Loya

About Loya

Loya opened inside Taj Palace in 2022 with a single idea: cook the food of India's north the way it was cooked before restaurants tidied it up. The name comes from a Dogri word for warmth, and the kitchen treats that literally, pulling preserved recipes and slow techniques out of the foothills of the Himalayas, Punjab and Kashmir. The concept worked. Owner IHCL has since opened further Loya outposts, including a third at the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai in 2024.

It belongs in the same conversation as the capital's defining Indian rooms. Set it beside the tandoor institution Bukhara, the Awadhi Dum Pukht, the modern Indian Accent and the inventive Varq, or browse the wider Indian picks.

The Kitchen

The menu is led by Grand Master Chef Rajesh Wadhwa, a long-serving Taj Palace chef who built Loya around the sigdi, the coal-and-wood grill that gives the food its smoke and depth. The signature is the Dal ki Chaat: it arrives part-built on a trolley and is finished at the table, a piece of theatre that earns its place because the dal underneath it is excellent. The Timbri Jhinga prawns are the other plate regulars order on sight.

From there the kitchen ranges across the north, with sigdi-grilled meats, slow-braised Kashmiri dishes and Punjabi staples cooked with more patience than most hotel kitchens spare. Pricing is fair for a five-star room: about ₹3,000 a head a la carte, or roughly ₹6,000 for two, with set tasting menus at ₹3,800 and ₹5,000. The restaurant serves no alcohol, so the bill is the food and nothing else.

The Room

The dining room is low-lit and quietly grand, a hushed, generously spaced space within one of Delhi's grandest hotels. Conversation stays easy; tables are far enough apart for a private discussion, and service is attentive without hovering. Dress is smart, the mood grown-up and unhurried, built to let a long, feast-style meal stretch across an evening without anyone rushing the trolley.