Darbhanga is the riverfront restaurant inside BrijRama Palace, the restored 1812 mansion whose Ganges-side steps give Varanasi's Darbhanga Ghat its name. The dining room sits a floor above the water in a courtyard of Maratha frescoes and carved stone; most evenings, classical musicians and folk dancers perform while guests eat. The kitchen is pure vegetarian, and its set piece is the Royal Banarasi Thali — a multi-course tribute to the city's home cooking, served in ornamental silverware.
The palace was built in 1812 by Shridhara Narayana Munshi, a minister of the Nagpur estate, and in 1915 it passed to the Brahmin king of Darbhanga in Bihar, which is how the ghat took its present name. The Brijrama Hospitality group restored the building over almost two decades and opened it to guests as BrijRama Palace on 6 April 2016; it is run today by Brij Hotels, with 32 rooms above the river. The cooking is led by Varanasi-born chef Devansh, who has worked to revive regional recipes for the property since 2023.
The Royal Banarasi Thali, priced at INR 1,750 plus tax per person, is the order to build the evening around. It runs to nimona (a Banarasi curry of mashed green peas), khatta-meetha kaddu (sweet-and-sour pumpkin), yellow dal tempered with red chilli, a paneer dish, dahi bhalla, kachoris and palak puris, and pulao — the everyday repertoire of a Varanasi household, plated for a palace table. Beyond the thali, the menu is broad and entirely meat-free, moving from Banarasi and North Indian dishes through Chinese, Italian, Thai and Mexican for guests who want range.
The room suits occasions that reward setting as much as the food: a client dinner where the palace and the river do the impressing, a birthday or anniversary with the courtyard performance as a backdrop, or a first date with a view few rooms in India can match. BrijRama is reached on foot through the lanes behind Dashashwamedh or by the hotel's boat from a nearby ghat, so allow time; non-resident diners should reserve a table ahead and confirm the evening's seating. For a contemporary tasting-menu format rather than a la carte, the same hotel runs Aangan, its rooftop ten-course degustation.
Best for Impress Clients
Few business dinners in Varanasi can match arriving at a 200-year-old palace by boat. Darbhanga gives an out-of-town client the river, the frescoed courtyard and a vegetarian Banarasi thali that reads as generous and local without the formality of a hotel banquet hall. Reserve the riverside seating, order the Royal Banarasi Thali for the table, and let the courtyard musicians carry the evening.
Not for everyone
Darbhanga is not for committed meat-eaters or anyone after a steak or kebab dinner — the kitchen is entirely vegetarian. It is not for a fast, casual bite either: the palace is reached on foot through the lanes or by boat, and the Royal Banarasi Thali is a slow, multi-course sit-down meal. And it is not for travellers chasing a modern tasting-menu format — that is the job of Aangan, the hotel's rooftop degustation room.