Sorrento

Blurb: The best Italian restaurant in the NCR, to date. Cuisine: Italian Atmospherics: Shangri-La can be said to be a slow starter here in Delhi, but it’s fast gaining ground. Sorrento has a patio that feels like Italy, indoor seating that has nooks and corners, a wine cellar, and an open kitchen. Few restaurants outside…

Shang Palace

Blurb: Delhi’s first foray into Modern Chinese Cuisine: Chinese Atmospherics: Shang Palace is the signature Chinese restaurant of the Shangri-La world-wide. The de facto cuisine of all the branches is modern Cantonese. In the case of Delhi, a smattering of Yunnan and Sichuan has been added, so that, though the template is Cantonese, die-hard fans…

Zamozza

Blurb: A mixed bag of unbelievably good and ‘what the customer wants’ Atmospherics: It has much going for it, location-wise. On the ground floor of a building on Janpath, right next door to Shiv Sagar (same owner), it is down a narrow alley within the building itself. So the ceiling is a blaze of lights,…

Zura

Cuisine: Mediterranean Blurb: bookshelves, multi-level café, bar and restaurant with style and flair Gurgaon Sector 29 is a smorgasbord of restaurants and bars. Zura is for those times when you’re catching up with friends and want to nibble rather than gorge. Atmospherics: It is a breezy café with bookshelves and a laden pastry counter. You…

Imly

Cuisine: street food from all over India The eye-catching ‘train’ has fired everyone’s imagination Atmospherics: with ample parking, it is just off the main Rajendra Bhavan sprawl. Imly and its likeness to a train has, in the few weeks that it has been opened, been besieged with customers of all ages and it is easy…

Fatty Bao

Cuisine: oriental The Big Daddy is here, though in a seemingly playful avatar Atmospherics: First the location. Sangam Courtyard is on a main road in an easy to find location. Though it is packed with restaurants – some by Delhi’s most important players – Fatty Bao is the first one to start. The playful sketches…

Farzi Cafe Version 2.0

Cuisine: modern Indian Packed through the day, Modern Indian can be said to have come of age Atmospherics: At long last, Indian restaurant design is taking a few baby steps into the New Age. Zorawar Kalra’s newest restaurant, the second avatar of Farzi Café, opened in Connaught Place and has been doing roaring business since…

Smoke House Room

What do you get when you cross a bon vivant with a solitary translator of Ghalib’s poetry? You get maverick restaurateur Riyaaz Amlani. He has two sides to him. He is blessed with friends across the planet on one hand, yet on the other, he loves nothing better than to hole up in his study…

Suvarna Mahal

If you want to feel like royalty, there’s just one place in the country to make your dream come true, and that is at Suvarna Mahal, the old dining room when Rambagh Palace really was a palace. Old timers to the restaurant remember the late Rajmata dining there. Of course, the royal experience begins long…