Chef-led dining rooms, regional discoveries and a serious cocktail culture.
New tables, great kitchens and places worth your evening.
places on the shortlist
12 recent openings
Chef Aditya Mohan’s basement restaurant pairs London inspired comfort food with cocktails themed around the seven deadly sins.
A small, atmospheric alternative to a grand dining room, with a chef owner and a distinctive food and drinks concept.
Shantanu Mehrotra carries forward this influential modern Indian kitchen.
A defining tasting-menu destination.
Adwait Anantwar brings Indian flavours into Japanese techniques and forms.
A distinctive cross-cultural kitchen.
Andrew Wong’s menu explores China’s regions through precise contemporary cooking.
A cuisine-led destination above the city.
Regional Indian ingredients shape the cocktails, accompanied by small plates from Amninder Sandhu.
A food-and-drink pairing for diners interested in Indian ingredients beyond familiar cocktail flavours.
A craft-led neighbourhood bar from Yangdup Lama and Minakshi Singh.
Sidecar ke Kalakaar celebrates the people behind the bar through drinks inspired by artistic techniques. Sanded Smooth turns gin, Naga sumac, edamame and snow pea juice into a clarified, savoury highball.
A monochrome bar serving ingredient-led cocktails alongside contemporary pan-Asian dishes.
A considered destination for drinks with food, in Basant Lok Market.
Roberto Blondi’s counter dining includes a nine-course exploration of duck.
A highly specific tasting experience with a five-star Time Out review. Reserve ahead.
Regional comfort food meets Varun Sharma’s meticulous cocktail programme.
A recognised kitchen and bar pairing.
ITC Maurya’s enduring tandoor restaurant, known for its signature dal.
An enduring specialist in tandoor cooking.
The Leela Palace’s Japanese kitchen centres on careful seafood preparations.
An established specialist for Japanese dining.
Vaibhav Bhargava’s Japanese-leaning menu spans raw fish, robata and substantial plates.
Time Out’s four-star review praises both the kitchen and the considered cocktails.
A passcode-entry bar serving classic cocktails and drinks tailored to individual tastes.
An established Delhi address for guests who enjoy talking through a drink with the bartender.
A book-lined bar with leather armchairs and a terrace at The Leela Palace New Delhi.
Literary Mixology, Volume II turns novels into drinks, served alongside the books that inspired them. Expect pandan, rhubarb and even a frozen tomato in a programme praised by Robb Report India and Time Out.
Amninder Sandhu explores lesser-known Punjabi recipes and breads at Kikli’s second outpost.
A new Gurugram address for a regional kitchen that goes beyond familiar Punjabi restaurant staples.
Gaggan Anand and Rydo Anton bring a theatrical, progressive Indian dining experience to Janpath.
An ambitious chef-led opening reviewed by Condé Nast Traveller in August 2026.
Megha Kohli and Noah Louis Barnes combine Indian and Mexican influences.
Selected by Robb Report among notable 2025 openings; kept as a considered dining option.
Amninder Sandhu’s restaurant centres Punjabi food traditions and regional breads.
Recent Paperboard coverage brings an established chef-led restaurant back into consideration.
Shri Bala’s kitchen explores the range of southern Indian food traditions.
A focused regional proposition that extends well beyond the usual tiffin menu.
A Sri Lankan kitchen spanning hoppers, street-food references and more elaborate preparations.
A less common regional cuisine in Delhi, developed through extensive travel and research.
Mexican and Nikkei cooking with house tortillas and robata dishes.
A distinctive menu by Vaibhav Bhargava. The adjoining Selva Maya bar has a separate menu.
Vanshika Bhatia’s café brings laminated pastries, sandos and gelato to a neighbourhood format.
A technique-focused casual option for daytime dining.
A Kathmandu-born kitchen brings Nepal’s Thakali and Newari cooking to its first international outpost.
District’s September feature spotlights a specific regional food tradition, with the Gurugram branch confirmed by the restaurant.
A no-menu bar where the bartender works from your spirit and flavour preferences.
The omakase-style drinks are the draw; plan a separate dinner rather than arriving hungry.
Manish Mehrotra’s independent restaurant interprets familiar Indian flavours in a museum-side dining room.
The chef’s new independent chapter gives this destination a clear culinary reason to visit.
An all day café and wine bar combining Sicilian and Levantine influences, from house baked breads to fresh pasta and open fire cooking.
The appeal is a compact menu with a specific Mediterranean point of view, in a neighbourhood setting in Lodhi Colony.
Progressive Southern cooking served through tasting menus.
A menu-led exploration of peninsular Indian flavours.
A two-floor all-day café and bar that moves from coffee into evening cocktails.
A new option in Lodhi Colony for a daytime catch-up that can carry on into the evening.
A record bar with guest selectors, themed vinyl evenings and cocktails that take their cues from music.
An established listening address with an ambitious food menu alongside the records.
Robata cooking, playful gyoza and reworked sushi anchor this contemporary Asian dining room.
Servd Delhi’s recent feature points to a distinctive menu, supported by an August opening report.
A specialty coffee and chocolate café pairing its own roasted coffees with bean to bar chocolate and a full café menu.
The coffee and cacao programmes share the same attention to sourcing and processing, making this a useful stop for both brews and chocolate.
