Indian Restaurant suggestions:
 

We are looking for reliable restaurants in the following places:

Delhi--2nd visit--- south delhi
Gurgaon area of delhi
Varanasi
Jaipur--2nd visit
Udaipur
Jodhpur
Jaisalmer
Bikaner

Kathmandu and surrounds

we prefer those with "western standards" of hygiene, upscale at moderate price, combo meat and veggie, center city mostly, and ones simply not to be missed.

specific dishes you found memorable would be welcome as well.... we love indian food of all kinds except lamb.

For the Kathmandu area:

There is a lovely courtyard cafe at the museum at Patan's Durbar Square. We had excellent Thali there. Don't miss the museum, as many consider it the "best" museum on the subcontinent.

In Kathmandu: Ghar-E-Kebab on the Durbar Marg inside the Everest Hotel. Only open for dinner.

There is a cafe inside the Garden of Dreams. It's a lovely setting and the menu looked good. We wished we could have tried it.

Bawarchi, an Indian restaurant in the Lazimat area of Kathmandu.

1905 on the edge of Thamel is located in an old house and garden. We had a table on the bridge over the pond – a beautiful setting. The service was slow, the food was pretty good. They serve a wide variety of foods, but the emphasis at lunch seemed to be Mediterranean cuisines.

The Hyatt has an Italian restaurant - excellent, but pricey by Kathmandu standards.

Bob, where are you staying in Udaipur? Our favorite restaurant and the favorite of several others on this forum is Ambrai - fabulous lake views and great food. It is not technically in city center but close enough. Restaurants worth trying that are actually in city center with good views of the lake include the restaurant at the hotel Jagat Niwas (good) and Jaiwana Haveli (better views of the lake but only fair food). All three restaurants offer open air dining to add to the ambience. I do not recall what we ate at any of these places - sorry...

Errr - the courtyard cafe in Patan was serving a buffet for tour groups when I was there. Approach with caution. The Watshala in Bhaktapur was better.

Places in Kathmandu:
La Dolce Vita: OK
Third Eye: curry so-so, dal not bad, expensive
Galleria Cafe: skip
Garden of Dreams: incredibly slow service, food not memorable
Thamel House: OK

Are you staying at the Courtyard?

thursdays - so sorry to hear about the courtyard cafe. I now remember I read that in your trip report. And I'm sorry to hear the Garden of Dreams cafe wasn't as good as it looked. Do visit the garden, Bob, but heed thursdays cautions.

Bob, where are you staying in Varanasi? We had all of our dinners at the Dophin Restaurant at our hotel, the Rashmi/Palace on the River. If you are not staying there, it would be worth stopping in for a meal just for the view and the food was consistently good. Be forewarned that there are several flights of stairs to climb to get to the restaurant. Other than our hotel restaurant, there didn't seem to be many "safe" dining options in Varanasi.

Ambrai in Udaipur was lovely. Can't remember waht we ate, but it was a great meal.

In Varansi, Bread of Life is a nice, though casual place. it was very clean, and had both Indian and Western "hippy" foods, eg banana pancakes and an Indian take on nachos. It is on the main street that goes from Main Ghat area to Assi Ghat. It's about 2/3 of the way to Assi Ghat on the left (river) side of the street. Take a cycle rickshaw.

We also had a great meal at Kerala kitchen (or perhaps Kerala Cafe?). I can't remember exactly where it was located, as a local took us there for lunch.

In Delhi, there are several places you'd like at Khan Market. I cant recall any specific names. Did you eat lunch at Basil and Thyme in Santushti Market? I go there every time I'm in Delhi.

yes we ate at B&T and would eagerly return there...

we are at the hyatt in kathmandu---courtyard seemed over the edge for us..

in varanasi we took lcuy's suggestion and are staying at the Temple on the Ganges, similar to the place you stayed i think but slightly further from the action--read, more quiet.

these all look good and will now give K something to investigate.

at udiapur we are at the sheraton udaipur palace on one of the lakes.

we have a full time driver westward from delhi so getting any place should be easy

thanks all...

Got room for me???
>:-)

Bob I just ate at Gaggan in Bangkok the "molecular gastronomy" place you email everyone about, the one with the WSJ review. Nice!

Bob, when we stayed at the Hyatt in Katmandu we ate several meals at the Italian restaurant at the hotel and it was excellent. Very good food and excellent service. High prices by Katmandu standards, but worth it, IMO especially when you are hungry at the end of a long day of sightseeing and do not want to leave the hotel. Also, when we were there, there was a one hour cultural show (free) in the lobby one evening which we enjoyed. I don't know if they still have it, but you could ask at check in.

Hey Bob. I can't believe you are going on such an extended trip to India! I'm so jealous!

I think I have mentioned the restaurant "Indiana" in Jaipur before. It's outdoors with those fire warmers (in January) with simply wonderful dancers in the courtyard. Very casual,iIncredibly cheap, yet delicious. Full meal with Kingfisher beers, cost about $25 for two. I loved it.

We stayed at the Jagat Niwas (good birianis) in Udaipur and ate all our meals there except for dinner one night at Ambrai -- lovely views of both the Taj Lake Palace as well as the City Palace. Can't remember what we ate either, although I do remember the meal was tasty. (We went to India to see stuff, not to dine, so we didn't go out of our way to find interesting restaurants. We like most Indian food, so ate it all the time we were there.)

The Jagat Niwas doesn't have an elevator and the restaurants are on the top two floors, so be prepared to climb some mongo steps to get your dinner if you choose to go there.

We also had dinner at Indiana in Jaipur (our driver, Ram, arranged it for us for our wedding anniversary). It is very touristy, but we had a good meal of lamb and danced around the fire with the Rajasthani folk dancers. Remember that we're former Hoosiers, so it was Old Home Week for us. We had lunch at Samodi Haveli which was pleasant -- we sat out in the courtyard and were the only guests. I've read that it's touristy, but didn't see any tourists other than ourselves.

We had an interesting and tasty meal at the Taj Hari Mahal in Jodhpur (lamb again and this particular dish is a specialty of Jodhpur) -- spicy and yummy with naan and raita. The waiter told us one serving was enough for the two of us. I'm sure you can find other meats besides lamb, but it's the predominate red meat in India (beef is forbidden to Hindus), although you might be able to get goat. It has a stronger flavor than lamb, so you might not like it either. We didn't see any pork. Chicken is widely available.

We had a delicious lunch in Jodhpur at a place called Gypsy -- it's upstairs somewhere in the city -- they bring carousels of dals and rice, pickles and breads -- we had a wonderful crumbly biscuit with a yellow dal poured over it. I think it might have been something called "bada" or "vada" made from urad dal formed into a patty and deep fried. I tried to make it recently, but was not what I'd hoped. Once I get settled here in Austin, I'll try again to make it.

Check into an Indian cookbook (if you haven't done so already). I love Yamuna Devi's "Lord Krishna's Cuisine" to learn all you might want to know about Indian food and the religious significance of it. Wish I were going with you . . .

thanks...

will we be the first westerners ever to go to bikaner? i guess it will be one of those places where a white man has never been seen before-- The real india!

Sorry Bob - there are others who have gone before you to Bikaner. We almost added it to our trip, but didn't think we had enough time and were not sure about those rats!

Sh-h-h-h. Don't tell him about the rats.

dgunbug is talking about the OTHER Bikaner. The one you are going to has never before been seen by white man. It was only last week that someone stumbled through a pass in the mountains and found their Lost Horizon; they called it <i>Bi-kaner</i> and opened a heritage hotel.

You will be the first.

Expect wide-eyed wonder. They may possibly think you're a God.

Bob we were in Bikaner but.....I have no idea where we ate! Sorry. I am beginning to think that we did not actually have dinner that night or that we ate in the hotel. Where are you staying?
Dog.....Rats??? what rats???!!!!

http://www.lovethesepics.com/2011/04...emple-32-pics/

I await rhk's trip report with great interest.

Jules - what did you do in Bikaner? You may have missed the leading attraction!

jules must have been in the other Bik--ner....

because there had been no B reporting here i was confident that we will be the first....

along that line can any one give me suggestions as to how we should act.... should we be all powerful in the British tradition in india.... should we be malable.... should we be scared.... should we be like a conquering despot??

confused and afraid...

dgunbug oh we certainly saw the leading attraction of the "R" temple!! The smell was not to be forgotten! That was just in short snifs in Feb I can only imagine what it must be like for intrepid July travellers.

Perhaps I should look at my trip report to see if I mention dinner?!

I can't remember who said this. Someone wise.

'You must learn how to be King...'

'<i>Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them...".</i>

"because there had been no B reporting here i was confident that we will be the first.'

http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...-travelawg.cfm
http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...p-in-nepal.cfm
http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...afantastic.cfm

The goddess Cicerone graced Bikaner while you were still counting pennies at the bank:

http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...ays-in-feb.cfm

Here's Jules' report and some others:

http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...afantastic.cfm

http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...n-question.cfm

http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...m#last-comment

Very strange, thursday. Your post wasn't there when I did mine.

For Varanasi there's not that much choice, we stayed at the Ganges View on Assi Ghat and ate Thaili's at the Haifa restaurant a couple of minutes walk away, that was the place that served us beer in a teapot. (No alcohol is served in Varanasi)We also had 2 other options recommended to us but we never ate at them they were Varuna and Keshari.

Jaipur, we had meals at Niro's and Copper Chimney which were both good but because we were quite tired on our first night we ate at the rooftop restaurant of our hotel (Umaid Mahal)and had the best Butter Chicken we've ever ate, nothing has matched it since so we've now given up ordering it.
We didn't manage to eat here but friends ate at the Laxmi Mishthan Bhander and liked it although I can't remember if it's only vegetarian food.

Jodhpur, our favourite was "On the rocks" it's a garden restaurant with all little glittering tealights on the trees, it was such a pretty place that anything we ate would've been worth it but the food was very good.

Udaipur, as others have said Ambrai is a favourite but also Whistling Teal was good, we also had a look at the Savage Garden menu which was recommended to us but the menu is Italian so as we are from Italy we gave it a miss but if you're a bit fed up with Indian you might give this a try, the place was packed so it must be quite good. We were staying at the Jagat Niwas Palace and ate there one evening but we made the mistake of ordering the Butter chicken which as I'v already said was nothing compared to the one we had in Jaipur at the Umaid Mahal.

@Marija - it was odd - it didn't go up when I first posted it. I assumed it had been eaten by some lurking web bug and went to bed. Maybe Fodors has put me on preview???

all great suggestions... k is getting busy doing her research on each one...

in B we are at the hotel bhanwar niwas---"real india"??

"No alcohol is served in Varanasi" - incorrect.

We had beers every night at the Dolphin Restaurant.

We (regrettably) drank wine at the Taj Ganges in Varanasi.

Marija not to worry you didn't sin as the rule only applies to a certain distance around the river so all the hotels not situated near are allowed. Now you Craig were very naughty as no meat, eggs or alcohol are allowed near the river and the Dolphin being right on it is way out of line serving beers.
Seriously, I think the distance is 500 metres from the river but I could be wrong, it could be more. The restaurants don't keep alcohol on the premises not even hidden somewhere and there are strict controls but they usually send a child out for some who comes back with it wrapped up in paper and it's mostly served it in a teapot so that it looks like tea, I am therefore surprised that the Dolphin serves it so blatantly.
We also bought a bottle of wine from a shop near the Haifa but it was all very hush hush.

I regret not the sinfulness of my deed but the poor quality of the Indian wine.

Perhaps in vertical distance we were okay :-)

At least we didn't eat any meat - hopefully the gods will go easy on us...

Appreciate these recommendations in cities Bob has asked about. Could anyone make further recommendations for Orchha, Gwalior or Khajuraho restaurants?

We ate at the Orchha Resort and were quite pleased. Our initial impression of the dining room was not favorable. The room was pretty empty and featured a buffet which we didn’t want to eat. (As part of our stay-well strategy we only ate buffets at breakfast when there was no alternative.) The vegetarian items on the lunch menu were not particularly appealing and we ended up selecting vegetable kabobs and a potato dish. We were very surprised when they turned out to be excellent. The vegetable kabobs were more like cooked vegetable patties with wonderful seasonings. Based on the success of this dish we tried ordering vegetable kabobs at other places but they just weren’t as good.

i can't wait for my first beer or gin and tonic with a hamburger on my balcony overlooking the river, in fact almost touching the river..

Restaurants in South Delhi- McD, Cosy and Naveen Restaurants
Restaurants in Central Delhi - Saravana Bhavan, Nirulas, Bhowani Junction and Parikrama.

"No alcohol is served in Varanasi." You can bring miniatures of alcohol and drink in your room, which we did a couple of times in various hotels, not wanting to offend the sensibilities of our hosts.

In Gwalior, we stayed at the Usha Kiran Palace ("the second palace," as the houseboy called it) and had good food in their dining room. Hard as hell to find the hotel, though . . .

i do not mind offending them if they do not mind offending me...