282 Best Restaurants in India

The extremely hip Americano is always full, but it is worth reserving a table for their excellent Americano pizza (salami, fior di latte, and tomato), the handmade pasta, and perhaps the best tiramisu in the city. Once there, be sure to cast an eye over the elegant décor and menu design, all done up in shades of cerulean, cornflower, and cream. Chef Alex Sanchez’s restaurant has also made its way to Asia’s 100 Best Restaurant award listings, so that’s yet another reason to go.

Famous for its tandoor cuisine, Peshawri is rooted in the culinary traditions of the Indian North-West frontier and serves prime-cuts of meat without any gravy or sauce. Charming wooden elements and cushioned stools set this restaurant apart from its contemporary counterparts, transporting guests to simpler times.

In spite of wincing prices, teatime at Taj Mahal hotel's Sea Lounge is an iconic Mumbai icon meal and a hop, skip, and jump from Colaba Causeway. For your money, you get a blithe gentleman or lady plunking away sprightly, old-fashioned airs on a piano, an unparalleled view of the Gateway of India, five-star service, and a pageant of teatime treats---think demure cucumber sandwiches, scones crowned with jam and clotted cream, along with a retinue of pastry. Or you could choose to go further afield with Sea Lounge's extended high tea, which includes a bacchanal of Indian, Western, and South East Asian dishes. 

This sleek, modern restaurant with massive ceilings is an expat favorite in Kolkata. As the name suggests, the menu here covers a broad variety of dishes from Japan, Mongolia, Korea, Thailand, and China, all made with ingredients sourced from its very own kitchen garden.

The food at Shree Thaker Bhojnalaya (not to be confused with Thackers, another Gujarati restaurant) makes an excellent primer for those venturing into vegetarian Gujarati thalis (a limitless set meal served on a metal plate called a thali). The restaurant is tiny, cheap, rather nondescript, and hidden away amidst the warren of Kalbadevi's lanes, but the extra peregrinating is well worth it—this is as close to homey Gujarati food as you will get in this city.

This restaurant serving North Indian and Bengali cuisines is a tasteful replica of a rural house, complete with a courtyard, a well, dark wood on taupe stone, copper curios, and metal light fixtures. Delicacies like kakori (traditional sweet bread), gilafi kulcha (layered flatbread), prawn Malali curry, and boneless hilsa paturi (steamed hilsa fish in banana bread; seasonal) are wildly popular here.

Set in the upscale Quest Mall, Yauatcha, a well-regarded dim sum house, is known for great dumplings, tea, and seafood—in short, everything Kolkata is obsessive about. The crispy duck, prawn, and chicken shu mai (dumplings) seem to be the overall favorites.

This well-liked restaurant is known for its traditional and contemporary Bengali cuisine. Try the prawns or the hilsa (a local fish), wrapped in banana leaves and steamed in a mustard and coconut marinade. The buffet here is one of the best you can get in the city—it's a great introduction to Bengali dishes.

If you're searching for an authentic seafood "lunch home"—which implies unpretentious, tasty, and cheap—this old-school Kala Ghoda mainstay is spot on: slightly dingy, full of locals, with a too-cold a/c section that smells faintly of mothballs. Whichever main dish you choose, order an accompaniment of neer dosa—they are a little like rotis, but much lighter and fluffier, and made of rice; most Konkan restaurants have them, but none do them better than Apoorva.

An institution among expats and regular visitors, this health-conscious garden restaurant offers a huge menu of Indian and international dishes that eschew meat, eggs, and dairy without compromising on taste. While the food is the big draw for many, vegan or not, the ambience is equally enchanting, with a mix of shaded and uncovered seating in an enchanting plant-filled courtyard.

This airy indoor restaurant looks out on the Oberoi's gardens, with beautiful views of the Taj Mahal in the distance. Decor is stylish, with chic brown-and-white tile floors, plush turquoise booths, and dusky wooden tables and chairs.

Indian food is often perceived to be a monolith of spicy curries and tandoori chicken, but for those looking to shatter these snap judgments, Bombay Canteen is the place to go. In a brilliant effort to champion the sort of ingredients that rarely make it into restaurant dishes, executive chef Hussain Shahzad and its late culinary director Floyd Cardoz (once chef of New York restaurant Bombay Bread Bar) have wended their way around the country, subsuming ingredients like rat tail radish and colocasia roots into a playful menu with a global edge.

Served amid stone walls, rough-hewn dark-wood beams, copper urns, and blood-red rugs, Bukhara's menu hasn't changed in years, and its loyal clientele wouldn't have it any other way. The cuisine of the Northwest Frontier, now the Pakistan–Afghanistan border, is heavy on meats, marinated and grilled in a tandoor (clay oven).

Count on this award-winning, popular joint for delicious pizza and pasta—most of Delhi does—but if you're looking for something more substantial, mains like pan-seared lamb chops are also excellent, so make sure to ask about the daily specials. With classy interiors and attentive service, the setting is suited to a wine-soaked lunch or cozy dinner for two.

Like the nawabi (princely) culture from which it's drawn, this restaurant has a food selection and style that are subtle and refined. Chef Imtiaz Qureshi, descended from court cooks in Avadh (Lucknow), creates delicately spiced meals packed with flavor: dum ki khumb (button mushrooms in gravy, fennel, and dried ginger), kakori kabab (finely minced mutton, cloves, and cinnamon, drizzled with saffron), and the special raan-e-dumpukht (a leg of mutton marinated in dark rum and stuffed with onions, cheese, and mint).

Chef Niyati Rao builds Ekaa's menu around India's seasonal bounty, with each dish named after its primary ingredient like "Corn" or "Fried Chicken." The results are dishes that creatively expand on the primary ingredient with added flavors and textures, like fried chicken with soy pickle, egg yolk jam, and fermented cauliflower. Cocktails at Ekaa toe a similar line, thanks to the bar manager who comes up with delicious drinks like Petrichor, a monsoon-inspired melange of mezcal, coconut vermouth, gooseberry, and calcium stone.

At this beautifully designed Thai restaurant, you can dine on zingy salads, delicious stir-fries, and velvety curries, surrounded by fine tapestries and traditional paintings.

In the tranquil, slow-paced old village of Raia is one of the best restaurants in the state, set in the late chef Fernando's country house. Now run by his wife, the restaurant serves classic Goan and Portugese-Goan dishes, and there's live music Thursday through Sunday.

Alongside traditional Kerala fare, here you’ll find unusual dishes bearing the stamp of the Middle East, Portugal, the local Jewish community, and the days of the British Raj with some age-old recipes having been passed on to the restaurant by more than 20 local communities. The lofty, elegant dining room of this fine-dining restaurant is windowed on all sides, and capped with a gabled wooden ceiling (resembling an upturned ship) supported by massive wood beams.

At this internationally acclaimed Modern Indian restaurant, Chef Shantanu Mehrotra seamlessly blends Indian and global flavors and preparation methods, creating innovative offerings such as the pork belly tikka. Choose the chef's tasting menu for six wildly modern dishes created with typically Indian ingredients and paired with complementing wines.

This is the Mumbai outpost of Delhi’s award-winning Indian Accent, known for its contemporary twists to canonical Indian food. Chef Manish Malhotra refreshes the menu every season, offering vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, and meat-based tasting menus, as well as a special brunch menu and one for "family feasts." The food is as theatrical and fun as ever.

In a somewhat dilapidated-looking store whose homemade ice creams hark all the way back to 1953, the pick of the menu is the ice-cream sandwich (slabs of ice cream slapped between two gossamer-thin wafer biscuits). A huge chunk of the menu is available year-round, but be sure to sample the seasonal flavors (such as mango and guava).

Among the most beloved lunch spots for South Mumbai's workaday crowd, this quaint little café is the ideal spot to grab a soy latte and a quick bite while resting your feet. The fresh juices and salads are cheap but clean and safe for foreigners, the Wi-Fi is free, and the interior, while a bit cramped, is bright and pleasant---and best of all, the sandwiches, like the KGC Special (arugula, vegetarian mayo, and Padano cheese on grilled flat bread), are light but extremely tasty when snuggled up to a hot (or more preferably iced) cup of joe. It's in a popular neighborhood, just a stone's throw from Jehangir Art Gallery and Knesset Eliyahoo Synagogue.

A favorite hangout for artists and young tourists, Fort Cochin's Kashi Art Café is about as funky as Kerala gets. The front room hosts rotating exhibitions, primarily of South Indian contemporary art, and light continental fare and Western-style coffee is served in the garden café at the rear. The real treat is to experience this tiny little pocket of Kerala subculture.

Though they don't come cheap, the succulent kebabs at this hotel restaurant are perfect for those who don't want to indulge their stomachs on Muhammad Ali Road (the inexpensive, street-side haven for meat eaters). Elegant and subdued, the restaurant's drawback is the minimum 25-minute wait for your food—but good things take time, and the chicken seekh kebabs (ground chicken and spices) and the biryanis are worth the wait.

Step in for a moment of quietude at this stylish coffee shop (named for its location in the century-old building, Kitab Mahal) that doubles as a co-working space. Don’t miss the community nights here---they include anything from wine tastings to movie screenings.

One of Delhi's most popular Italian restaurants, La Piazza has been serving fine thin-crust pizzas and pastas for more than 40 years. The casual, trattoria-style restaurant is a go-to spot for celebrations, hangouts, date nights, and languorous Sunday brunches---perfect for people-watching.

Veering off from Colaba's arterial thoroughfare, Colaba Causeway, is Ling's Pavilion, a venerable Cantonese-style restaurant and Mumbai icon run by Baba Ling and Nini Ling, its third-generation owners. The décor is a sort of gracious 1970s time warp---pagoda-style roof and a likeness of a Chinese terra-cotta warrior at the entrance.