Connaught Place Delhi: The Complete Guide to CP's Best Restaurants, Shops, and Hidden Gems

Connaught Place — CP in local shorthand, officially renamed Rajiv Chowk but still called CP by everyone — is the most consistently surprising neighbourhood in Delhi. From the outside, especially from a moving metro train or taxi, it looks like a faded colonial relic: the great circular colonnaded buildings of inner and outer circles, built in the 1930s, looking slightly worn in the Delhi sun. But walk the colonnade, descend into Palika Bazaar below Rajiv Chowk, duck into the basements, find the right doorways, and CP reveals itself as a neighbourhood with more genuine depth than most of the gleaming malls that have opened around it.

The Architecture: What You're Actually Looking At

Connaught Place was designed by British architect RobertTor Russell and completed in phases from 1931–1933 as the commercial heart of Lutyens' New Delhi project. The neoclassical design — two concentric circles of colonnaded buildings connected by radial streets, all painted white (or meant to be) — was intended to create a covered shopping and business arcade that functioned in Delhi's climate: the colonnade provides shade from the sun and shelter from the monsoon. Russell's other Delhi building is India House (now South Block) on Raisina Hill.

The inner circle (Block A–F) and outer circle (Block G–N) together create a walkable ring of approximately 1.7km. The connecting radial streets (Kasturba Gandhi Marg, Barakhamba Road, etc.) divide the circles into blocks. Most of the interesting individual shops, restaurants, and cultural spaces are in the inner circle blocks.

Eating at CP: Where Decades of History Meet Current Quality

Wenger's Deli (Block A, inner circle): Operating since 1926, Wenger's is Delhi's oldest bakery-deli and one of the city's most enduring pleasures. The Swiss-origin confectionery tradition has been maintained through independent ownership — pastries, cakes, sandwiches, and their famous Christmas cakes (ordered months in advance by Delhi families). Come for a quick bite in the colonnade — the patties and sandwiches are cheap and genuinely good.

Kwality Restaurant (Block E, inner circle): A Delhi legend since 1940, Kwality introduced "restaurant culture" to post-independence Delhi — it was one of the first places where Delhi's new middle class could sit and eat food that wasn't street food or home cooking. The menu is Northern Indian: butter chicken (here, as elsewhere disputed as the dish's original site), dal makhni, mutton korma. The interiors are 1950s-frozen in a way that feels intentional rather than neglected. The food is competent rather than exceptional; the history justifies the visit.

Unplugged Courtyard (Block L, outer circle): For something current, this multi-cuisine restaurant in a converted courtyard building in the outer circle is one of CP's more interesting recent openings — good cocktails (Delhi has fully embraced the cocktail bar), above-average Indian and continental food, and weekend live music.

Farzi Cafe (inner circle, near Block B): The Delhi branch of this avant-garde Indian cuisine chain serves contemporary takes on Indian dishes — molecular gastronomy techniques applied to butter chicken, deconstructed thali, cocktails with Indian spice infusions. Polarising but interesting; good for a special dinner if you're curious what Indian fine dining looks like in 2026.

Palika Bazaar — The Underground World

Beneath Rajiv Chowk station, Palika Bazaar is a sprawling underground market that Delhi's middle class has been shopping at since 1978. Electronics, DVDs (still sold here in physical formats), clothing, shoes, accessories, toys, stationery — an extraordinary density of small shops in an underground space that feels simultaneously chaotic and navigable once you've oriented yourself. For electronics accessories (cables, adapters, phone cases, headphones at significantly below mall prices), Palika Bazaar beats any surface-level option. Bargaining is essential and expected.

The Basement Bars of CP

CP's basement culture is one of Delhi's best-kept secrets from first-time visitors. Several of the colonnade buildings have basement levels that house bars and restaurants with significantly better ambience than their ground-floor equivalents. The most famous is Unplugged (Block L), but there are at least a dozen basement establishments across the inner and outer circles. The basement bars tend to have better noise management, cooler temperatures in summer, and a more intimate atmosphere than rooftop venues. Explore the colonnade after 8pm: lit basement signs visible through stairwell openings in the colonnade floor are worth investigating.

Bookshops and Cultural Spaces

The Oxford Bookstore (Statesman House, Barakhamba Road, adjacent to CP) is one of Delhi's best — large, well-curated, with a decent cafe inside. The Statesman House building itself is a mid-century modernist structure worth noticing.

The Regal Cinema (Block D, inner circle) is a 1932 Art Deco cinema that closed in 2017 after nearly 85 years of operation. The building still stands and occasional events use the space; check current status if you're interested in Delhi's architectural heritage.