Baga Beach is now the de-facto high street of  India or as one would call it the 'Miami strip' with it's numerous hot spots, bars and restaurants catering to the sun-starved traveller. After the bare-all days of the hippie crowd, it has now quickly enveloped itself with popular music hotspots, speciality cuisine restaurants and swanky hotels catering to the high-flyers/wannabe's from everywhere, be it the crazy europeans, the bombay brat pack or the goa wannabe's.

Come Christmas and Baga wears a buzzy look with the kitchens and the bars humming with the pace against time while catering to the density. The sheer number of tourists awakens even the staunch susegaad(lazy) feni-laden goan patrao (gentleman) who moves his largesse belly to conjure up sea-food delicacies based on his grandmother's recipes. The New Year sees more of the burgeoning crowd and it seems like a bee-hive with so little a stretch housing so many tourists.

The beach front is heavily laden with static brown bodies basking in the sun with the occassional hand movement towards the pint of beer next to them. The local boys are showing off their newly-found slangs to the foreign tourists and keeping them from being burnt by the shifting of the vibrant beach umbrellas. Come sunset and the beach is converted into a quiet haven of candle-lit eating places with the tables laden with butter-laden red lobsters and goan port wine. The hotspots add their share of glitz with their popular music blaring away into the night and the out-of-goa disco-bred crowds vending their way through the winding Baga road towards the Tito's &  Mambo Clubs.
Baga now boasts of some of the best restaurants below the Mumbai latitude with names like Britto's, Casa Portuguesa, Sousa Lobo's etc. To begin off one's lazing day in Goa is the effervescent Infantaria Bakery with it's puffs and pies. It also houses a restaurant where the food is so-so, but their old-time puffs, brownies are the favourite's around. The German Bakery close-by is also a good place to start the day with some good variants of tea and some filling offerings like the Farmer's breakfast and good pies. Britto's on the north end, also does some good omelletes and fruit juices for the light stomachers. The Pastry shop at Tito's also has some good confectionaries. For the heavy-fillers, the beach front restaurants offer the good old beer, fish & chips kind of breakfast. Most of them also offer continental breakfasts and some variants like muesli and puddings. There are also the many other places along the main Baga road which serve the basic eggs and sandwiches breakfast and some even the Indian options of paratha's & dosa's.
The shimmering afternoon sun is best slept off on the sun-beds lining the beach with beer or milk-shakes, but if you really love your lunches, then there are lots of minimal-butt-movement options at the beach itself. The popular one's are Bosco's, Zanzibar, Britto's & Swally's and they can really surprise the taste-buds. I was pretty much surprised with the prawn curry rice that Zanzibar served me and along with the King pints, it was best way to bring about the luxuriant afternoon siesta. These places do some great Goan curry dishes which along with the beach and the beer are my idea of a perfect Goan holiday. If you are the one who needs some activity before lunch, then walk to the  restaurants along the Baga Road which offer more cooler ambiences. There are many places around and even the pizza and paratha makes an appearance here.
To revive those indulged muscles and bones, the evening is the perfect way to lounge around the orangish beach or take an total adrenaline gush with the water para-sailing options. Also, the Tibetan Silver Market, the Kashmiri antique & semi-precious shops, the roadside shops with psychedelic kurtas and colourful house lamps are some good places to lounge around. Bargaining is an compulsory activity with these places, so be ready for some oral exercise too other than the usual one of guzzling beer. The silently sweeping nightfall brings about a silence all around in anticipation of the fun-filled nights which is like an activity-filled day in itself.
The restaurants are brightened up with the colourful lights, the music starts off and the streets are awake with bikes and cars zipping around. The lazy bones are refreshed up and the bars get active with music, televisions, pool tables and boards displaying the 'specials of the day'. The restaurants are suddenly filled up with banter and a sudden friendliness abounds all around. The beach front sun-beds are now replaced with tables and candles & barbeque grills are stoked up. The catches of the day are displayed around and the helping distant relatives of the restaurant owners saunter around taking up orders and hurrying things up. The multi-ambiences of a moonlit sky, different speciality cuisines, music and companions bring about an indulgence to one's senses.
The bars are the best winding-down places with the free flowing spirits of Goa. They are all over the place and their offerings range from pool tables to televisions to music to the moonlight sky. The happening one's are Kamaki, Mambo's around the Tito's lane from Baga Road. Others are Jack's Bar & Restaurant, St.Anthony's Bar and many other dotting the beach line. But, a word of advise, there was a despicable incident with a place called the Shooter's Den. It was run by a British couple and catered to primarily Britishers but the attitude of the patrons and the owners towards a non-white was alarming. I would like to remind them that India is a free democratic country no longer ruled by British colonialism and that discriminating against anybody in India is a foolish thing to do.

Coming to the stomach-filler's, Britto's is the evergreen favourite amidst all and its good value-for-money goan delicacies are not-to-missed. Their service is prompt and efficient and complements their food well. Their sea-food curries are highly recommended though they also serve up some good grilled stuff too. The other popular option is Sousa Lobo's though technically on Calangute beach. It was known for its good food and Goan hospitality but lately their standards have faltered considerably. It is usually over-crowded with a waiting list longer than the Baga beach and the brat packs patronising it are too boisterous with their wise-cracks to even chat around. Though there is an occassional good dish served up reminding one of it's olden glory, the overall experience has been a letdown to many an old-timer. St. Anthony's is also an all-time favourite with it's good old goan fare.
There are also the differentiators like the Chinese food restaurants like the Pagoda and Kim Fa on Baga Road. Pagoda serves some good variants and had a couple of guys strumming on a guitar around for the ambience. Fiesta does mediterranean & italian food. Nani & Rani's on the north side of the river does Indian north indian food.
On the speciality cuisine side, Casa Portuguesa is a luxuriant dining experience with an old bungalow being restored to complement its culinary offerings. There is an wonderful sense of nostalgia to the place with the white-washed walls and the green leafy garden-centric seating. There is also some old ancient furniture for the patrons and the music is mellow. The service is the slowest of all and asks to be forgiven to be given time to savour one's attention on the wonderful ambience. The food is Portuguese and Goan speciality with the pricing being on the higher side. [Rs.200+]. The Goan offerings are staple and nothing noteworthy but the portuguese dishes are a delight. There are some interesting combinations of fruit juices offered with feni which are a refreshing change. Last year's trip saw another namesake called Casa Mangalore being operational on the Baga Road. Couldn't review it but didn't seem very crowded around to write about. Some more in the range are J&A's Little Italy Restuarant on the north side of the river, Cavala Seaside Restaurant for Goan seafood, Indian Impact for tandoori sea-food.   

The beach front restaurants are the most under-rated one's and i was very surprised at their culinary skills. Bosco's served up some good starters especially squid and a very good grilled lobster. The Traveller's Nest also served up some good food. Swally's and Sea Breeze are other good options. If you have that someone special to pair up with, then a candlight dinner amidst the multitude of stars and the thundering waves is the ideal way to spend a romantic dinner. I would recommend the places on the Britto's end as the blaring music from the Tito's & neighbours dies out and amorous conversations can be had without much intrusions.
There are also some good restaurants around the interior lanes run by the resident families which serve up some good Goan dishes. They are usually empty but for a reason. The limited fare though being excellent in quality, takes sometime to be served as there is usually one cook around i.e. the wife or the mother who has to prepare everything from scratch. Give it a shot if you are not the hurrying types and want to watch that rivetting football match on the telly. But be careful of ordering calamari(squid) as a couple of places served up an abysmal quantity without any proper flavouring. A downright disappointment.

For the sweet toothed, The Pastry shop at Tito's is open till pretty late and serves up some good stuff. There are a couple of coffee shops around too like the newly arrived Tata Cafe Coffee Day outside Tito's lane and Mocha Cafe near Britto's. The Tata Cafe Coffee Day is easily accessible and serves up some good coffee and desserts. A good place to visit to detoxify after the hotspots of Tito's & Mambo's. The Mocha Cafe is a near-missable place and a total misfit to the area. The ambience is Arabian, the coffee is only exotic by name and there is a confusion about the place as it turns into a Disco called Fire'n'Ice by the night. The seating is on ground level with curtains draped around low tables and trying to sit cross-legged is a painful proposition for the legs and the back. The food fare is primarily Lebanese and nothing much to write about.

That in all sums up an holiday week spent in Goa trying to work up an appetite for reviewing the places and it took days before any motivation about writing this piece could come about.