RFK Cuisine · Indian · New Delhi
Best Indian Restaurants in New Delhi 2026
Indian · New Delhi · 7 rooms ranked · Updated June 2026
Compiled by the Restaurants for Kings editorial team · Published June 20, 2026 · Updated June 20, 2026
Bukhara has barely changed its menu since 1977, and that is the whole point: the ITC Maurya's tandoor room decided early what perfection looked like — a dal simmered overnight, a leg of lamb the size of a forearm, no cutlery, a wooden bib — and has simply repeated it for five decades while presidents, prime ministers and pop stars queued for a table. Delhi is the capital of Indian food in the most literal sense, and its best rooms split cleanly into two camps: the keepers of the canon, who guard the frontier, Awadhi and Mughlai traditions, and the modernists, led by Indian Accent, who took those traditions onto the world's tasting-menu stage. This is a city with no Michelin guide and no need of one. Ranked on the cooking, the room and what the bill buys, with the dish to order at each.
1.Bukhara
The unchanged frontier tandoor room that has fed presidents since 1977; queue early for the dal and the Sikandari raan.
Bukhara, at the ITC Maurya in the diplomatic enclave of Chanakyapuri, is the most famous Indian restaurant in the world and has earned it by refusing to evolve. The menu is short and frozen in place: Dal Bukhara, black lentils simmered for some eighteen hours into something almost buttery; Sikandari raan, a whole spiced leg of lamb; murgh malai kebab; tandoori prawns and the giant naan. You eat with your hands from copper, wearing the wooden bib, in a rough-luxe room of stone and exposed wood. It has hosted the world's heads of state — there is a "Bukhara dal" named for Bill Clinton — and it remains the benchmark every other tandoor kitchen is measured against. There are no dinner reservations, so come at opening or at lunch. The one essential Indian meal in Delhi.
No dinner bookings — arrive at opening; the Dal Bukhara, the Sikandari raan, the murgh malai kebab.
2.Indian Accent
India's most-awarded modern kitchen and an Asia's 50 Best fixture; book a week ahead for the country's best tasting menu.
Indian Accent, in the calm of The Lodhi hotel, is the restaurant that proved Indian cooking could hold its own on the global tasting-menu stage, and it remains the country's most decorated modern kitchen — a long-running entry on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants, with sister rooms once in New York and London. Under chef Shantanu Mehrotra the kitchen plays Indian flavour against global technique with real wit: the blue-cheese naan, the meetha achaar pork ribs, the daulat ki chaat (a Delhi-winter dessert spun to order). The room is hushed and polished, the service precise, the wine list serious. This is the special-occasion table for diners who want invention rather than tradition. Book a week or more ahead, take the tasting menu, and let the pairings run. The modern flagship of Indian fine dining.
Reserve a week-plus ahead; the tasting menu, the blue-cheese naan, the daulat ki chaat to finish.
3.Dum Pukht
The Awadhi dum-cooking landmark created by the late Imtiaz Qureshi; book it for the city's most refined biryani.
Dum Pukht, also at the ITC Maurya, is the formal counterpoint to Bukhara next door — a jewel-box room of Lucknawi blue and gold dedicated to Awadhi dum cooking, the technique of sealing a pot with dough and cooking the contents slowly in their own steam. It was created in 1989 by the late master chef Imtiaz Qureshi, the first chef in India awarded the Padma Shri, and the kitchen still guards his repertoire: the Kakori kebab (so fine it is almost a paste), the Dum Pukht biryani sealed and cracked open at the table, and rich, gentle Nawabi curries. Where Bukhara is rustic and hands-on, this is courtly and slow. Book a few days ahead through the hotel, dress up, and build the meal around the biryani and the kebabs. The refined Awadhi pick.
Reserve a few days ahead via the hotel; the Kakori kebab, the sealed Dum Pukht biryani, a Nawabi korma.
4.Varq
The Taj's contemporary Indian room where the Varqui Crab is the city's most photographed dish; book it for polished modern cooking.
Varq, in the Taj Mahal Hotel on Mansingh Road, takes its name from the edible silver leaf (varq) of Mughal banqueting and applies that sense of refinement to a contemporary Indian menu. The signature is the Varqui Crab — crab wrapped in flaky pastry, one of the most-photographed plates in Delhi — alongside reworked classics: a martaban ka meat, a galouti kebab, dals and breads turned out with hotel-flagship polish. It is less radical than Indian Accent and less canonical than Bukhara, occupying a confident middle ground of well-executed modern Indian in a handsome, art-hung room. Book a few days ahead, order the Varqui Crab to start, and let the kitchen send its updated classics. The polished contemporary choice.
Reserve a few days ahead; the Varqui Crab, the galouti kebab, and a martaban ka meat to follow.
5.Masala Library
The Jiggs Kalra tasting room that plays modern technique against Indian tradition; book it for the city's most playful degustation.
Masala Library, the Delhi outpost of the late Jiggs Kalra's progressive-Indian concept at the JW Marriott in Aerocity, is the most technique-forward room on this list — a long degustation that runs Indian flavour through modern, occasionally molecular, presentation: spherified raita, deconstructed chaat, smoke and foams deployed with more discipline than gimmickry. Kalra, "the Czar of Indian cuisine," built the concept to argue that Indian food deserved the same theatrical treatment as any European tasting menu, and the kitchen still makes that case dish by dish. It is a fun, surprising meal best taken as the full tasting. Book a few days ahead, go in hungry and curious, and order the degustation rather than à la carte. The progressive-tasting pick near the airport.
Reserve a few days ahead; the full degustation, the deconstructed chaat, the spherified accompaniments.
6.Karim's
The Old Delhi Mughlai institution by the Jama Masjid since 1913; walk in for the best-value great meal in the city.
Karim's has cooked Mughlai food in the lanes by the Jama Masjid since 1913, founded by a descendant of cooks who claimed Mughal-court lineage, and it is the antithesis of the hotel rooms above: cramped communal tables, a coal-fired kitchen open to the gali, and a menu of seekh kebab, mutton burra, nihari, korma and the legendary mutton biryani. The cooking is robust, fatty, deeply spiced and astonishingly cheap, and the experience — eating in the crush of Old Delhi after dusk — is half the meal. It is not for the squeamish about hygiene or air-conditioning, but for value and atmosphere nothing on this list comes close. Walk in (it takes no bookings), come hungry and after dark, and order the mutton korma with rumali roti. The Old Delhi essential.
Walk in, after dark; the mutton burra, the seekh kebab, the mutton korma with rumali roti.
7.Punjab Grill
The polished Punjabi room built on Jiggs Kalra's vision; book it for dal makhani and kebabs done at fine-dining level.
Punjab Grill, another concept rooted in the late Jiggs Kalra's work, takes the roadside dhaba canon of the Punjab and dresses it for a fine-dining room in Connaught Place — the result is a refined, reliable take on the food most people picture when they think "Indian restaurant." The dal makhani is slow-cooked and luxurious, the tandoori and seekh kebabs are precise, the butter chicken and the breads exact. It is less of a destination than Bukhara or Indian Accent and more of a dependable, well-run flagship for classic North Indian cooking without the queue or the wait-list. Book a few days ahead, order the dal makhani and a mixed kebab platter, and finish with a phirni. The accessible polished-Punjabi pick.
Reserve a few days ahead; the dal makhani, a mixed kebab platter, butter chicken and a phirni to close.
How Delhi eats Indian
Delhi's table is the meeting point of three great traditions. From the north-west comes the frontier tandoor cooking that Bukhara made famous — whole legs of lamb, dal, kebabs cooked in the clay oven. From Lucknow and the old Nawabi courts comes Awadhi dum cuisine, the slow-sealed biryani and gossamer kebabs of Dum Pukht. From the Mughal kitchens of Old Delhi comes the rich Mughlai canon of Karim's — korma, nihari, biryani. Layered on top is the modern movement, led by Indian Accent and the Jiggs Kalra concepts, which took these traditions onto the tasting-menu stage. A complete few days uses all of it: a hands-on tandoor meal, a courtly Awadhi dinner, a modern degustation, and a riotous Old Delhi night.
A few practical notes. The marquee rooms are inside five-star hotels, which means metal detectors, dress codes and taxes on top of the bill, but also reliable kitchens and air-conditioning. Bukhara and Karim's take no reservations and run on queues, so timing matters — go early. Old Delhi is best after dark and during Ramadan, when the lanes around the Jama Masjid come alive. Tipping of around 10 percent is normal where a service charge is not already added, though service charges are increasingly common and contested. For the rest of the city's tables — its Italian, Japanese and modern-European rooms — the New Delhi dining guide maps it by neighborhood and occasion.
Where not to look for it
Skip these for serious Delhi cooking
The "multi-cuisine" hotel coffee shops and the airport-mall butter-chicken counters. The all-day buffet rooms and the food-court Indian counters smooth every dish into the same mild, sweet register. For the real thing, take the tandoor at Bukhara, the Mughlai at Karim's, or the tasting menu at Indian Accent.
Bukhara or Karim's when you want a quiet, reserved, sit-down-on-time dinner. Neither takes dinner bookings and both run on queues and crowds. When you need a guaranteed table at a set hour, point yourself at Indian Accent, Dum Pukht or Punjab Grill, all of which reserve in advance.
Frequently asked
What is the best Indian restaurant in New Delhi?
For tradition it is Bukhara at the ITC Maurya, the North-West Frontier tandoor room that has barely changed its menu since 1977 and has fed presidents and prime ministers on its dal and Sikandari raan. For modern Indian it is Indian Accent at The Lodhi, the country's most-awarded contemporary kitchen and a long-running entry on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants. Choose Bukhara for the canonical tandoor experience, Indian Accent for the inventive tasting menu.
Where do you eat the best tandoori and kebabs in Delhi?
Bukhara at the ITC Maurya is the benchmark for North-West Frontier tandoor cooking — Sikandari raan (whole leg of lamb), murgh malai kebab and the famous Dal Bukhara simmered overnight. For Old Delhi Mughlai kebabs, Karim's by the Jama Masjid has cooked seekh kebab, mutton burra and korma since 1913. For Awadhi dum cooking and slow-sealed biryani, Dum Pukht at the ITC Maurya is the third pillar. Between them they cover frontier, Mughlai and Awadhi.
How much do top Indian restaurants in Delhi cost?
The hotel flagships are the splurge by Delhi standards: Bukhara, Dum Pukht, Varq and Masala Library run roughly INR 4,000 to 7,000 a head before drinks and taxes, with Indian Accent's tasting menu at the top of that band. Punjab Grill sits a little below. Karim's in Old Delhi is the value pick by a wide margin — a full Mughlai meal for a few hundred rupees a head. Most hotel restaurants add taxes and a service charge, so check the bill.
How far ahead should you book these restaurants?
Bukhara is the hardest table in Delhi — it does not take advance reservations for dinner and runs a first-come queue, so arrive early or eat at lunch. Indian Accent should be booked a week or more ahead, longer for weekends. Dum Pukht, Varq, Masala Library and Punjab Grill take reservations a few days out through the hotels. Karim's is walk-in only and busiest after evening prayers and during Ramadan. Most hotel rooms book by phone or through the hotel concierge.
Does Delhi have Michelin-starred restaurants?
No — the MICHELIN Guide does not yet cover India, so there are no Michelin-starred restaurants in Delhi or anywhere in the country. The benchmarks instead are Asia's 50 Best Restaurants, where Indian Accent has been a fixture and long ranked India's best, and the international best-of lists that have repeatedly named Bukhara among the world's finest Indian restaurants. Awards here come from these lists and from India's own culinary recognitions rather than from Michelin.
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