Restaurants in New Delhi/Jaipur/Agra/Varanasi
 

While we will be on a tour and have most of our meals already covered we will have some free evenings to try some restaurants on our own...in the above cities and would appreciate any suggestions anyone might have concerning good, typical, local type restaurants. We will actually be staying in New Delhi for an additional 3 days following our tour and will be staying in the Nizamuddin East area.
Thanks, Bob

Don't miss Haldiram's, Nirula's, and Nathu Sweets - all in New Delhi. You can look up locations on Google maps = )

It is hard to know what you mean by “typical” and “local” restaurants. The cuisine of India is vastly varied, and in addition, Chinese and Italian food is quite popular there. India has a middle class equal in numbers to that of the population of the entire United States (350 million or so), and many of them eat out in hotel restaurants, so I would not rule them out entirely, as there are some very good ones, <b>Bukhara</b> and <b>Dumpukth</b> in the Maurya in New Delhi for two examples. The <b>Imperial Hotel</b> has several good restaurants (e.g. Spice Route) and is worth seeing just for the hotel itself. (Bukhara is of course well-known to tourists because Bill Clinton and Bill Gates have eaten there, but still a good experience. Dumpukth is not as well known, but IMO offers even more interesting and good food. Is it lighter and more delicate than the Indian food you may be used to. It is slow cooked by steam over several hours in sealed pots. It’s a tad more formal however.) The <b>Hotel Park</b> has several good restaurants and a couple of very lively bars which are popular with “locals”.

Very close to your hotel in Nizamuddin there is an outlet of <b>Karim’s</b> which would probably be first on my list as it may fit what I think you mean by “typical” and “local”. Also close would be the <b>Oberoi</b>, which has several good restaurants including an excellent Chinese restaurant on the top floor with nice views. About the same distance is the </b>Hauz Khas Village</b> area, the Soho of Delhi, and there are several restaurants there, one to consider would be <b>Top of the Village/Rooftop</b>, this has a nice outdoor terrace (with charming braziers for heat in winter) and often has live music. Or just wander this area of shops and galleries and find someplace you like (many shops close at 7 pm or so). The Defence Colony area is also not far from your hotel, and there is a good Italian restaurant there called <b>Flavors</b>. In this same area the <b>Hyatt Regency</b> has a very good Italian restaurant. You can also find <b>food stalls from all regions of India in Dilli Haat market</b>, this may be better for lunches, but would also work for a very casual dinner. (I don’t know what time this closes, it may be on the early side in the evening.)

If you are OK to go into Old Delhi for a meal, you could try the <b>main outlet of Karim’s</b> which is a bit more atmospheric being in the old town. (This outlet is in many guidebooks and also showed up in the NY Times a few years ago.) You can also try </b>Chor Bizarre</b>, see http://www.chorbizarrerestaurant.com/delhi.asp. I also like the Karol Bagh area a lot, a bustling area of shoppers, you could try walking that area and seeing what you like.

I don’t have any South Indian reccos for Delhi, but perhaps others will recommend some. It would be good to try something Goan or other south Indian, and is a change from the north Indian curries you most likely will be having other nights on the trip.

For the other cities on your itin, I don’t really have any reccos outside of hotels, which again I would not rule out entirely, i.e. the <b>Amarvilas in Agra</b> (go at sunset to see the Taj from their bar terrace if you don’t want to pay for sunset inside the Taj itself, or walk up there for dinner from the Taj if you go to the monument for sunset which I would highly recommend you try to do). They often have dancers in the pool area in the evening. I know that <b>Niro’s</b> in Jaipur is supposed to be good, but I have not been myself. Also in Jaipur I would certainly go to the <b>Rambagh Palace Hotel</b> to see the palace and grounds and perhaps have dinner, they sometimes have a dance or musical performance on the lawns or out back which you can go to and might be interesting. The <b>Jai Vilas</b> is also worth considering for dinner, they have a nice outdoor courtyard restaurant with dancers most evenings.

You might run a search for restaurants in Varanasi, as I believe there was a thread on this recently. Also, considering getting the <i>Lonely Planet</i> book for India and use their “top end” reccos for dining (with some caution, they have gone a bit upscale and their top end can be pricey). I believe you can purchase and download just certain sections of books from their website, if you don’t want to buy the entire book.

Karim’s
168/2, Nizamuddin West
Tel: 91-11- 2435-5458

Jama Masjid, Gali Kababian
Tel: 91-11—2326-9880

http://www.karimhoteldelhi.com/index1.html

Bukhara/ Dumpukth
ITC Hotel Maurya Sheraton Hotel & Towers
Diplomatic Enclave , Sadar Patel Marg
New Delhi
Phone 91-11- 2611 2233
Starwood.com

Top of the Village/Rooftop
Bistro Complex
12, Hauz Khas Village,
Tel : 91-11-2685-3857

There is also a Punjabi restaurant in this complex that may be worth a try.

Flavors
49-54 C, Moolchand-Flyover Park
Ring Rd.
Defence Colony
Tel: 91-11-2464-5644
http://www.flavorsofitaly.net/

Imperial Hotel
Janpath
www.theimperialindia.com

Hyatt Regency
Bhikaiji Cama Place
Ring Road,
Tel: 91-11-2679-1234

Haveli Restaurant
Taj Mahal Hotel
1 Mansingh Rd
Phone: 91- 11-302-6162
tajhotels.com

Quite good, has a nice ambience, and usually has live sitar music.

Hotel the Park
http://newdelhi.theparkhotels.com/.

Dilli Haat
INA, Aurbindo Marg

There is a small entrance fee to enter the market.

For lunch, you might consider

Basil and Thyme
Santushti Shopping Complex
New Wellingdon Camp, Delhi
Phone: 11/467-3322

This is a great place for lunch if you are shopping here, but d I don’t think offers dinner. Eclectic menu that is a mix of West and East, with some novelle cuisine as well. Fresh and tasty. The shopping area is a series of small cottages surrounded by lawns. Extremely pleasant as it is enclosed and no beggars or hawkers are allowed. Very good handicrafts shops and some great fabric stores. Shops are a bit more expensive than other shopping areas. I think there is a branch of this in Connaught Place as well, but I have not been.

Don't sit down at Bukhara without first checking menu prices, or you'll be in for "sticker shock"
We love Moti Mahal near the ITC Maurya, but it is aboot 15 min drive heading west from nizamuddin, in a lovely little street in the diplomatic area, called Malcha Marg.Yummy food and reasonable (to us) prices.

i was very disappointed with bukhara in every way....yes it is expensive, but i expected that, but the food was only so, so and the service lacked... the same menu is offered at other sheraton hotels like jaipur

we enjoyed rambaugh palace in the main dining room...

all the 5* hotels have quite excellent restaurants.... the oberoi in agra is not to be missed for grandeur and lovely dining

Thanks to all of you for your great recommendations...we will definitely try Karims,Malcha Marg and Haldirams in Delhi as well as Amarvilias in Agra........am always amazed by the amount of effort people put into responding to request for information.

Bob

In Delhi if you want to give south indian food a try , you can visit "Dakshin" at Sheraton in Saket. After eating there i realized there is so much variety of exotic dishes that south India has to offer. Outstanding food & service.

Dear Bob
try garden Restaurant at lodi road delhi and for agra try pinch of spice Restaurant aether Restaurant are touristic in agra and for jaipur try niros Restaurant or indiana Restaurant or handi Restaurant four session Restaurant at jaipur
thanks
ramesh meena

We ate at the Spice route in the Imperial and although it was nice to visit the hotel we thought the food was just ok and certainly not worth the money.
Our best meal was at the rooftop restaurant of the Umaid Mahal hotel, we had the best Butter Chicken ever it was wonderful. We also had dinner at Niro's which we also liked but the Butter chicken for our tastes wasn't as good as the Umaid.

Like a lot of other people we also dined at Bukhara on our visit to Delhi. We went there with high expectations since we had heard & read so much about it . And I must say that it was one of the best meals on the entire trip to India. Yes slightly heavy on the pocket but completely worth it for the scrumptious food & warm service.

Thanks to all of you.....by now I will have to spend most of my time eating my way through India...which sounds pretty good to me.....lots of good recommendations....in the meantime we have managed to treat ourselves to the penthouse rooom in B nineteen...and what will all the good restaurant recommendations we can't wait to get started on this trip..thanks again to all of you.

Bob & Ruth

I visited Karim's restaurant in Jama Masjid last January. I was very very disappointed, the food was oily, did not taste good and the ambiance was terrible. If one has to eat at Karim's stick with the kabobs, and visit the one in Nizamuddin. I love Bukhara and second rhkkmk choice of Isfahan at the oberoi in Agra.

The best place to be in if you want to try out food in Delhi is probably the Defence Colony A block market which is actually fairly close to Nizamuddin train station. Its got quite a bunch of restaurants with the top picks being Colonel's Kebabs for Indian BBQ, Sagar for South Indian and Swagat for Chettinad cuisine.

If you really want a top of the end choice, try Masala Art at the Taj.