A pizza on a dark plate on the rooftop at dusk, with a hill on the skyline behind the wire mesh and fairy lights strung overhead.

ಮುಳಬಾಗಲ್ ಕೆಫೆ

Mulbagal Rooftop Café

ಚಿಲ್ ವೈಬ್ಸ್, ಆಸಲಿ ರುಚಿ :
ನಿಮ್ಮ ನೆಚ್ಚಿನ ರೂಫ್ ಟಾಪ್

Chill vibes, real taste — your favourite rooftop. Painted on our wall.

Checking the time… 4.6 ★  from 21 Google reviews Third floor  ↑
The rooftop entrance hung with marigold garlands and mango leaves on opening day, potted palms either side of a green turf floor.
Street levelMC Road

Opposite the IB office

You have almost certainly walked past it. There is a door, and behind the door there are stairs, and that is the only clue from the road.

The rooftop under a steel shed roof: green turf floor, yellow chairs, marble-topped tables, tall stools and black pendant lamps, with the painted Kannada mural along the far wall.
Three flights later3rd

The whole roof

Turf underfoot, a shed overhead for the rain, and open mesh where the walls should be. Tables for four, stools for two, and enough room for a family that arrived as eleven.

Daylight on the roof, looking out through the wire mesh to a granite hill on the horizon beyond the town.
And thenThe hill

Where the wall should be

This is the reason to climb. Nobody at street level in Mulbagal can see the hill. Three floors up, it is the whole horizon.

A corner of the roof: marble tables against a lattice screen, a black pendant lamp, potted palms, and the hill through the mesh.
“The rooftop seating offers a lovely view and a refreshing breeze, making it feel like a mini getaway just outside the town.”
Prashanth Kumar N · Google review
The hand-painted mural: the café's name in Kannada in orange, a red coffee cup, ornamental red scrollwork and temple silhouettes against two orange suns on a black wall.

Painted, not printed

ಚಿಲ್ ವೈಬ್ಸ್, ಆಸಲಿ ರುಚಿ : ನಿಮ್ಮ ನೆಚ್ಚಿನ ರೂಫ್ ಟಾಪ್

Chill vibes, real taste — your favourite rooftop. It is on the long wall, under the name, beside a red coffee cup the size of a table. Somebody stood on this roof and painted it by hand.

The gopurams behind the cup are not decoration either. They are why people come through Mulbagal in the first place, and now they are on the wall you sit against.

What comes up the stairs

Coffee first.
Then everything else.

The kitchen is small and the menu is short, which is the honest way round. Filter coffee and tea, cold drinks in jars, pizza from the oven, snacks and desserts.

A hand holding a slice of sweetcorn pizza with a drizzle of sauce, fairy lights and a yellow chair behind.
Sweetcorn, straight off the peel, eaten standing up.
A hand holding a mason jar of cloudy lime soda with a slice of lemon in it, green turf and white tables behind.
Lime soda in a jar, for the walk up.
A whole pizza on a dark plate in the foreground with the hill and a pink dusk sky behind it.
Seven o'clock, when the hill goes pink and the lights come on.

Before you climb

Eleven till ten.
Shut on Sunday.

—

Getting up here

Three floors,
one door.

The hardest part of this café is finding it, so here it is plainly.

Open in Google Maps →
  1. MC Road, MuthyalpeteThe main road through Mulbagal. Head for the IB office.
  2. Directly opposite the IB officeLook up — the shed roof and the mesh are visible from the road once you know.
  3. In through the door, up to the third floorThe stairs are inside the building. Keep going until the turf starts.
Seven of the team standing together under the fairy lights at night, giving a thumbs up.

Somebody has to carry it all up three flights. See you this evening.