Filter Kaapi Tiramisu and Motte Masala Buns: Bengaluru’s New Mangalorean Café
BuCo. opens in Kodihalli with Chikmagalur filter coffee only, Byadagi chilli and kokum on the bake list, and a Mangalore menu that traveled north.
- buco
- bengaluru
- mangalore
- filter-coffee
Filter kaapi tiramisu is the clearest read on BuCo.’s Bengaluru room. The Mangalorean bakehouse soaks the Italian dessert in South Indian filter decoction instead of espresso. Motte masala buns do the same job on the savory side: soft milk brioche with spicy egg roast masala and a soft-boiled egg on top. Motte is egg in Kannada. Café shapes, stocked from a coastal Karnataka pantry.
Chef Shriya Shetty and Varun Shetty opened the city’s first BuCo. on November 2, 2026, in a bungalow on 6th Cross Road, HAL 2nd Stage, in the Kodihalli pocket near Indiranagar. The Mangalore flagship, shortened from Buttercream Co., grew out of an experimental kitchen they started in 2017 and a Balmatta bakehouse that opened in 2022. Bengaluru largely gets that menu, with a fuller breakfast line and a few city-specific spins.
The Karnataka pantry on the card
The house list of building blocks is specific: ghee, jaggery, kokum, ragi, jowar, Byadagi chilli, Bhatkal vanilla, Indian cheeses, and black-chickpea hummus finished with a Byadagi chilli crisp. Byadagi, also spelled Byadgi, is Karnataka’s deep-red mild chilli with a GI tag tied to the Dharwad belt. Kokum is the coastal souring fruit Mangalorean kitchens reach for when they want acid without leaning only on tamarind. Bhatkal vanilla points at the coastal town north of Mangalore in Uttara Kannada. Ragi and jowar keep millets in the bakes and bowls.
That pantry shows up across the case. Red amaranth Danish comes stuffed with greens, feta, and chilli oil. Sweet potato palya, the Karnataka-style dry vegetable stir-fry, fills a puff. Pepper chicken pups and a black-chickpea hummus bowl sit next to Mr Bob’s Classic Fried Chicken Burger on milk brioche with jalapeño aioli. Dosa waffles, including a Benny version with house kasundi and ghee hollandaise, are on the Bengaluru breakfast push. Even when the cooking borrows widely, the spice and souring still read Karnataka.
Filter coffee only, from Chikmagalur
The house brew is filter coffee. BuCo. uses A-grade Arabica from Chikmagalur, the hill district that holds a registered Chikmagalur Arabica Coffee GI and still supplies much of Karnataka’s everyday cup. Shriya has said the blend took about four months, and that the aim is to take filter kaapi past the darshini slot, the quick South Indian tiffin room where degree coffee usually lives, into cold brew, iced drinks, and dessert.
On the card: classic hot filter coffee; salted caramel iced filter; kopi peng, the condensed-milk iced coffee more often associated with Malaysian and Singaporean kopi culture, here made with filter decoction; KT Special; and cold brews such as Orange Is the New Black, a malta-orange infused decoction that started as a Mangalore kitchen surplus. Not An Iced Tea mixes filter decoction with lemon, sugar syrup, and soda. Order a hot filter with a bake for the simplest read. Order the tiramisu when you want the same decoction in dessert form.
Katte seating and how to use the floors
Architect Yashwin Dev, who designed the Mangalore room, carried over arches, terracotta, and large windows. The outdoor seating nods to a katte, the front-of-house gathering ledge on traditional Mangalorean homes. Red oxide flooring, brass, dark teak tones, and exposed concrete finish the room. Ground floor is a no-laptop dining zone. The floor above is for work and events. The top floor is staff office space. Outdoor seats are pet-friendly.
Bakes, breakfast, and filter kaapi are listed from 8 a.m. Confirm hours before you go; opening weeks move. Start with the motte bun or a palya puff, a hot filter or kopi peng, and the filter kaapi tiramisu if dessert is the errand. For another new Bengaluru room with a named community kitchen on the card, see Railway Lamb Curry and Jalebi Custard Just Got Their Own Restaurant in Bengaluru.