali foodie friend. The ambiance of the restaurant is tasteful, and artistic. The service is fantastic and the food is delicious. It is a great place for meetings, date, or even for a party. There are outdoors and indoors seating, with a Japanese-style garden. When you are there, check out the table mat. It teaches you about numerology reading!
- Chows: Chinese Dimsum. There are a few other Chinese restaurants in town, Chows has the best atmosphere (compare to other Chinese restaurants) that is less traditional with a more refined traditional Chinese cooking. I came here a few times to have dimsum, soup, roasted chicken, stir-fry noodles. I must say all of it is very delicious and fresh, goes well with their home-made hot sauce. I was most impressed by their hot & sour soup, you can tell the quality just based on the knife skill of the chef.
- Holey Artisan Bakery: Holey has great french pastries: croissants, bread, and all sorts of sweets. My favorite of all is their gelato. I believe it is hard to find a decent ice cream shop that has a perfect consistency and isn’t 1. watered down 2. too artificially tasting. It is my favorite place to go to have a nice cup of coffee with gelato, relax and read my book.
- Umai: Umai is an affordable alternative of Izumi. It is a place I go regularly either delivery from (foodpanda) or a visit to the restaurant. It has fresh fish selection and
- Goong the Castle:
If you don’t want to leave your home to dine definitely order from FoodPanda, has a variety of restaurants (including the ones above). Will deliver right to your door with a click of your finger
Other decent places: The country clubs have decent food, each club has its own stereotype of food and type of audience. PS German club has decent wood fire pizza. American Club has a variety of drinks, pastas, and good prices.
Shopping in Dhaka:
The shopping here is great for more Saree, Kameez. But if you love beautiful unique handicraft stores there are a few gems here in Dhaka.
Unique Shops
- Aranya: I love Aranya, everything here is handmade and naturally dyed. It is above Lucknow, and has beautiful earthy dyed cotton and silk. They have beautifully dyed scarves, pillow cases, kitchen mats that are great for gifts. If you want to get something unique with quality from Bangladesh this is the store to go to. I bought my mom and myself a few scarves from here, she loves it. (PS their website isn’t impressive, don’t let it fool you)
- Basha Boutique: They make products out of recycled fabrics and made locally. The products are all fair-trade and provide jobs to local women. The organization has a heart felt mission while it is socially responsible, they don’t have a physical store but I do know you can find them at North End Coffee at Gulshan 2
- Anokhi: Small cute boutique with beautiful clothes, clothes are locally made in Bangladesh
- Mayasir: Great shop for local clothes, hand made and simple. I bought a few outfits from here, very comfortable. Remember to wash the cotton in vinegar since the first time you wash it the color will come out. Upstairs of Mayasir also has a beautiful Saree shop
- Pearl Shopping in Gulshan 2 DCC Market: Fresh water coral is well known here in Bangladesh, it is affordable and beautiful. Make sure you do some research about how to determine the quality of the pearls before you go shopping. Great affordable gifts and make sure to bargain.
- Aarong: Aarong is many people’s favorite, affordable and have a cute selection of house decorations, handicrafts, shoes, accessories and clothing. The largest selection that I have went to is the Aarong in Niketon. I bought a good amount of tradition Bangladeshi jewelry from here (that are silver with gold coating). They are beautiful and great for parties!
Shopping Malls & Areas:
- Pink City: It is a shopping maze, top notch bargaining is required to shop here. There are hundreds of stores full of different style of clothes, many are imported from India and Pakistan.
- Banani 11: It is an area with small boutique shops scattered around
- Jamuna Future Park: Largest/newest mall in Dhaka, don’t go right before Eid will be overly crowded
- Police Plaza Concord Shopping Mall: Nicer than Pink City, but probably with less selection.
Making Your Own Clothes
This is definitely the gem if you are looking to make business clothing from casual to formal or if you want to make a ‘copy’ of a dress/shirt you have. It took me a a few weeks to best places to buy fabrics and good tailors. I hope this will help you save some time.
- Top Ten Fabrics and Tailors: Business casual or business clothing fabric. The company is a fair trade organization where they provide jobs for women. They have an amazing story with a great cause, the products refined and truly beautiful.
Night Life:
Besides house parties, Dhaka is full of country clubs. Almost every weekend there is a party happening, but not all of them are good. I personally love to dance to good beats and latin music.
Amari Hotel: Great night views and a place to watch the sunset. It overlooks the river that flow through the city, and you can see the development that is happening around the city. It has a great lounge ambiance with popular music in the background. It is one of the few places in Dhaka where you can get Shisha/Hookah while enjoying a beautiful view. Option of BYOB (if you pay a bottle fee)
Jatra Biroti: Jatra has a beautiful rooftop with relaxing outdoors seating. It has warm lights and bamboo mats where you can sit. It has an earthy ambiance. The best part is there often have live musics with local musicians playing folk music from Bangladesh. (Spray yourself with mosquito repellent since it’s outdoors). Based on what I remember Thursday from 7 PM – 11 PM has original folk culture music. Fridays and Saturdays are different (open-mic, music from around the world)
Westin: great view on the top floor, and an interesting place to go dancing
Country Clubs: I personally love the parties at Nordic because of the latin night with DJ AKS. They have an outdoor dancing area, and because the club is quite large there are ton of space if you want to relax and catch up with friends. If you enjoy electronic music, German Club has the hook up. Although it isn’t my favorite because it gets too crowded, but many people seems to enjoy it.
Hosting your personal party: If you love to dance, I might just have a DJ for your house party. He is Bangladeshi, grew up in Dubai and learned music producing in Mumbai. Since he also loves to dance and is a great dancer; he knows all of the tunes from all over the world. You can facebook message him at DJ AKS and discuss about what you want/looking for
Going local relaxing Shisha Lounge: This is a place you won’t find foreigners, the atmosphere is relaxing and layback. If you want to hide
