Guerilla Diner’s Burgers, Tacos, And No-Fuss Attitude Are Worth The Hype (& The Wait)

After what was supposed to be a legendary trip to Bangalore to see a band I’d loved for nearly a decade came crashing down, the friend who had come down with me dubbed the trip officially to be a ‘BT’.

While she took a bus back to Kochi soon enough, I was convinced by friends in the city to redeem the trip by staying for the weekend. My mission to reclaim what was otherwise a disastrous trip (including random things falling on my head and spilling chai onto our overpriced Airbnb) began with the food at the Guerilla Diner. And that’s saying a lot because the litany of things that had gone wrong leading up to the cancellation of the event and the aftermath felt like something I’d never recover from. But I did decide to stick around, and managing to get myself a coveted reservation at Guerilla, thanks to the always reliable Public Relations maven and wonderful friend Saina Jayapal, seemed like the first step in turning things around. 

Guerilla Diner was one of those places that had been on my list to visit for months, ever since I’d come across the announcement of their physical space on Instagram. I’d heard earlier mentions of the food made by its founder, Tushar Sood. A passionate chef with veritable experience working at renowned restaurants across India, he started Guerilla as a pop-up/home chef venture in 2023, with an aim to take dining back to its basics — quality ingredients, honest pricing, and exceptional technique. A year or so later, Tushar also started co-hosting a podcast called ‘Seasoned’ in which he discusses the business of F&B with industry movers and shakers. Taking his learnings from the professional kitchens he’d trained in, his personal experience with food, and his ample hunger to learn, Guerilla Diner as a physical space eventually took form and opened to the public in September 2024.

A 12-seater Ghetto Burger Shop and Taqueria on Cambridge Road, a few Km away from Indiranagar, Guerilla Diner has continued to deliver on their promise of “taking food underground, back to basics and focusing on taste when you take away the distraction of the commercial dining room”. When I went in for my Thursday reservation at Guerilla, there was already a crowd outside the door (which is a black curtain) of the purple-painted diner. They seemed like overly eager diners with reservations, or those who seemed willing to eat outside the diner without a table, just because they loved their offerings so much. 

As we walked in, the R&B music was select and mellow, the conversations were flowing, and the kitchen and billing counter had the Guerilla staff in a focused flurry. While waiting our turn, I looked around to find childhood board games, Gorilla figurines, and even a Gorilla mask dotting the counter. While the wall above the kitchen featured a light-up board listing favourite mains, sides and desserts, there were printed-out retro diner-esque listings of the tacos they had to offer — from Lamb and Shroom Birria tacos to the 10-hour Carnitas De Pollo. Soon enough, Dhruv, who was behind the counter, greeted us and told us that they’d set the table aside especially for us. In between this, I noticed Tushar by the grill, flipping patties in his Krabby Patty T-Shirt, who yelled a quick hello to me over the din of the kitchen while staying on task. 

With a little help from Dhruv, and a little bit of cheekiness on our part as ‘Kochi’ girls, we decided to get the Cochinita Pibil, which is a Yucatan Style BBQ Pork, Salsa El Diablo, Orange juice pickled Onion, Fresh Jalapeno, and Cilantro in a crispy taco. And, of course, after he described the Mayhem Cheeseburger, we knew we had to get one t to split between ourselves. To start the meal, however, we ordered a plate of loaded cheese fries for the table and made an order for their newly launched Apple Pie that had caught our fancy on Instagram. 

As we sat down and our cheese fries and diet cokes appeared, we started to settle into the vibe of Guerilla. There was 'The Analogue Space' right next door, a hub for vinyl lovers and buyers that one could peek at while sitting inside the diner. In fact, Guerilla in early January 2025 had hosted an event in collaboration with them titled 'Monkey Business', with vinyl, tacos, shakes, and flash-tattoos galore.

As my friend and I had conversations about everything and nothing and munched our way through the cheese-loaded fries, which were crisp yet rich in the best possible way, the tacos arrived. The Cochinita Pibil was a choice we’d made simply for the wordplay, but in reality, it turned out to be a flavourful revelation. From the perfectly cooked meat to the sweet yet biting onion pickle to the fiery salsa served on the side, the dish was unlike anything we'd had eaten before. Granted, we’re not people who’ve eaten a lot of Mexican food in our time, but if there is anything that a Malayali knows, it is our red meat, and the taco had already set our expectations at quite a high level. 

Next came the Mayhem Cheeseburger: smashed Patties, with roasted pepper and jalapeño salsa, cheese, and animal style sauce. The two smashed beef patties are cooked just right so that the meat is crisped up at the edges but still flavourful, nestled in a bun, that was pillowy soft on the inside. The cheese is melted just right and the peppers and pickles cut the richness of it all with their sourness. While we might have talked our way through the cheesy fries, no words were said as we started in on the mains. We switched between the tacos and burger, handed each other tissues because it was a messy but worthwhile affair and washed it down with diet Coke, all in rapt silence. Finally, we looked at each other with stupid grins on our faces that summed up what we felt:

"That wasn’t just a good meal; that was a great one.”

While our carnivorous selves had been sated (and how!), we had made sure to leave some room for the dessert - the pink apple pie and custard dish we’d seen on the diner’s instagram was on its way. Soon enough, Dhruv showed up with the dessert and told us to dig in before it, and I quote, “deflates”. What I had expected was a cold dish of vanilla custard set with an apple pie pocket dusted with berry sugar placed in the middle. But what we were served was an effervescing vanilla custard concoction, and the berry sugar-coated golden fried puff pocket was filled with warm apple filling.

As we dug in quickly to make the most of the dessert, we sank into the contrasting textures and sensations of the dessert. The light and frothy vanilla custard coated the palate, while the warm apple pie added depth and evoked some nostalgia (one that I didn’t even know I harboured). Together it felt like I was living out the description from a book I’d read about relishing warm homemade apple pie with ice cream on a school holiday.

I’d long forgotten about the cancelled concert halfway through my burger. So before we left, we ducked into the counter area and said goodbye to Tushar and Dhruv, who had helmed our Guerilla Diner journey. As we made our way out the black curtain, I found myself thinking I had only been to a few places that serve up burgers like this. While I did come for the burger, the tacos, and the dessert, the no-frills attitude is why I am recommending all my burger/taco-loving friends in Bengaluru to get a reservation at Guerilla Diner. When the food is just that good, you really don't need a lot of bells and whistles, and people who know it, would willingly reserve their spot and line up ahead of time too.

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