The Condé Nast Traveller x District Top Restaurant Awards 2025 have been revealed at a full of life, excessive spirited ceremony on the JW Marriott Mumbai Sahar, the place India’s greatest eating places, and the folks behind them, have been celebrated in type. The rating of the highest 50 eating places in India has turn out to be a definitive barometer of the nation’s eating scene, monitoring how cooks, bartenders, and restauranteurs are shaping the best way India eats and drinks immediately.
Once once more, Mumbai dominates the listing, with 13 eating places among the many high 50. Delhi and Bengaluru comply with shut behind, tied at 9 entries every, whereas Goa holds its floor with eight. Chennai and its surrounds contribute 5, Kolkata provides three, and the remaining three spotlight how Jaipur, Kasauli, and Shillong are discovering their place on India’s eating map. Together, the unfold reinforces how India’s eating map continues to be anchored in its largest cities, but additionally exhibits how new culinary facilities are steadily rising outdoors them.
Where are the very best eating places in India situated?
Mumbai: 13
Bengaluru: 9
Delhi NCR: 9
Goa: 8
Chennai and round: 5
Kolkata: 3
Other: 3 (Kasauli, Jaipur, Shillong)
Condé Nast Traveller curates an intensive shortlist of 1000+ eating places from throughout the nation. Restaurants could nominate themselves to the listing by filling out a type. 100 jury members, comprising India’s foremost tastemakers, endure two phases of voting to provide you with the 50 greatest eating places in the nation.
Who decides the rankings?
A 100 member jury privately voted for India’s greatest eating places by a rigorous, two-phase course of, with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP as the method advisors. Jurors are screened for conflicts of curiosity, and regional variety is constructed into the jury to guarantee a balanced nationwide view. Jurors embrace meals critics, writers, cooks, style designers, artists, curators, and others who know and love their meals.
The greatest eating places in India, as revealed on the Top Restaurant Awards 2025
1. The Table, Mumbai
What makes a restaurant primary? Sometimes it’s the theater of invention, a dish that startles with its creativeness. But typically, it’s the main points that hum in the background: the butter served at simply the proper temperature, the cutlery aligned to the inch, your glass refilled earlier than you suppose to ask. And possibly it’s the folks—the diners who fill the room. At The Table, everybody has a seat. On any given night time right here, you’ll see households gathered on the group desk, {couples} on dates, businessmen perched on the bar, Bollywood stars tucked into corners, and Colaba regulars who know the employees by title. The room buzzes with the identical vitality whether or not it is a weekend weeknight, and no person seems prefer it’s their first go to. That, maybe, is the actual mark of a primary restaurant: you merely can not have a nasty time right here. Since 2011, The Table has been each a landmark and lounge for Mumbai. In 2023, chef Will Aghajanian steered its boldest reset but. Today, head chef Louis Gomes, who began right here as a line cook dinner and has stayed for over 15 years, anchors the kitchen with intuition and self-discipline, balancing classics with dishes that seize the season’s fleeting bounty. The Table belongs to superb eating’s pantheon, however with out the strain. You can have fun a milestone right here, or simply slide right into a cocktail and a plate of their cult-favorite rooster wings. The meals persuades with confidence, that includes acquainted flavors executed with precision, but additionally dishes that push diners simply out of their consolation zone. The SoBo Salad is virtually an establishment, as is the smoked goose-fat pâté. The lamb mind and morel vol-au-vent is decadent but playful, the lamb ribs emerge from the grill with pinpoint exactness, glossed in vadouvan honey and rosemary butter, and their hand-rolled pasta, from delicate candy pea tortellini to hearty lamb ragù pappardelle, present that craftsmanship by no means goes out of favor. Even the snacks carry character, whether or not it’s crumpets Kejriwal spiked with salted egg yolk or chestnut “faux gras” layered with pear butter. And then there’s the Chef’s Choice Menu, a leap of religion that arms the night time over to the kitchen.
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2. Masque, Mumbai
On each world stage the place Indian eating places are measured, Masque is a reputation that comes up repeatedly. It has turn out to be the nation’s most seen standard-bearer for contemporary Indian superb eating, thanks to its fixed worldwide collaborations, its daring sourcing journeys, and menus that refuse to stand nonetheless. A Relais & Châteaux member, it sits inside a transformed Shakti Mills warehouse, the place the room feels half theater, half temple, its dramatic quantity framing the expertise to come. The Masque experience unfolds as a ten-course tasting that may transfer from Manipuri black rice dumplings with hearth ants to barramundi with prickly pear, and closes with sheermal wrapped round lamb kebab floss. Foraged ferns from Himachal, apricots from Ladakh, sea herbs from Goa, every course is formed by pilgrimages throughout India, and generally by childhood reminiscences slipped in for shock. Guests step into the kitchen mid-meal for a counter course, earlier than returning to wines that shift between the traditional and the surprising. At the helm are chef Varun Totlani, who joined as a commis and rose to head chef in 2022, and founder Aditi Dugar, one of many few ladies steering a marquee Indian restaurant. Together, they’ve made Masque a touchstone, a restaurant that alerts how India desires to be seen on the world’s desk. Nearly a decade in, Masque nonetheless feels just like the restaurant setting the agenda for the place Indian superb eating goes subsequent.
3. Papa’s, Mumbai
You don’t guide a seat at Papa’s—you win it, like a golden ticket. Twelve seats, gone in below a minute each month, and for good cause. Getting there appears like stumbling on a secret attic rave disguised as dinner. Squeeze by a Bandra alley, climb a slim staircase above a sandwich store, duck your head so that you don’t slam it on the low ceiling, and you will get the sensation that you just’re not on Waroda Road anymore. Chef Hussain Shahzad is behind the counter, plating Nihari pies, throwing char siu pork into modaks, blasting a playlist that jumps from Abba to Kanye, and pouring negroni photographs into teacups like your mischievous older cousin who has usurped the home celebration. It’s known as Papa’s in honor of the late legendary chef Floyd Cardoz, however what Hussain has constructed is his personal playground. Nothing about it performs by the standard fine-dining guidelines. The twelve-course menu isn’t some solemn march by treasured plates. Instead, it’s Hussain riffing, pranking, and flexing years of massive chops from Eleven Madison Park and The Bombay Canteen. One course is likely to be a Kashmiri Wellington lined with morel muslin, or the well-known Bugs Bunny dish, ants included. And whereas the meals is outrageous and dazzling, the vibe is pure structured chaos-by-design: tables with in-built fidget spinners, joke books, magnetic loops to fiddle with in between programs—they even wheel a gola machine out so you possibly can crank your individual ice. Pro tip: ask in regards to the cutlery holders that change with every course. General supervisor Madhusudhan Kashyap retains the vitality tight, taking part in half sommelier, half ringmaster, generally pulling card methods mid-service. Behind the bar, Harish Subramanian stirs cocktails that style like pizza, tom yum, or the ocean, drinks as off-kilter and intelligent because the meals. By dessert, which can or will not be a honey-noodle sundae with champagne foam and potato chips, you’ll be satisfied that there’s no place like chef Hussain’s second residence.
4. The Bombay Canteen, Mumbai
Here’s what occurs if you sit down at The Bombay Canteen: the room greets you earlier than the employees does. Music spills out, the type that makes you faucet your foot earlier than you’ve opened your menu. A server is instantly by your aspect introducing themselves, heat however razor-sharp, pointing you in direction of what to order earlier than you even know what you’re in the temper for. You go searching and notice that everybody on the ground is doing this in sync, a part of a choreographed dance you’ll by no means discover except you’re watching carefully. The meals carries the identical spirit. Chef Gaurav Yadav leads the kitchen now, carrying ahead a decade of Canteen DNA with menus that shift between India’s regional cuisines, and shapeshift with the seasons. The dishes you’ve heard whispers of are all right here: eggs Kejriwal, ghee roast rooster seekh, that seabass sev puri, and the triumphant return of the gulab nut, a sugar-soaked doughnut full of pistachio cream that’s as a lot legend as dessert. And then come the curveballs: grilled octopus lounging in a tangy, velvety mor kuzhambu, a Kejriwal croissant that flips the city’s favorite club snack 180 levels, rooster jhol momos swimming in a broth laced with charred ginger, mustard greens, and chili oil. The cocktails deserve their very own chapter. Every version of the Canteen Cocktail Book is a love letter to Mumbai: a tequila drink that nods to the bustle of Matunga, a floral quantity that channels the chaos of Dadar’s flower stalls, a pointy pour that feels unmistakably Colaba. Five books in, the bar crew continues to be mapping town one drink at a time. That’s the trick of The Bombay Canteen. Ten years on, it’s nonetheless packed night time after night time, not as a result of it’s clinging to nostalgia however as a result of it is aware of how to flip a meal right into a reminiscence with meals that makes you grin, drinks that root you to town, and repair that leaves you questioning how they anticipated your subsequent transfer earlier than you probably did.
5. NAAR, Kasauli
To expertise NAAR in its most elemental type, one ought to go to in the throes of winter. The expertise begins in the chilly, skinny air of Darwa village, a number of miles previous Kasauli. In the near-freezing temperatures, a buggy carries you up a winding cobblestone path, previous a flickering bonfire and a viewpoint of Shimla’s lights glimmering in the gap and peaks rising from the mist. The mountain canine Imli is often the primary to greet you, tail thudding towards the stone steps, earlier than you step into the nice and cozy glow of the salon, jazz buzzing quietly as a steaming broth is pressed into your arms. Inside the eating room, half swallowed by an open kitchen, ‘naar’, which means hearth in Kashmiri, units the tempo. Ducks and trout skins sway gently over a hearth, which emits each mild and warmth as chef Prateek Sadhu and chef Kamlesh Negi plate dishes that map the Himalayas’ seasons and landscapes, from the dry river beds of Ladakh to the hilly forests of Nagaland. One night, you is likely to be served a cured trout with smoky eggplant and uncooked mango and cactus broth; one other, fiddlehead ferns tucked into patande pancakes; one other nonetheless, hisalu berries, timru peppercorns, or sun-dried forest herbs. Opened by chef Prateek Sadhu in 2023, the 16-seat restaurant is essentially the most daring leap but from one of many nation’s most acclaimed cooks. Every plate carries the ethos of a area that has all the time cooked with resilience and persistence. NAAR turned the thought of vacation spot eating in India from pipe dream to pilgrimage. In his ‘Chef of the Year’ acceptance speech ultimately yr’s Condé Nast Traveller’s Top Restaurant Awards, Sadhu known as it “jumping without a parachute.” The touchdown, it appears, has been flawless.
6. Sienna Store & Café, Kolkata
What started in 2010 as a Shantiniketan pottery retailer has grown into one in all Kolkata’s most compelling cultural initiatives. At its coronary heart, Sienna Store & Café has all the time been about Bengal’s maati (land) and manush (folks). The café-restaurant’s menus are rooted in town’s markets and kitchens, reimagining acquainted flavors with wit and care. A bhetki à la Kiev nods to Park Street classics, however is recast with radhuni butter and recent fish from the bazaar. Jhol momos deliver collectively malai chingri richness and crisp dumpling lace. A plate of choto maach bhaja arrives with a mach’er deem aioli that feels each nostalgic and new. These are dishes that talk Kolkata fluently whereas slipping into playful disguises. In 2023, Sienna earned nationwide consideration when it debuted at #5 on the Condé Nast Traveller listing of high 50 eating places, and its ambition has solely grown since. Sienna’s newest chapter is Rannaghor, a chef’s table upstairs the place cooks Avinandan Kundu and Koyel Roy Nandy push the thought additional with elaborate tasting menus. But whether or not on the café or the chef’s desk, the venture stays true to its ethos: celebrating Bengal’s on a regular basis flavors and makers, whereas giving town, and the nation, a recent manner of seeing them.
7. Indian Accent, The Lodhi, New Delhi
In the 15 years because it opened, Indian Accent has come to be an establishment, one which reinvented how India tastes its personal delicacies. Before it arrived in 2009, eating out at an “Indian restaurant” often meant coma-inducing butter rooster, biryani, and the Mughlai staples that got here to stand, inaccurately, for the whole lot of Indian meals. Chef Manish Mehrotra broke that mould with dishes that rebelled, startled, and delighted in equal measure, with a naan full of blue cheese, an audacious transfer that turned an emblem of contemporary Indian eating, pork ribs glazed with meetha achaar, and daulat ki chaat reworked into one thing impossibly mild but acquainted. Over the years, Indian Accent has thrived regardless of a change of tackle (from The Manor to The Lodhi) and management, from chef Manish Mehrotra to chef Shantanu Mehrotra (no relation), who has been with Indian Accent since day one. His management ensures continuity whereas additionally signaling a brand new chapter. Recent tasting menus have been assured but stunning: arbi bitterballen with caper-kasundi chutney, braised lamb shank with Punjabi kadhi, and the enduring kala khatta sorbet served in a miniature strain cooker. The restaurant’s à la carte menu provides consolation, however it’s the tasting menu that greatest exhibits how Indian Accent continues to evolve. It has repeatedly claimed the highest spot on this listing, together with in 2017, 2019, and 2023. Today it continues to craft its legacy, one course at a time.
8. Avartana, ITC Grand Chola Chennai
Picture this: your overzealous foodie pal drags you to a tasting menu at ITC Grand Chola, Chennai. You’re a skeptic, somebody who’d relatively stick to no-fuss fare than sit by a parade of programs that appear to be science experiments. The first dish arrives, some Heston-esque concoction you aren’t fairly positive how to eat. You roll your eyes, take a chew, and instantly you’re in your grandmother’s kitchen, experiencing the precise tang, consolation, and heat of the curd rice she used to make. That’s the magic of Avartana. It turns skeptics to believers by replicating that Ratatouille second. Since opening in 2017, the restaurant has turned South Indian meals right into a tasting menu expertise with out stripping it of soul. Its title, Sanskrit for rhythm and repetition, shapes the construction of its seven, 9, eleven, and thirteen-course menus; respectively named Maya, Bela, Jiaa, Anika, and Tara. Each plate is a distillation: bottle gourd spirals with plum chutney and rice crisps, parotta compressed right into a single chew with coconut rooster and butter toffee, fennel panna cotta with a yolk of mango-ginger coulis. The theatrics are sharp and deliberate, however by no means gimmicky, and the double-distilled rasam soup will make diners want they might bottle it up and take it residence. This wizardry is what landed Avartana the #1 rank on the Top Restaurant Awards in 2024. The restaurant’s brilliance lies in its sleight of hand: reimagining custom with out betraying it. That’s why Avartana isn’t simply one other progressive eating room. It’s theater with logic, wizardry with roots, and some of the exhilarating methods to style South India immediately.
9. NĀVU, Bengaluru
On a quiet aspect road in Domlur, a yellow awning alerts NĀVU, a small, chef-driven restaurant that feels extra like a neighborhood secret than a fine-dining spot. Inside, the area appears like an residence ceremonial dinner mixed with a restaurant: small, heat, minimalist, the form of room the place strangers lean in over plates and go away as mates. That intimacy is the canvas for cooks Pallavi Mithika Menon and Kanishka Sharma, whose menus are brief, seasonal, and instinctive. The decor is minimalist, nearly homey, however the meals has made it one in all India’s most whispered-about flexes. A platter of oysters on ice greets you on their Instagram web page, an early clue that components cleared the path. Pallavi and Kanishka have mastered the classics so nicely they know precisely how to subvert them, pairing flavors that shouldn’t make sense, but one way or the other do. A rooster liver pâté, served donburi-style over miso butter rice and lap cheong, shouldn’t work, nevertheless it sings. Recent menus have performed with concepts like mustard ice cream with pickled cherry tomatoes, beef tartare with sunchoke purée and anchovy–caper French dressing, and confit parsnips served 3 ways, however the dish that has endured each iteration is the cauliflower crème brûlée, way more scrumptious than its title suggests. The vitality is unfussy, the plating stunning however nonetheless appetizing, and the meals each indulgent and deeply considerate. For Bengaluru’s diners, NĀVU has turn out to be shorthand for what chef-led eating in India might be: assured, inventive, and funky with out making an attempt too onerous.
10. FarmLore, Bengaluru
The street out of Bengaluru ends in 37 acres of mango and coconut groves, and on the fringe of all of it sits FarmLore. Just 18 seats, a eating room lit by the gradual glow of wooden stoves named Kannagi and Anjaneya, fed with mango wooden lower from the property itself. There’s additionally Omnisense, a personal eating room linked to the R&D kitchen, the place the crew pushes experiments even additional. Step outdoors and also you’re on the farm that writes the menu; step inside and also you’re in a kitchen-laboratory the place chef Johnson Ebenezer and his crew bend that produce into one thing extraordinary. The tasting menu unfolds like a seasonal hymn. “Agni & Ghrta” layers charred lettuce with smoked ghee and pickled legumes; “Amirtha” is all Kodai berikai and kokum tea, softened with jaggery; “Kr̥ṣi Kuri • Kollu” is lamb cooked for 18 hours, anchored by horsegram. Then there are the jolts of daring: “Chigli,” made with FarmLore’s personal hearth ants, paired with whey sorbet and saw-tooth coriander, or “Singi,” a Rameshwaram lobster glazed with saffron and kalpasi. It’s meals that may really feel cerebral, even otherworldly, however the flavors all the time circle again to the land beneath your toes.
11. Bomras, Goa
Anjuna has no scarcity of eating places constructed to please passing vacationers, however for 16 years Bomras has been the one folks come again to, season after season. Chef-owner Bawmra Jap, a Kachin from Myanmar, constructed his popularity by bowls of tea leaf salad that crunch and zing, tiger prawn ceviche sharpened with native lime, curries layered with complexity, and a smoked pork fried rice that regulars refuse to share. The meals feels recent and light-weight, but carries the form of depth that retains you fascinated by it lengthy after the plates are cleared. The restaurant briefly shut through the pandemic, solely to return in 2020 at a brand new residence in Anjuna, full with a small herb backyard feeding the kitchen. The transfer hasn’t dented its spirit: Bomras continues to be filled with loyalists, vacationers, and most just lately Ed Sheeran. The tender coconut panna cotta, impossibly wobbly and brightened with ardour fruit, stays one in all Goa’s most beloved sweets. Year after yr, Bomras stays on this listing not due to novelty, however due to its uncommon stability: a restaurant that honors its roots, adapts with time, and nonetheless feels as recent because the day it opened.
12. Izumi Bandra, Mumbai
Before Japanese eating turned a full-blown wave in Mumbai, Izumi was the ripple that began it. When chef and co-owner Nooresha Kably, now an official Goodwill Ambassador for Japanese delicacies in India, opened her Bandra restaurant in 2018, the temper for Japanese eating in Mumbai modified. The restaurant made sushi and ramen rather less ceremonial and slightly extra accessible, simple, and immediately at residence in town. Seven years later, as Japanese eating places multiply across Mumbai, Izumi continues to be the reference level. The OG. The 54-seater packs in regulars night time after night time, drawn as a lot by the heat of its wood-and-concrete room as by signature dishes which have turn out to be metropolis lore: hamachi truffle ponzu with wasabi jelly, a sashimi salad brilliant sufficient to lower by any Bandra night, and bowls of ramen that diners in town swear by. But Izumi doesn’t coast. This yr’s menu introduces open rolls that permit single components shine in their purest type, a calming miso-sesame ramen with smoked mackerel that feels designed for Mumbai summers, and a kaisen don that channels the restraint of Hokkaido’s fishing cities: seafood and rice, nothing extra, nothing much less. The zensai platter, in the meantime, shifts with the seasons, a lineup of small plates with issues like akami and king crab one week, tamago and edamame the following. In a metropolis the place eating places come and go at an alarming pace, Izumi endures, not as a result of it shouts the loudest, however as a result of it listens to its components, and to the diners who’ve made it a fixture in Mumbai’s eating creativeness.
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13. Bandra Born, Mumbai
The cooking at Bandra Born is as cheeky and layered because the suburb it attracts its title from. Beets are handled like steak, prawns are set in a silky bottle masala custard, and an East Indian crab curry comes with croissant pav. These plates nod to Bandra’s previous whereas swaggering into the current, below the regular hand of chef Manoj Shetty, who retains the kitchen buzzing whereas OG Bandra Boy Gresham Fernandes holds the broader imaginative and prescient. Fernandes additionally moonlights as a DJ, and on nights when the vitality crests, he’s been recognized to step behind the console and spin a set. The drinks are simply as audacious: sugarcane-ginger cocktails that style like Bandra station in monsoon, guava-spiked tequila numbers that channel Bazaar Road. And the room itself, grungy, loud, appears like a neighbourhood celebration you have been fortunate sufficient to stumble into. During your meal at Bandra Born, you’ll clock the graffiti, the cheeky slogans, and the church-board menu hanging on the wall. But the actual story of this restaurant isn’t what’s on show, however what occurs in the background. In the women’ room, an indication tells ladies that in the event that they ever really feel unsafe, they’ll order a “special drink” on the bar and the employees will care for them. That small element says every thing about what Fernandes has constructed right here: a restaurant that appears wild however takes care of you in methods you don’t even notice, very similar to the suburb it celebrates.
14. O Pedro, Mumbai
At O Pedro in the Bandra Kurla Complex, the temper shifts the second you stroll in. Suddenly the glass-and-steel vitality of Mumbai’s enterprise district melts into one thing brighter, as if you happen to’ve wandered right into a Goan lounge that simply occurs to have a superb bar. The air smells faintly of toddy, the partitions hum with colour, and the employees greet you with the form of aunty-level heat that makes you imagine they’ve been ready for you all day. Someone’s already stacking poees in your desk, and earlier than you already know it, you’re tearing into one with a smear of choriz butter whereas debating whether or not to order the Kokum Picante or the Vasco Sour first. The meals carries the identical generosity. Choriz chilli tacos in crisp rice bhakris, soft-shell crab kismur that tastes like the ocean and the solar, pastéis de nata which can be flaky, custardy, and gone earlier than you realise it. What retains O Pedro alive, although, is its urge for food for dialog: visitor shifts from Goa’s beloved kitchens like Hosa and Grumps deliver new voices to the programming, making the restaurant as a lot a platform for the state’s meals tradition as it’s a celebration of it.
sachin soni
15. Grumps, Goa
At the tip of a winding path in Sangolda that appears at first to lead nowhere, you may discover Grumps, a hang-out that has shortly turn out to be Goa’s impossible neighborhood establishment, based by Kartik Vasudeva (previously of The Bombay Canteen) and his associate Agrini Satyarthi. Inside, the vitality is quick however not overwhelming. The bar hums, orders fly, but your drink lands in minutes and meals even quicker. Here, employees bear in mind faces, chat throughout the counter, and make area for solo walk-ins as readily as for teams. It’s a part of why Grumps has turn out to be that uncommon factor in Goa: a neighborhood bar the place you possibly can present up alone and really feel such as you belong. The menu is compact however intentional, starting from beef croquettes with star anise jus, to Sichuan fried rooster buzzing with burnt garlic, to lamb krapow kebabs, caramelized excellent. Even the vegetarian plates carry heft, just like the smoky three-mushroom medley brightened with chimichurri and egg yolk. Cocktails comply with the identical logic: flavor-forward, balanced, by no means showy. A whiskey drink layered with candy bun syrup and oloroso sherry, one other mixing scotch with brunost for a wine-and-cheese-in-a-glass second. What units Grumps aside is how intentionally unforced it feels. The lighting is heat however by no means dim, music current however by no means overbearing, the temper unpretentious but charged. And when the invoice arrives, it comes with a small booklet of the crew’s favourite spots throughout Goa. No agenda, only a pleasant hand pointing you to extra good locations. In a state the place hype often guidelines, Grumps has constructed its following the outdated manner: phrase of mouth, and the form of expertise folks need to share.
16. The Johri, Jaipur
Push previous the jewelers and gemstone merchants of Jaipur’s Johri Bazaar, step by the carved wood door of a Nineteenth-century haveli washed in pinks, with latticed home windows and painted by hand cranes retaining watch. It’s such as you’ve wandered onto a Wes Anderson set that obtained the royal Rajasthani remedy. But past the arresting aesthetic, The Johri takes the ingenuity of Rajasthan’s kitchens by taking recipes born of arid battle fields, brief harvests, and age-old preservation, and spinning them right into a seasonal vegetarian menu that feels each elegant and rooted. Chef Sonu Kumar, working off frameworks by chef Vikram Arora, brings these traditions to the fashionable diner with out diluting them. Paan-patta chaat snaps with warmth and sweetness, a truffle aloo tikki arrives below a parmesan “papad,” and the butter-rich dal Johri shortly explains why it’s a signature. Tandoor-roasted soya chaap and sev-tamatar with home sev sit beside seasonal highlights like jamun sorbet dusted with rock salt or a gold-leafed mirchi ka halwa that even Jains can take pleasure in. The Johri doubles because the eating room for a five-suite resort, so the tempo is unhurried, the service assured, and the room as welcoming to a solo diner as it’s to a boisterous household. And whereas it has a deep sense of place, it’s no native secret: in 2024, it hosted Handshake Speakeasy, then the world’s primary bar, for a one-night takeover that confirmed its place on the worldwide stage. A restaurant born of Rajasthan’s resourceful culinary traditions, set in a haveli that also hums with historical past, The Johri is as enduring because the bazaar outdoors.
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17. Americano, Mumbai
By 9 p.m., Americano hums like a sold-out live performance. Every desk is taken, cocktails preserve flying out, and on the go in useless centre stands chef Alexander Lee Sanchez, watching the ground, slicing pies, and adjusting plates, like a silent conductor ensuring the orchestra by no means misses a beat. That vigilance explains why Lee Sanchez’s restaurant, opened in 2019 with associate Mallyeka Watsa, has turn out to be one in all Mumbai’s hardest-to-get tables and one in all India’s most constant eating places. The cooking is modern Italian, stripped of gimmickry however obsessive about components. Here, flour and tomatoes are trialed till the right match is discovered, olive oil is sourced with the scrutiny of a collector, and each dish is examined till it sings. The obsession right here is pizza: dough perfected over years, tomatoes sourced after infinite searches, toppings balanced with the precision of somebody who sees the world in mise en place. The result’s arguably the very best slice in town, crisp-edged but pliant, with simply sufficient char to make you chase the following chew. But Americano is not any one-hit surprise. The roast rooster—juicy, burnished, completely easy—is likely to be essentially the most underrated dish on the menu, and the tiramisu has its personal fanbase: scooped recent on the desk, hiding a sly layer of tempered chocolate. Don’t sleep on the cocktails both. They’re as exacting because the meals, designed to be sipped all night time with out shedding their edge. That stability, precision with out pretension, buzz with out chaos, is why Americano sells out night time after night time. You come for the pizza and tiramisu, and also you keep as a result of Lee Sanchez has made positive each element is immaculate.
18. LUPA, Bengaluru
On MG Road, the place Bengaluru’s site visitors roars, LUPA drowns all of it out by creating an oasis that makes you’re feeling as if you happen to’re in an Italian villa: marble fountains bubble, terracotta tiles glow, and the brass bar catches the sunshine like one in a Milanese bistro. This is chef Manu Chandra’s grand, post-pandemic return of 2023, and he didn’t come again small. LUPA sprawls throughout 11,000 sq. toes, with a salumeria, gelato lab, and wine cellar tucked 12 toes underground, however its scale by no means feels gratuitous. The meals has Chandra’s signature mixture of rigor and generosity. Parma ham and mortadella arrive with heat tigelle buns; a steak tartare is ready in a tableside efficiency; oxtail ravioli breaks open to reveal yolk and bone marrow broth. At the guts of the eating room is a Cattabriga gelato machine, steadily churning recent batches that arrive on the desk silken and chilly. To improve the Tuscan environment, negronis, balanced and bracing, circulate in abundance, whereas the courtyard fountains drown out the metro overhead. LUPA is an intentional stage for Chandra’s maximalism, and his rebel towards what he calls the “stupidification of food.” The result’s a restaurant the place event eating feels alive once more.
19. Praça Prazeres, Goa
In the guts of Panjim’s Fontainhas quarter, Praça Prazeres sits in a restored heritage residence that feels equal elements European bistro and Goan lounge. Chef Ralph Prazeres and Stacy Gracias, the couple behind Padaria Prazeres and its cult Portuguese egg tarts, constructed this area to be heat and alluring, a spot the place European classics arrive with out fuss, however with each element excellent. The menu displays Ralph’s years in kitchens from London to Copenhagen: golden Scotch eggs with smooth facilities, pork stomach crisped and paired with apple sauce, fish pan-roasted and glossed with beurre blanc, crème brûlée with the right crack of sugar. A dwell kitchen on the bottom flooring retains issues intimate; climb upstairs and also you’ll discover the attic bar, a comfortable perch the place cocktails share area with an in-house limoncello, poured generously alongside a charcuterie board. What makes Praça Prazeres endure, although, isn’t simply the meals, it’s the sense of care woven by the expertise. The furnishings has been pulled from Ralph’s grandfather’s residence, every bit carrying its personal patina of household historical past. Service is heat, unhurried, attentive with out pretense. One final element: if you happen to occur to go to the washroom, scan the QR code. It’s a tiny Easter egg that claims every thing in regards to the playful, private spirit behind the restaurant.
Gokul Prasanth
20. Bar Spirit Forward, Bengaluru
On Lavelle Road, the place most eating places double as breweries, Bar Spirit Forward retains issues sharp, low-lit, and constructed for grown-ups. Think chrome bar, smoky glass, leather-based seats, primarily extra cocktail theater than beer corridor. Conceptualized by Arijit Bose (the identical thoughts behind Goa’s now-shuttered Tesouro, as soon as topped India’s greatest bar), that is the form of spot the place the bartenders spiral citrus into glassware like its choreography and might pull from a shadow listing of sixty classics with out blinking. The menu dares you into decisions like Milk & Cookies (Irish whiskey, cookie milk punch) or Shoot the Gringo (mezcal, Campari, vermouth), however the precision is lethal severe. Even the vesper martini comes pre-diluted, frozen, and poured straight from an icy bottle. Bar bites do their job. There’s Anglo-Indian pork buns, Sichuan fried rooster, and a pecan tart amongst others, however the cocktails are the headliners, each a reminder of why this 60-seater has turn out to be Bengaluru’s most whispered-about flex.
21. Naru Noodle Bar, Bengaluru
Most evenings in Shanti Nagar, you’ll spot the telltale signal of Naru’s reputation: a line of diners ready their flip for a bowl of ramen. That’s the pull of Naru, chef Kavan Kuttappa’s 20-seater noodle bar turned cult obsession. It started with DIY ramen kits in lockdown, graduated to pop-ups, and at last landed right here: a tiny wood-and-glass room inside The Courtyard, marble counter veined with bronze, shibori-wrapped stools, and Kuttappa himself, tatted, grinning, ladling broth behind the steam. The unstated guidelines are easy: eat your ramen shortly and with gusto, slurp loudly, and don’t be shy about tipping the bowl to drink the final drops. Every element has been fussed over, from the bent-spout sake pitchers made by native pottery studios to the hefty ramen bowls examined for weeks till they felt excellent. The menu has six ramens, a number of sides, some sake, and that’s all it wants. A shoyu ramen arrives aromatic with soy, menma, and chashu pork; a tori paitan broth is creamy and wealthy with out tipping into heaviness; the Goan chorizo tantanmen throws in a cheeky native kick. There’s additionally room for the unorthodox: a naati tori paitan constructed on rooster curry, or vegan-friendly bowls that maintain their very own alongside the classics. Sides like karaage with yuzu dip and pork gyoza with lacy wings vanish as shortly as they land. Reservations disappear in seconds (quickest fingers first at 11am on Mondays). There aren’t any walk-ins, and there’s no different manner to snag a seat, however if you happen to handle to, you’ll see why the hype hasn’t dipped since day one. Naru doesn’t strive to be greater than it’s: simply ramen, made with obsession, served with coronary heart, and gone in seven wonderful minutes.
22. Cavatina by Avinash Martins, Goa
Benaulim’s Cavatina is the form of restaurant the place Goa speaks in a number of registers; chiles, coconut, vinegar, cashew, all reshaped into plates that really feel new with out letting go of what makes them acquainted. Chef Avinash Martins cooks from reminiscence as a lot as from coaching. His grandmother’s negotiations with fish distributors, toddy, a fermented palm sap, used to leaven bread, childhood afternoons ready on the jetty for crabs. Those particulars resurface on the plate, introduced with polish however by no means shedding their soul. The menu modifications with the season: valchi bhaji paired with mushrooms and morels, tongue in temperado masala brightened as tartare, serradura reborn as a tart. Ingredients are by no means nameless. Here, bamboo mats are woven by native artisans, masalas are floor by hand, bread arrives from a village baker. Martins insists on this as a result of for him, Cavatina’s intention is to preserve Goa’s small economies and traditions alive. Plenty of celebrities have eaten right here, from cricketers to movie stars, however the actual star is Goa itself, its folks, its produce, its cussed, beneficiant spirit.
23. Kopitiam Lah, Bengaluru
In Indiranagar, breakfast now begins the Malaysian manner. Kopitiam Lah, from pastry artist Joonie Tan (of Lavonne) and chef David D’Souza, recreates the kopitiam: the neighborhood espresso store that anchors each day life in Malaysia. Kopitiam Lah is constructed on ritual. Sweet kopi pulled thick with condensed milk, teh frothed with evaporated milk, half-boiled eggs cracked right into a saucer with soy and white pepper, kaya toast stacked with salted butter and coconut jam. Plates of nasi lemak perfumed with pandan rice, bowls of laksa steaming sizzling sufficient to push back jet lag, that is how mornings start throughout Malaysia, and now, in Bengaluru. The flavors are disarmingly acquainted. Otak-otak, a spiced fish custard steamed in banana leaf, appears like patrani macchi’s cousin. Mama’s curry with roti canai may go for a parotta-and-kurma in southern India. Then there are jolts of newness: rendang beside nasi lemak, steamed lettuce in oyster sauce, carrot milk as candy and soothing as gajar ka kheer. Much of that is doable thanks to components flown in, like belacan and gula melaka, that give the meals its unapologetically Malaysian soul. The room hums like a real kopitiam too: tiled flooring, rooster motifs, hibiscus prints, cane chairs, flea-market finds, and a fortunate Maneki Neko cat watching over the kopi bar. By 9am, the excessive stools are full, kopi is being brewed to order, and plates preserve touchdown.
24. INJA, New Delhi
Delhi’s restaurant scene has no scarcity of dangers, however few land as audaciously as INJA. Tucked into The Manor, this Indian-Japanese mash-up by chef Adwait Anantwar has been sparking arguments because it opened. Half town calls it genius, the opposite half isn’t positive what to suppose. Either manner, everybody’s speaking, and the meals explains why. A silken chawanmushi spiked with rasam masala and butter-poached lobster; a tempura shiso leaf standing in as palak patta chaat, loaded with tuna and pomelo; gobi 65, however with as a maki roll with curry leaf crackle. These are dishes that shouldn’t make sense, however do, and spectacularly. Even the cocktails get cheeky: a lychee-gondhoraj martini that drinks like summer time in Kolkata, or a sudachi paloma laced with Naga chile warmth. It helps that Anantwar, who spent three and a half years testing these combos, doesn’t flinch from going all in. Soy sauce? You received’t discover it right here. Gajar ka halwa? It comes stuffed inside a pillowy Japanese steamed bun. This is cooking that dares you to drop your cynicism and simply go alongside for the journey. Whether you adore it or roll your eyes, INJA is undeniably essentially the most polarizing and electrifying restaurant in the capital.
25. Baoshuan, The Oberoi New Delhi
Rooftop eating places in Delhi often lean closely on the view, however at Baoshuan, the actual spectacle is on the plate. Perched above The Oberoi, New Delhi, with the Delhi Golf Club unfurling beneath you, the restaurant attracts its title from the treasure ships that when carried Chinese items throughout the seas. That sense of journey shapes every thing right here. The menu, created by London-based chef Andrew Wong of the two-Michelin-starred A. Wong, reads like a passport by centuries and provinces: Buddhist temple cooking from the Tang dynasty, Suzhou’s lantern-lit tea homes, Shanghai’s jazz age, Hong Kong’s cocktail bars. What lands on the desk is each measured and ingenious: a thousand-layer rooster puff that shatters on the contact, prawn-and-spinach dumplings topped with tobiko, roast duck carved with ritualistic aptitude. Each dish anchors itself in a area, from Sichuan’s peppercorn hearth to Canton’s delicate dim sum craft, however is filtered by Wong’s meticulous trendy lens. The impact is much less greatest-hits Chinese and extra a story that stretches throughout 14 borders, distilled right into a meal.
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26. Comorin, Gurugram
At Comorin, the joys is in realizing that dishes you thought you knew, like pav bhaji, bheja fry, kadhi, don’t simply style higher right here, they style smarter. Chef Dhiraj Dargan nudges custom sideways with out breaking it, slipping bakarwadi into kadhi, crisping gatte like polenta, or plating beetroot raita as a radial of pickled greens. It’s meals that stays grounded in reminiscence whereas feeling completely new. The bar, led by Varun Sharma, has earned its personal cult standing. Clarified cocktails, sous-vide infusions, and house-made vermouths, liqueurs, and bitters imply your Comorin 75 or walnut bitter arrives with the form of stability solely obsessive tinkering delivers. Even the zero-proof choices, like carrot shrub spins on Bloody Marys or khus-and-basil sodas, don’t really feel like compromises. Sleek interiors preserve issues polished however by no means stiff; the restaurant doubles as a retail area for teas, espresso, ceramics, and tableware you’ll need to smuggle residence. It’s this combine of great culinary craft and easygoing attraction that has made Comorin a eating room folks return to, time and again, for a style of India’s classics made just a bit extra good.
27. Aeseo, Chennai
India could also be in the thick of the Hallyu wave, however till just lately, Korean food right here not often went past sweet-chilli dusted chips or fast-food gimmicks. Chennai, although, has lengthy had the actual factor. Ever since Hyundai arrange its plant outdoors town in the ’90s, a tight-knit Korean group has constructed a eating tradition of its personal. Aeseo is a part of that story, serving the classics with uncommon constancy: greens are grown domestically for the kitchen, whereas the meats are flown in straight from Korea. Run completely by a Korean crew, it doesn’t pander or approximate. Every desk is fitted with a charcoal grill, the air is clouded simply sufficient with smoke, and bottles of soju clink between plates of pajeon and bulgogi fried rice. You could as nicely be in a barbecue joint in Gangnam. The meals has no endurance for stereotypes. Beef arrives with marbling that glistens even earlier than it hits the coals. Shrimp pancakes are scallion-studded and plush, bulgogi fried rice layered with sesame depth. And then the barbecue duck—smoky, fatty, unapologetically intense, grilled until the pores and skin crisps and the meat practically drips—makes the journey to Chennai price it by itself. This is Aeseo’s first time showing on this listing, making it the primary Korean restaurant ever to accomplish that.
28. Petisco Kitchen & Bar, Goa
In Portuguese, ‘petisco’ means a snack or slightly chew, however in Panjim it alerts one thing bigger: a spot the place meals, drink, and music tumble into one another till the night time feels complete. Opened in 2020 by cooks Halton DSouza and Pranav Dhuri, Petisco is a three-story gastrobar that wears totally different moods on each flooring. The basement thumps with dwell gigs and karaoke nights, the center stage hums with teams sharing plates over cocktails, and the highest flooring softens into date-night territory the place you possibly can really hear your self speak. DSouza and Dhuri’s menu is stitched collectively from plates which can be easy, flavor-forward, and made to be handed round, like chimichurri rooster with a pointy chew, prawns swimming in garlic and chili oil, a mackerel seared until the pores and skin crisps and paired with tirphal beurre blanc, flatbreads topped with roasted roots, and even an ukde tandul jambalaya that folds Goan crimson rice into Creole consolation. The drinks program matches the meals’s straightforward attraction. Think smoked whisky Penicillins, a feni Manhattan that turns native spirit into a sophisticated cocktail, grapefruit-spiked G&Ts, seasonal sangrias, and the Coco Ambo, with tender coconut and mango, mild and summery, poured lengthy over ice. Petisco is that uncommon Goan spot that manages to be each a neighborhood hang-out and a customer’s discover, as comfy for a romantic dinner as it’s for shouting alongside to the refrain downstairs.
Nilesh Dhakle
29. La Loca Maria, Mumbai
Tucked into Pali Hill, La Loca María appears like slightly slice of Spain spun by Mumbai’s vitality. As you enter, heat, eclectic interiors with artfully conceptualized particulars and painted by hand mural ceilings catch the attention earlier than the meals does. The title, “the crazy Maria”, is chef Manuel Olveira’s tribute to his mom, who first set him unfastened in a kitchen again in Toledo. After years cooking in Michelin-starred eating rooms in Madrid and stops in Dubai and Mumbai, Olveira introduced these roots into this area that’s equal elements household story and up to date Spanish eating. The menu is vivid and unafraid of punchy flavors. Tapas classics like gambas al ajillo—shrimp seared until smoky, bathing in garlic oil—sit alongside charred octopus, lobster paella, and pinchos meant to be picked up and demolished in two bites. But it’s the tacos which have turn out to be the obsession in the background right here: supple tortillas cradling fillings like roasted pumpkin with black beans, or recent seafood given simply the proper squeeze of citrus. They’re Spanish in sensibility however completely their very own. The drinks listing leans into the temper: Spanish wines, craft cocktails, loads of tequila and mezcal for when the night time begins to tilt festive. With its bursts of colour, La Loca María is a reminder that Spanish meals, like Mumbai itself, works greatest when it’s loud, beneficiant, and slightly bit loopy.
Rahul Vangani
30. Wasabi by Morimoto – The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai
Some eating places earn their place on this listing by shaking up the scene; others by holding it regular. Wasabi by Morimoto has completed the latter, yr after yr, and in doing so has turn out to be as a lot of a fixture because the resort it inhabits. Opened practically 20 years in the past as chef Masaharu Morimoto’s second world outpost, it was a daring guess on Japanese superb eating in a metropolis that was solely starting to look outward. What’s outstanding is how little it has wavered since. The white fish carpaccio, black cod miso, and Wasabi crème brûlée stay benchmarks, whereas sushi and sashimi are ready with components flown in instantly from Japan. The room, minimalist, wood-toned, framed by views of the Gateway and Arabian Sea, retains the main focus precisely the place it belongs: on the plate. A sake or Japanese whisky from the deep bar listing is commonly all of the embellishment you want. Wasabi by Morimoto has survived exactly as a result of it hasn’t had to. In an business outlined by turnover, that form of fidelity is its personal assertion.
31. Kappa Chakka Kandhari, Chennai
At Kappa Chakka Kandhari, a prawn kizhi arrives steaming in banana leaf, coconut-slick and aromatic; a kudampuliyitta fish curry is served the one manner it ought to be, with mashed tapioca; mutton chops meet the smooth chew of pathiri. Every plate tells a narrative from Kerala’s toddy outlets, residence kitchens, and temples, collected by chef Regi Mathew over years of crisscrossing the state. He spent about three years touring throughout Kerala, talking to over 250 residence cooks and 70 native toddy store homeowners, a few of whom at the moment are a part of his kitchen. It’s an strategy that has saved the restaurant on this listing because it opened in 2018. But what makes this yr particular is how the venture has developed. And if there’s one dish that has turn out to be shorthand for KCK, it’s the Cloud Pudding: a young coconut dessert so ethereal it appears like a candy sigh. More than a signature, it’s turn out to be a cult favourite: mild sufficient to finish each meal and memorable sufficient to characteristic in real-life love tales.
32. Dum Pukht, ITC Maurya, New Delhi
The very title is a clue: dum pukht, “to breathe and to cook,” is the gradual, sealed handi technique that coaxed depth and perfume out of royal kitchens centuries in the past. At ITC Maurya, the restaurant carrying that title nonetheless does what it has all the time completed: make the case for endurance. Recipes drawn from the Nawabi courts are allowed to unfold in their very own time, layered and deliberate. The kakori kebab right here dissolves nearly earlier than it reaches the tongue, the Dum Pukht biryani arrives cloaked in aroma, and even a dish as unassuming as baghare baingan emerges nuanced, mellow, full. Chandeliers and Awadhi lamps forged their glow on a eating room that leans in direction of the opulent with out feeling heavy-handed. The restaurant owes its existence and icon standing to the late legend chef Imtiaz Qureshi, who introduced the royal delicacies of Awadh into the fashionable eating room and, in the method, gave the dum pukht approach a brand new life. That constancy, to recipes, to approach, to a slower tempo of cooking, stays its north star even immediately. After a quick hiatus, Dum Pukht returns to this listing, a reminder that consistency, maintained over a long time, might be its personal definition of luxurious.
33. Veronica’s, Mumbai
In Bandra, cafés come and go, however Veronica’s is the one which caught. Since 2023, this all-day sandwich shop has turned a sleepy Ranwar nook right into a everlasting queue. The system is disarmingly easy: good bread, severe fillings, and sufficient wine and occasional to make you neglect you got here for “just one sandwich.” The menu will get straight to the purpose: the Pass the Pastrami piles on smoked beef in beneficiant parts, the Big Floyd brings Nashville warmth in the type of sizzling fried rooster, and the Taming the (Mu)Shroom Melt makes a convincing case for going meatless. Even the “Avo Snob,” topped with burrata and pesto, manages to really feel like extra than simply one other avocado toast riff. The area, constructed contained in the old Jude Bakery, nonetheless carries that neighborhood soul, with a skylight overhead, a group pin board, kombucha faucets, and the faint hum of individuals really having time. Pair your sandwich with a Vietnamese iced espresso, or higher but, a glass of wine from their cleverly curated listing. What Veronica’s actually proves is that generally town doesn’t want one other scene-y restaurant. It simply wants a spot that does the holy trinity–bread, espresso, wine–so nicely, you end up again in line the very subsequent week.
Prarthana Shetty
34. Bengaluru Oota Company, Bengaluru
Some eating places serve meals; others serve reminiscence. At Bengaluru Oota Company, the road between the 2 dissolves. Set inside a mustard-yellow residence in Halasuru with simply 5 tables, this restaurant doubles as an prolonged household desk the place the menu is determined by season, market haul, and the host’s intuition. Meals are “by reservation only,” which implies they’re curated with you in thoughts. A typical unfold would possibly start with a seasonal drink, segue into mutton cutlets or kori gassi, and proceed with rice, curries, pachadis, pickles, and the inevitable curd rice, as a result of no South Indian meal is full with out it. Dessert and filter espresso arrive as punctuation marks. The girl behind all of it, Divya Prabhakar, with practically 20 years in hospitality, strikes simply between host, storyteller, and cook dinner, typically nudging second helpings your manner whereas recounting the roots of the dishes in your plate. The menu shifts each day, drawing from each Gowda and Mangalorean traditions, which implies no two visits are fairly the identical, besides in the sense that every appears like a private invite.
35. Hosa, Goa
In Siolim, one in all Goa’s prettiest Indo-Portuguese bungalows has been reworked into Hosa, its powder-blue façade and leafy patio pulling you in earlier than you’ve even glanced on the menu. Inside, excessive ceilings, graphic tiles, and a bar lined with tinctures and infusions set the stage for a restaurant that places the cooking of southern India in sharp focus. Chef Harish Rao leads the kitchen with a 38-dish menu that roams throughout Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. Think curry leaf-cured snapper doused in kokum rasa, edamame paniyarams, almonds dressed up in the type of rooster 65, and crab tangled with Guntur chili. The dishes are exact however not treasured, rooted in reminiscence whereas borrowing the approach and polish of a world kitchen. The drinks aren’t any much less formidable. Beverage director Varun Sharma, additionally behind the bars at Comorin and Indian Accent, builds a program that veers from playful to severe: rum and kokum cola fizzing with housemade soda, mango gin cocktails rimmed with gunpowder spice, even a shandy distributed from an on-table contraption. Non-alcoholic spirits and zero-proof “gin-ish” cocktails get their very own part, acknowledging the brand new methods Goa likes to drink. For Siolim, Hosa has shortly turn out to be the form of place you gown up for. For the remainder of us, it’s proof of simply how expansive and different South Indian meals might be when handled with curiosity and respect.
Prarthana Shetty
36. Mizu Izakaya, Mumbai
On any given night time, Mizu feels prefer it’s holding three conversations without delay. The room splits into three levels. At the counter, cooks slice hamachi into pearly sashimi and roll futomaki fats sufficient to make you pause mid-conversation. Upstairs, steam curls out of ramen bowls and bao baskets, the broth wealthy sufficient to fragrance the air. At the bar, bottles of sake and soju are flanked by jars of pickled plums and tinctures; by the tip of the night time, chances are high somebody can be dancing on the counter. Chef Lakhan Jethani’s builds on Japanese comfort staples like ramen, sashimi, small plates, layering them with flavors that stretch from truffle to gondhoraj. Salmon sashimi comes with truffle, yuzu and a whisper of gondhoraj; pork stomach is lacquered in shoyu tare till it shines; ramen noodles are rolled in-house, the vegetarian miso dashi as layered because the Sapporo pork broth. Dessert, if you happen to’re in the know, means a Japanese cotton cheesecake so mild it’s nearly a disappearing act, and Shokupan ice cream sandwiches. That pulse now carries over past Bandra. Mizu has now opened a second outpost in Goa, carrying its izakaya spirit to the coast.
37. The Glenburn Penthouse Restaurant, Kolkata
High above Chowringhee, Glenburn Penthouse seems straight onto the Victoria Memorial and the sweep of the Maidan, a view few metropolis accommodations can rival. The nine-key retreat borrows its bones from colonial Bengal: wood-paneled flooring, four-poster beds, pastel-hued wallpaper, white marble bogs with standalone tubs. Around all of it are understated pleasures: afternoon tea on the veranda, a swim in the rooftop infinity pool, a guide in the library courtyard. The kitchen retains tempo with the setting. Chef Shawn Kenworthy and head chef Ranjit Shaw put native components by a European lens, serving up dishes like soft-shell crab in moilee sauce, duck kosha singara with pineapple, and goat braised for twelve hours and completed with a vindaloo jus. The menus change typically, however the meals are as elegant because the rooms they’re served in. At Glenburn, meals and area work in tandem. Each frames the opposite right here above town, its bustle at bay and its historical past in view.
38. For the Record Vinyl Bar, Goa
For the Record (locals name it FTR) doesn’t really feel like a bar a lot as getting into the house of a pal who occurs to acquire vinyls, bake sourdough, construct his personal audio system, and play jazz on the aspect. That pal is Buland Shukla, architect, audio engineer, musician, and the drive behind this Panjim spot the place cocktails, meals, and music fold into one another. A bimbli tree shades the doorway, neighborhood canines wander in, and inside, data line the cabinets whereas a gramophone spins jazz and blues. The cocktail listing is brief however ingenious, anchored in native spirits: suppose solkadi-spiced feni, gin hit with chili oil and cardamom bitters, or hibiscus tea combined with mahua. The meals is equally playful: wings lacquered in home sizzling sauce, a tongue salad with a kick, pides and pizzas if you want heft. Most nights, you’re as possible to discover a vinyl listening session as a swing night or a set by Shukla’s personal Banjara Quartet. It’s not a slick idea bar—it’s extra private than that, an environment you ease into like dropping the needle on a favourite file.
39. Megu, The Leela Palace, New Delhi
Since 2012, Megu at The Leela Palace has been one in all Delhi’s most polished addresses for Japanese eating. The Leela Palace restaurant has been a draw for town’s well-heeled, with its darkish oak interiors, latticed screens, and jewel-toned silks. But it’s the kitchen’s stability of restraint and luxurious, now below the regular hand of head chef Shubham Thakur, that retains regulars returning. The fish is flown in from Tokyo twice per week and dealt with with care as nigiri, sashimi, or carpaccio. But Megu additionally leans into opulence: salmon tartare with ikura and caviar, silver cod with yuzu miso, a 24-hour braised pork stomach that feels nearly ceremonial. Signatures just like the crispy asparagus or tuna tataki with ponzu have lengthy outlasted developments, whereas desserts, like wasabi cheesecake or a yuzu and lemon curd tart, sign a kitchen unafraid to have enjoyable. Pair it with one thing from the encyclopedic sake listing or a bottle from the wine cellar, and also you’ll perceive why Megu stays one of many metropolis’s definitive addresses for Japanese meals—severe, sure, but additionally seductive in its consistency.
40. Bukhara, ITC Maurya, New Delhi
There are eating places that construct reputations on altering with the instances, after which there’s Bukhara, which has constructed its legacy on refusing to. Since opening at ITC Maurya in 1978, it has served the identical rustic North-West Frontier menu, in the identical earthenware bowls, below the identical rough-hewn beams. The ritual is a part of the enchantment: naan stretched as huge because the desk, kebabs pulled straight from the tandoor, and the signature, nearly synonymous dal, a black lentil preparation simmered on low warmth for shut to 24 hours till it achieves its smoky, buttery depth. As per Bukhara’s lore, throughout then president Bill Clinton’s India go to in 2000, he dipped in, licked his fingers, and reportedly stated: “I wish I had two stomachs… carry me in a stretcher to my room if you have to, but I will have the bowl of dal.” The consistency is outstanding. Generations of Delhiites, visiting dignitaries, and world celebrities have eaten kind of the identical meal right here, in the identical room, for practically half a century. And whereas the world outdoors has shifted by the use of fusion developments, new-wave superb eating, and molecular experiments, Bukhara has remained unbothered.
RAJAPANDIYAN R
41. The Bangala, Karaikudi
In Karaikudi, the guts of Chettinad, meals is inseparable from historical past. At this heritage resort’s eating corridor, with rows of teak tables, banana-leaf plates, and meals eaten by hand, you get a direct line to the Chettiar kitchen. The masalas are nonetheless hand-pounded, the flavors layered relatively than bluntly fiery, and the dishes are anchored in a way of place. Uppu kari, with mutton, shallots, garlic, and gundu milagai chiles, is the form of dish that defines the area. British-era croquettes, mint and potato, crisp-edged, remind you that Chettinad absorbed and patronized outdoors influences, too. What makes the expertise uncommon is its depth: meals are communal, however the studying might be private. Three- and seven-day cooking programs take you thru the logic of the spice blends, the tales behind temple choices, and why sure flavors endure. For a delicacies typically flattened into “spicy Chettinad curry” elsewhere, this desk exhibits its full vary: fiery, sure, but additionally refined, ingenious, and steeped in legacy.