15 editor picks across India.
15 modern indian restaurants worth the trip across India, editor-ranked. All cuisines in India.
Indian Accent opened in 2009 and reset modern Indian cooking in Delhi; it runs from The Lodhi hotel and ranked No. 7 in CNT India's 2025 Top 50 restaurants.
OrderThe six-course chef's tasting menu, each course paired with wine.
TipLunch and dinner both run the a la carte and tasting menus; book well ahead and ask about the lighter tasting menu.
Varun Totlani's Masque runs a 10 course foraged-ingredient tasting in a former Mumbai textile mill in Lower Parel. Ranked No. 15 on Asia's 50 Best 2026.
Raga is chef Gaggan Anand's homecoming restaurant in Delhi: a 22-dish tasting menu on Janpath Road next to Le Meridien, run day to day by chef Rydo Anton.
OrderThe full 22-dish tasting menu, including Gaggan's take on the Bombay sandwich.
TipRaga serves dinner only, every day except Tuesday, with the last seating at 21:00; book as early as you can.
Floyd Cardoz, Sameer Seth and Yash Bhanage opened The Bombay Canteen in Kamala Mills in 2015 and reframed regional Indian cooking as a tasting-format menu.
OrderEggs kejriwal at brunch, ghee roast chicken seekh at dinner.
TipSunday brunch books out a week ahead; the Canteen Experience tasting runs 3754 rupees.
Chef Niyati Rao runs a tasting-menu room on the first floor of a 1890s neo-colonial building in Fort. Ekaa landed on the Asia 50 Best 51 to 100 list in 2024.
OrderThe full sensorial tasting menu.
TipBook at least two weeks ahead; the bar at Ekaa pours a separate, shorter snack menu.
Niyati Rao and Sagar Neve's Ekaa runs a sensorial tasting menu inside the 1890s Kitab Mahal building in Fort. Debuted at No. 93 on Asia's 50 Best.
Floyd Cardoz opened The Bombay Canteen in 2015 with a tasting-menu approach to regional Indian cooking. Hussain Shahzad now leads the kitchen.
Chef Manish Mehrotra's Nisaba occupies the Humayun's Tomb Museum in New Delhi's Sunder Nursery, reworking Indian street and home food across 42 dishes.
OrderChilli tomato crab ghotala with butter buns, or the Champaran mutton.
TipThere is no tasting menu in the main room, only 42 a la carte dishes; Nisaba is about 900 metres from Indian Accent, where Mehrotra made his name.
Chef Adwait Anantwar's INJA at The Manor in New Delhi mashes Indian and Japanese technique, a tempura shiso leaf standing in for palak patta chaat.
OrderChawanmushi spiked with rasam masala and butter-poached lobster.
TipINJA sits inside The Manor hotel in Friends Colony West, the same property where Indian Accent first opened in 2009.
Cafe Lota sits inside the National Crafts Museum near Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, reworking regional Indian recipes for an open-air courtyard menu.
OrderThe Pondicherry fish curry, a coconut-based curry from the kitchen's regional rotation.
TipStart with palak patta chaat and a filter coffee, and pair lunch with a walk through the Crafts Museum galleries next door.
Primitive, a progressive Indian restaurant at Hotel Pearl Palace in Jaipur, cooks over charcoal and wood, from coal-roasted sweet potato to gajar halwa.
OrderThe coal-roasted shakarkand do pyaza and the Awadhi malai paneer, then the carrot-shaped halwa.
TipAn 11-course tasting menu in the private dining room was ₹3,500 vegetarian and ₹4,000 non-vegetarian plus taxes in 2025.
Jamavar is The Leela Palace's Indian dining room in Chanakyapuri, Delhi, where dal jamavar and chicken biryani head the list of dishes to order.
OrderThe dal jamavar, with the chicken biryani for the table.
TipDinner service starts at 18:30 at The Leela Palace in the Diplomatic Enclave; reserve ahead for weekend evenings.
The Verandah is the open-air restaurant at Rambagh Palace in Jaipur, serving inventive Indian dishes and teas at candlelit tables with live folk music.
OrderThe potato pancake mille-feuille with lentil ragout, with a pot from the tea list.
TipTime Out says it is often sold out in winter, so book ahead; Condé Nast Traveller India puts a meal at about ₹5,000 for two without alcohol.
Mirove Artisanal Kitchen on Malviya Marg in C-Scheme, Jaipur, reworks Rajasthani flavours with global dishes such as mutton ghee roast and home-made ravioli.
OrderThe masala mutton ghee roast and the dry butter chicken vada pav.
TipOutlook Traveller puts a meal at about ₹2,200 for two; the curved concrete frontage is inspired by Jantar Mantar.
Baradari is the restaurant inside the City Palace in Jaipur, serving contemporary Rajasthani dishes such as smoked lal maas with baati, indoors and outdoors.
OrderSmoked lal maas with baati and scalloped potatoes, or the pyaaz kachori with mozzarella.
TipIt sits by Gate 2 of the City Palace, so it suits a meal after your palace visit; the kitchen is open from 11:00 to 23:00 every day.
