Top 10 Restaurants in Delhi

Consistently ranked among Asia's 50 Best Restaurants, Indian Accent under chef Manish Mehrotra is the pinnacle of modern Indian cuisine. The tasting menus reimagine subcontinental classics with global techniques — duck khurchan paired with morel mushroom naan, meetha achaar foie gras, blue cheese naan with sun-dried tomato chutney. Every plate tells a story about Indian food's extraordinary range and adaptability. Reservations are essential weeks in advance, and every meal here feels like a landmark event.

Open since 1977, Bukhara at ITC Maurya is arguably the most famous restaurant in India. The menu is deliberately short — dal Bukhara, sikandari raan, murgh malai kebab, and the legendary tandoori items — but everything is executed with absolute precision. The dal Bukhara simmers for 18 hours on a slow fire, and the result is a dish of extraordinary depth. US presidents, world leaders, and Bollywood royalty have all eaten at this long wooden table. There are no tablecloths, no forks — just a bib and an experience that has not changed in 40 years.

Founded in 1913 by Haji Karimuddin, whose ancestors cooked for the Mughal court, Karim's is the most historically significant restaurant in Delhi. The narrow lane near Jama Masjid fills with the smoke of tandoors and the aroma of mutton korma from early morning. The mutton burra kebab, the nihari, and the seekh kebabs have been made the same way for over a century. There is no décor to speak of, no Instagram lighting — just food that carries the memory of an empire. Every Delhiite has a Karim's story.

Dum Pukht — the art of slow cooking in sealed vessels — is one of India's most aristocratic culinary traditions, and this restaurant at ITC Maurya is its finest ambassador. The food is inspired by the royal kitchens of Awadh, and signature dishes like the gosht dum biryani, the kakori kebabs, and the murgh musallam arrive sealed with a dough crust that is broken tableside. The opulent décor recalls the grandeur of the Nawabs of Lucknow. This is Mughal cuisine as theatre.

Moti Mahal is the birthplace of butter chicken and dal makhani — two dishes that have arguably done more than any other to make Indian food beloved worldwide. Kundan Lal Gujral opened the original restaurant in Peshawar before Partition, then re-established it in Delhi's Daryaganj after 1947. His son Monish Gujral has preserved the legacy with remarkable fidelity. The tandoori chicken here is still cooked in the clay ovens that gave the technique its name, and the butter chicken sauce is everything the global imitations try and fail to replicate.

The South Indian food revolution in Delhi is largely attributable to Saravana Bhavan, the Chennai-born chain that showed North Delhi what a proper masala dosa, idli sambar, and filter coffee could taste like. The Connaught Place branch is perpetually packed with South Indian expats craving a taste of home and North Indians discovering the wonders of Tamil cuisine. The thali is a complete meal — sambar, rasam, multiple chutneys, rice, and a payasam. The prices are jaw-droppingly reasonable for the quality delivered.

Named after the iconic Parsi soda bottle opener, this restaurant celebrates the vanishing cuisine of Mumbai's Irani cafés and the Parsi community's unique culinary heritage. Set in the premium Khan Market neighbourhood, it serves dhansak, akuri, berry pulao, and the famous bun maska with Irani chai in an atmosphere that evokes a 1950s Bombay café. The food is comforting, generous, and unlike anything else in Delhi. Chef Rahul Dua's cooking has introduced a generation of Delhi food lovers to the Zoroastrian culinary tradition.

This narrow lane in the heart of Chandni Chowk has been frying paranthas since the 1870s and is one of Delhi's most beloved food streets with a permanent address. The shops here — Pandit Gaya Prasad Shiv Charan being the most famous — stuff their paranthas with everything from rabri and dry fruits to the humble aloo and gobhi. The cooking is done in pure ghee on massive iron tavas, and each parantha arrives with a mountain of chutneys, pickles, and aloo sabzi. This is Delhi's breakfast soul on a plate.

Pandara Road is Delhi's most famous restaurant row, and Gulati — open since 1959 — is its most celebrated occupant. The dal makhani, the butter chicken, and the mutton rogan josh here have fed generations of politicians, bureaucrats, and diplomats from the nearby Lutyens bungalow zone. The service is old-school efficient, the portions are generous, and the tandoori breads arrive puffed and blistered from the clay oven. Gulati represents the definitive North Indian restaurant experience — unpretentious, consistent, and deeply satisfying.

Designed by Rohit Bal, one of India's finest fashion designers, Veda is as much about the experience of dining as the food itself. The interior is all crimson lacquer, jaali screens, and candlelight — a heightened version of Mughal luxury. The food is North Indian haute cuisine with a modern sensibility: the murg makhani is silkier than anywhere else in the city, and the slow-cooked lamb preparations show real craft. Located steps from Connaught Place's famous inner circle, Veda is the choice for when you want to impress a guest with Delhi's capacity for glamour.