best restaurants in delhi (2026)

tldr: delhi at every price point. indian accent (the lodhi) is the critical number one at rs 4,350-4,450 per person for the tasting menu, bukhara and dum pukht at itc maurya are about rs 6,500 for two, gulati on pandara road is about rs 1,550 for two, lazeez affaire in cp about rs 1,600, and saravana bhavan in cp about rs 650. the most overrated famous name is khan chacha.

delhi is not one food city. it is about five of them stacked on top of each other, and most “best restaurants in delhi” lists fail because they pretend otherwise - they mix a rs 9,000 tasting menu and a rs 60 plate of chole bhature into one ranking and call it a day. the honest version has to be organised by money, because what you should eat in delhi depends almost entirely on what you are willing to spend and how far you are willing to travel.

so this is a hub rather than a list. the top of the market - indian accent, bukhara, dum pukht, le cirque, olive - is genuinely world-class and genuinely expensive. the middle, roughly rs 1,200 to rs 2,500 for two, is where delhi is at its strongest and where the old north indian restaurants live. and the bottom, under rs 700 for two, is where delhi embarrasses most indian cities, because the street food and the south indian canteens are both excellent and absurdly cheap. for the dish-specific stuff - butter chicken, biryani, kebabs, chaat, momos, dhabas - this guide points you at the dedicated guides rather than re-listing them badly.

a note on money before anything else. every rupee figure here comes from recent published listings - eazydiner, zomato, swiggy, district, magicpin, tripadvisor and published roundups - and indian restaurant prices online go stale fast. the same restaurant is routinely listed at wildly different numbers across platforms, which is worth knowing: indian accent appears at rs 5,000 for two on one 2026 guide and rs 8,700-9,000 on another, wakame in defence colony shows up at rs 1,200 on eazydiner and rs 3,300 on zomato. treat all of these as the right order of magnitude, not a bill. assume everything has crept up.

the other thing to be straight about: nobody from this site has eaten at these places. every verdict below is a composite of published reviews, food-media roundups and aggregator ratings, cross-checked where sources disagreed. the x/10 numbers are composites of what reviewers reported, not anybody’s personal score, and where the published record splits hard that is reported as a split rather than smoothed into a consensus.

if you came here looking for a specific dish rather than a restaurant, go sideways instead: best butter chicken in delhi, best biryani in delhi, best kebabs in delhi and the chandni chowk food guide all go deeper on their subject than any city-wide list can.

the awards

• best overall: indian accent, the lodhi - on asia’s 50 best since 2015, and the one delhi restaurant that every published 2026 ranking agrees on
• best north indian: bukhara, itc maurya - 4.5 on a five-point scale from roughly 9,200 eazydiner ratings, for dal bukhara and sikandari raan at about rs 6,500 for two
• best awadhi: dum pukht, itc maurya - biryani sealed under a dough crust, 4.4 on a five-point scale, also about rs 6,500 for two
• best mid-range north indian: gulati, 6 pandara road market - the butter-chicken-and-dal-makhani canon at about rs 1,550 for two, trading since 1959
• best value sit-down: saravana bhavan, connaught place - 4.3 on a five-point scale from over 48,000 ratings at about rs 650 for two
• best cheap eat: haldiram’s, cp outer circle - about rs 450 for two for chole bhature, raj kachori and thalis
• best setting: olive bar & kitchen, mehrauli - a restored haveli at one style mile, 4.6 on a five-point scale from about 8,700 ratings, rs 5,000-6,000 for two
• best for groups: lazeez affaire, cp outer circle - 4.3 on a five-point scale at about rs 1,600 for two, and large enough to absorb twelve people
• most overrated: khan chacha, khan market - published write-ups report forty-minute-plus waits on a weekday afternoon and land on “decent, not exceptional”
• worst value: united coffee house, connaught place - 3.9 on a five-point scale at a listed rs 2,500 for two, which is heritage-tax pricing

the full list

the splurge tier: rs 5,000 and up for two

indian accent, the lodhi

what to order: the chef’s tasting menu, listed at rs 4,350 per person vegetarian and rs 4,450 non-vegetarian. the two dishes that follow the restaurant everywhere in print are the blue cheese naan and the meetha achar pork ribs.

what reviewers say: this is the only delhi restaurant with something close to total critical agreement. it has been on the asia’s 50 best restaurants list since 2015, and the 2026 crop of guides - indian and international - put it first without much argument. chef shantanu mehrotra now leads the kitchen; manish mehrotra, who built the restaurant’s reputation, left in 2024 to open nisaba, and a few write-ups treat that as a reason to watch rather than a reason to stay away.

the catch: the price figures published for it are all over the place - rs 5,000 for two in one 2026 guide, rs 8,700-9,000 in another - which mostly reflects whether the writer counted drinks. the tasting menu is the format, so this is not a place to drop in for one dish.

composite rating: 9.5/10 - a composite of published reviews, not a first-hand score.

bukhara, itc maurya

what to order: dal bukhara, which published descriptions put at roughly eighteen hours of cooking, and the sikandari raan. the bread is the other thing people photograph.

what reviewers say: 4.5 on a five-point scale from roughly 9,200 ratings on eazydiner, listed at about rs 6,500 for two. it is the oldest version of delhi hotel fine dining still operating at full strength, and the praise is remarkably stable across decades of coverage - heavy, smoky, northwest frontier cooking done without reinvention.

the catch: guides specifically warn that walk-ins face long waits at peak hours, so book. the room is deliberately dark and rustic and reads as dated if you were expecting contemporary. portions are enormous and designed to share, which means two people each ordering a main will spend more than they needed to and finish less than they paid for.

composite rating: 9/10

dum pukht, itc maurya

what to order: the dum-style biryani, sealed under a dough crust with saffron and kewra, and the kakori-school kebabs. awadhi court cooking, which means slower and more perfumed than bukhara’s smoke.

what reviewers say: 4.4 on a five-point scale from about 1,200 ratings, also about rs 6,500 for two, opening at 12:30 pm. reviewers who prefer it to bukhara do so on the grounds of subtlety; reviewers who do not say it is less fun. both are sharing the same hotel.

the catch: the smaller ratings count tells you something - it is the quieter of the two itc rooms and gets booked for occasions rather than dinners. if you want awadhi food without the hotel markup, lucknow does it cheaper and arguably better; see best kebabs in lucknow.

composite rating: 8.5/10

olive bar & kitchen, mehrauli

what to order: wood-fired pizza, lamb chops, mediterranean mezze. the reason to go is the room: a restored haveli at one style mile on kalka das marg, with a courtyard, open 12:30 pm to midnight.

what reviewers say: 4.6 on a five-point scale from about 8,700 eazydiner ratings. price estimates run rs 3,500-5,000 on one listing, rs 5,000 on eazydiner and rs 6,000 on zomato without alcohol. the recurring published advice is to book outdoor seating and to arrive before sunset, when the qutub minar lights up behind the terrace.

the catch: you are paying a significant premium for the setting, and the ambawatta and one style mile complexes around it are priced the same way. the food is good mediterranean rather than remarkable mediterranean.

composite rating: 8.5/10

the middle: rs 1,200-2,600 for two

this is the best value band in delhi and the one most visitors never reach, because the famous names sit above it and the street food sits below it.

gulati, pandara road market

what to order: butter chicken, dal makhani, handi biryani, mutton korma. listed at rs 1,550-1,600 for two on magicpin and zomato, with justdial showing a higher rs 2,300 and crediting the restaurant with 66 years of trading, which puts the founding around 1959.

what reviewers say: this is the default answer when a delhi family is asked where to take visitors for north indian food. open noon to midnight. the queue on a weekend evening is the main published complaint, along with parking around the market.

the catch: at least some reviewers call the butter chicken itself slightly overrated - the pandara road market version of the dish is a style, rich and tomato-forward, and it is not universally loved. if butter chicken is the whole point of the trip, read best butter chicken in delhi first, because the better versions are not all on this street.

composite rating: 8.5/10

havemore, pandara road market

what to order: butter chicken, dal makhani, murgh platter, mutton rara. at 11-12 pandara road market, listed at rs 1,550 for two on magicpin, with an older zomato snapshot at rs 2,600 without alcohol and a pint around rs 495.

what reviewers say: the rogan josh and kadhai chicken get named more often here than at gulati, and the two restaurants are separated by about thirty metres and a lot of family loyalty. published timings conflict - some listings say noon to midnight, one says it closes in the late afternoon - so check before a late dinner.

composite rating: 8/10

burma burma, select citywalk, saket

what to order: khow suey and the tea leaf salad. fully vegetarian, no alcohol, listed at about rs 2,200 for two with a very strong aggregate rating.

what reviewers say: the most consistently praised non-indian restaurant in south delhi, and the rare vegetarian restaurant that people who eat meat recommend without qualification. being inside a mall is the trade-off.

composite rating: 8.5/10

swagath, defence colony market

what to order: crab, prawns, mangalorean-style seafood. listed at about rs 2,500 for two, holding 4.0 on a five-point scale from roughly 330 tripadvisor reviews.

what reviewers say: defence colony’s seafood institution, and the standard recommendation for coastal food in a city that is five hundred kilometres from a coast. reviews are good rather than ecstatic, and the service complaints are routine for a market restaurant this busy.

composite rating: 8/10

lazeez affaire, cp outer circle

what to order: kebabs, mughlai mains, biryani. 4.3 on a five-point scale on eazydiner at about rs 1,600 for two - the best-rated of the big connaught place north indian rooms.

what reviewers say: it is the sensible cp choice, and it tops eazydiner’s own delhi ncr ordering. if you want the older mughlai names instead, best mughlai restaurants in delhi and best restaurants in connaught place go through that market properly.

composite rating: 8/10

the big chill, 35 khan market

what to order: mississippi mudpie, mushroom lasagne, chocolate decadence. menu reported at close to 600 dishes. open noon to 11:30 pm.

what reviewers say: 4.9 on zomato’s own listing scale, which is as high as delhi ratings get, with cost for two listed at rs 1,500 on eazydiner and rs 2,400 on zomato. it opened in east of kailash in 2000 and the khan market branch is the one everybody means. the brick-and-film-poster room is the point.

the catch: the published criticism is specific and worth taking seriously - inconsistency between dishes, service quality that fluctuates with how busy it is, frozen fries turning up in one review, and prices on the high side even by khan market standards. weekend waits are standard.

composite rating: 8/10

ichiban, pandara road market

what to order: kung pao chicken, pork ribs, jumbo prawns, clear soup. listed at rs 1,250-1,400 for two at 9 pandara road market.

what reviewers say: old-school delhi chinese, which is its own cuisine and should be judged as one. it is the cheapest interesting thing in a market otherwise dedicated to butter chicken.

composite rating: 7.5/10

under rs 1,000 for two

delhi’s cheap end is better than its mid-range reputation suggests, and almost all of it is either south indian, punjabi or street food.

saravana bhavan, connaught place

4.3 on a five-point scale from more than 48,000 ratings, listed at about rs 650 for two, open until 11 pm. masala dosa, idli, filter coffee, done to a chain standard that holds. the single best cheap sit-down meal in central delhi, and the cp branch is big enough that the wait moves.

composite rating: 7.5/10

dasaprakash, connaught place

about rs 800 for two. the orders that come up repeatedly in listings are mini idli, medu vada, masala dosa and the crispy rava onion masala dosa. slightly more expensive than saravana bhavan and slightly more interesting.

composite rating: 7.5/10

biryani by kilo, connaught place

4.6 on a five-point scale at about rs 700 for two, which is the highest rating-to-price ratio on this page. handi biryani cooked and sealed per order. it is a chain and tastes like one, but at that price the argument is hard to lose. for the non-chain version of the same thing, see best biryani in delhi.

composite rating: 7.5/10

kake da hotel, connaught place

about rs 1,000 for two, open noon to midnight. a dhaba that never left central delhi - mutton curry, kadhai paneer, tandoori roti, eaten fast at a shared table. for the proper version of this experience, best dhabas in delhi and best pure veg dhabas in delhi cover the city’s dhaba circuit in detail.

composite rating: 7/10

haldiram’s, cp outer circle

about rs 450 for two. chole bhature, raj kachori, thalis, mithai. nobody’s favourite restaurant and everybody’s fallback, and the hygiene floor is higher than the street. if you want the real version of what haldiram’s is imitating, go to best chole bhature in delhi and best chaat in delhi.

composite rating: 7/10

karim’s, gali kababian, jama masjid

listed at about rs 1,600 for two at the original jama masjid outlet and about rs 800 at the newer satellite branches, with chicken seekh kebab, shami kebab roll, firdausi qorma and mutton burra the recurring orders. it is the most famous muslim-quarter restaurant in india and the published reaction is genuinely split: the history and the mutton get praised, the crowds, cramped seating and inconsistency get complained about. the honest read is that karim’s is a place to go once, early, and order mutton.

composite rating: 7.5/10

the overrated ones

a guide with no criticism is a failed guide, so:

• khan chacha, khan market. the roomali roll institution, started by haji banda hasan, at rs 600-800 for two. published accounts report waits of forty minutes or more even on a weekday afternoon and summarise the result as decent but not exceptional. the chicken tikka roll is fine. the queue is not worth it.
• united coffee house, connaught place. 3.9 on a five-point scale at a listed rs 2,500 for two. the room is genuinely worth seeing and the food does not justify the bill. go for a coffee, not dinner.
• hard rock cafe, cp. 3.9 on a five-point scale at about rs 1,500 for two. it is the same hard rock cafe as everywhere else.
• the darzi bar & kitchen, cp. 3.7 on a five-point scale at about rs 1,500 for two, the weakest-rated of the big cp rooms on eazydiner’s own listing.
• pandara road butter chicken, generally. the street is a delhi institution and the dish it is famous for divides reviewers - rich, sweet, tomato-heavy, and not what everyone means by butter chicken.
• golden-era nostalgia in general. several of delhi’s most-recommended old restaurants now rate in the 3.7-4.0 band on five-point aggregates while charging rs 2,000-2,500 for two. the age of a restaurant is not a rating.

tips

• book anything above rs 3,000 for two. bukhara, dum pukht, indian accent, olive and le cirque all run on reservations, and bukhara walk-in waits are a specifically documented complaint.
• eat your expensive meal at lunch. several hotel restaurants and the mall restaurants in saket and vasant kunj run lunch menus and buffets well below dinner pricing, and the rooms are emptier.
• cross-check the price before you go. the same restaurant appears at wildly different cost-for-two figures across zomato, eazydiner, swiggy and district. wakame in defence colony shows rs 1,200 on one and rs 3,300 on another. the lower number is usually older.
• pandara road and khan market are weekend traps. both get hour-plus queues on friday and saturday evenings and both have serious parking problems. a weekday lunch is a completely different experience.
• connaught place absorbs crowds better than anywhere else. there is simply more supply per square kilometre, so it is the right call when you have a group, no booking and no patience.
• the metro beats the cab for central delhi. rajiv chowk for cp, khan market and central secretariat for the india gate corridor, kailash colony and gk for south delhi markets. delhi traffic will eat an hour of your evening otherwise.
• winter is the season. october to march is when delhi’s outdoor restaurants, terraces and street food are all worth it at the same time. may and june are brutal and the rooftop options stop being pleasant.
• do not judge delhi by its restaurants alone. the cheapest food in the city is also some of the best, and the specialised guides below go where this one cannot.

related guides

• best restaurants in south delhi - greater kailash, defence colony, saket, malviya nagar, mehrauli
• best restaurants near india gate - the pandara road and khan market corridor in full
• best restaurants in connaught place - the cp market, room by room
• best restaurants in hauz khas village - the hkv strip, honestly assessed
• best restaurants in lajpat nagar - the afghan food district
• best butter chicken in delhi
• best biryani in delhi
• best kebabs in delhi
• best mughlai restaurants in delhi
• best chaat in delhi
• best chole bhature in delhi
• best momos in delhi
• best dhabas in delhi
• chandni chowk food guide
• paranthe wali gali complete guide
• where to eat in india on rs 500 a day
• best indian sweets by city
• best hotels in south delhi