Eating and drinking in the Andamans — late-night food, water and alcohol

Eating and drinking here runs on rules nobody warns you about: food delivery that beats most mainland cities in Port Blair and barely functions elsewhere, a water bottle you cannot buy small, and spirits you can legally bring in by the crate. Worth knowing before you pack.

Food after dark

Port Blair is genuinely well served. Zomato and Swiggy both operate, they run late into the night and start again very early, and the real dead window is only about 2 am to 6 am. Outside those four hours, getting food delivered is rarely a problem — which is not what most people expect of a town this size.

The other islands are a different matter. The delivery apps nominally cover them, but they are unreliable enough that you should not plan an evening around one.

On Havelock, some restaurants in the main town do stay open late, and they are a real option — if you have hired a scooter or bike. Without one you are walking unlit island roads at night for a plate of noodles, which is a poor trade.

So for anywhere outside Port Blair, the practical move is to stock up during the day and keep something in the room. What actually works:

• Salted snacks — chips, Pringles, bhujia, mixtures. They travel, they survive the humidity, and they are what you will actually reach for.
• Wai Wai, cup noodles, or any instant noodles. A hot meal out of nothing but a kettle — and cup noodles need no bowl, which matters in a room that does not have one.
• Boiled eggs, bought during the day. The one item on this list that covers real hunger rather than a craving.

It sounds like over-preparation right up until the first night you want something at 11 pm on Neil and find the island has closed.

Drinking water, and the bottle rule

Stick to bottled water. It is cheap, it is sold everywhere including the small islands, and it is not worth experimenting with the alternative.

There is one local quirk that catches every visitor out: bottles of 1 litre and under are not sold here. Under the territory’s plastic rules the smallest drinking water bottle you can buy is 2 litres. No 500 ml to grab on the way out, no 1 litre for a day bag — 2 litres or nothing.

• A 2 litre bottle runs about ₹50, occasionally ₹60 depending on where you buy it.
• Supply is not the problem. Availability is genuinely good across the islands.
• The annoyance is purely practical, and it has an easy fix: bring a small reusable bottle and decant into it from the 2 litre at your room, rather than carrying the big one around all day.

Alcohol

Drinking is legal and unremarkable, but buying is neither cheap nor convenient:

• Port Blair has only three or four liquor shops; most other islands have one.
• Bars charge from around twice the shop price upwards — but they are far easier to buy from, with none of the queue or the closing time.
• Liquor shops do not chill their beer. If you want a cold one, that is a bar, or your own fridge and some patience.

Buy in Port Blair before heading out to the smaller islands, where the single shop may be shut, far away, or both.

Bring it with you

The Andamans are one of the places in India where it is genuinely worth flying your own in. Indian rules let a passenger carry up to 5 litres of alcohol in checked baggage — and given how thin the retail is here and what bars charge, that allowance goes further in the islands than almost anywhere else you could use it.

The conditions are worth getting right:

• The 5-litre cap applies to drinks between 24% and 70% ABV — spirits, in other words.
• Below 24% ABV — beer and most wine — there is no quantity limit under those rules. The 5 litres is not your total allowance, only your spirits allowance.
• Above 70% ABV is not permitted at all.
• Bottles must be sealed and in their original retail packaging. Opened or part-used bottles are not allowed.
• It goes in checked baggage, not cabin. Wrap it — baggage handling is baggage handling.
• You may not drink your own on board.

Two caveats. Duty-free and excise rules for the territory are a separate matter from the aviation limit, so very large quantities are a different conversation. And if your route connects through a state with its own restrictions, check that leg too.

If drinking matters to you on this trip, pack accordingly before you get on the plane. It is a good deal harder to fix once you are here.

Related guides

• Island life — who lives here, how the territory is governed, and why haggling works the way it does.
• When to visit — the season month by month, what the rain really does, and the tides that change every beach.
• Getting around — autos, scooters, and the private-versus-government ferry decision.
• Power, internet and money — rolling blackouts, which SIM to carry, and why UPI beats cash here.