There is a particular kind of hush that falls over a table the moment mundi arrives, steam rising off the bowl, the smell of coriander and lime cutting through the noise of a Dhaka evening.
Over the last few years, a quiet but steady appetite has grown in Dhaka for Chakma, Marma and Garo cuisines that once lived almost entirely within the hill districts or in the kitchens of Indigenous families settled in the capital.
Today, they are edging into the mainstream, one small restaurant and one roadside cart at a time. The bigger question, though, is not whether Dhaka has discovered this food. It is whether the people eating it are actually falling in love with it, or simply trying it once and moving on.
The first bite
At Hebaang, located at Shewrapara, Mirpur, the ambience does half the work before the food even arrives.
Bamboo panelling lines the walls, and a small resting corner styled with an ethnic touch invites diners to slow down.
Anjuman Raha, a university student who found the restaurant through a friend's Facebook post, says she went in expecting something closer to a novelty than a proper meal.
"I genuinely didn't expect to like it this much," she says. "The taste is so different from what we usually eat, but it doesn't feel odd; it feels fresh."
For Rafid Al Zubaer, a writer who has spent years chasing food across different cultures and regions, the experience carried an extra layer of nostalgia. He had eaten similar dishes years earlier, during a trip to the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
"I didn't think I'd find that same flavour sitting in the middle of Dhaka traffic," he says. "But it was almost exactly what I remembered: the smokiness, the bamboo, the way the vegetables aren't drowned in spice. It felt like the hills had followed me home."
You can find CHT CulinarY at East Kazipara, Mirpur. It offers a similarly immersive experience, food served on bamboo trays in a restaurant whose walls carry the quiet imprint of the hills it represents.
A cup of lemon tea or a bowl of steamed rice costs Tk 50. Their bamboo-cooked chicken costs Tk 650 to Tk 900.
It is not a cheap night out at either place if you order their specialty dishes, but for many diners, that does not seem to matter.
It is an experience paid for as much as a meal, and most walk away feeling it was worth it.
Hebaang's menu, made in July 2019, is still widely followed: a cup of rozela tea costs as little as Tk 30, while most curries and vegetable dishes fall between Tk 120 and 450.
Their signature bamboo-cooked specialties sit at the top end, with a full bamboo chicken running Tk 1,600.
In Green Road on the second floor of Green Super Market on Green Road, near IBA Hostel JABA.
JABA is Dhaka's dedicated home for Garo cuisine, run by Sumon Nongmin since 2019.
It is easy to miss the entrance the first time. It is much harder to forget the food once you have had it. The restaurant's steamed fish in banana leaf and its assortment of bhorta have quietly built a loyal following among diners hunting for something the city rarely offers.
Price
Not everyone walks away purely charmed, though. Sumaiya Tasnim, who visited one of these restaurants with a group of friends, admits the food impressed her but her wallet noticed too.
"The food is genuinely good, no complaints there," she says. "But the prices add up fast. I had to save around four thousand taka just so a few of us could go and eat properly. For something we do once in a while, that's fine. For something we'd want to do often, it's a stretch."
Along Dhanmondi, a small food cart serves Chakma dishes to a steady stream of regulars, no bamboo interiors or curated lighting required, just a stove, a few containers, and food made the way it has always been made.
"We use the local, original ingredients in our food, so that people here get the authentic taste," says the owner.
Selling food on the street comes with its own pressures, though, ones that sit-down restaurants rarely have to think about.
"We also try to maintain proper hygiene, though it is tough as we sell roadside," he says. "But we package them properly and don't sell stale food."
A city catching up to its own diversity
What is happening in Dhaka right now isn't really a food trend. It's overdue recognition.
Chakma, Marma and Garo communities have been cooking these dishes for generations, largely inside their own homes and neighbourhoods, mostly unseen by the wider city.
Restaurants like Hebaang, CHT Culinary, and JABA, and carts like the one in Dhanmondi, are simply giving that food the stage it was always owed.
For students like Anjuman, it's an eye-opening discovery. For someone like Rafid, it's a reunion with a memory. For Sumaiya, it's a good meal worth planning for, budget and all.
Dhaka's palate is shifting, dish by dish, cart by cart. Whether people come for the story, the flavour, or the photo for their feed, it hardly matters anymore.
What matters is that the hills have found a permanent seat at the city's table - and increasingly, people keep coming back for seconds.
The next time someone suggests biryani for the fifth weekend in a row, it might be worth steering the group toward a bowl of mundi instead - even if it means putting a little extra aside beforehand.
