20 Unique Indian Restaurants You Can’t Afford To Miss
These Indian restaurants serve a wide variety of delicious dishes — from healthy plates and artisanal food to DIY kits and meals-in-a-box. Bookmark them for future visits or order a home delivery to brighten up your lockdown days.
1. Khmer Kitchen, Bengaluru
What used to be a playwright and author Girish Karnad’s house until three years ago is now Khmer Kitchen, one of the newest entrants in South Bengaluru’s dining scene. With Cambodian cuisine at its core, the restaurant serves Southeast Asian food in an exquisite way.
Best dishes: Delicacies such as mud crab with green peppercorn, slow-cooked braised pork knuckle in a honey soy glaze, lamb shank saraman curry with a russet sauce, and Mekong fried rice are popular on the menu.
Do not forget to order dessert — the black pudding, royal pumpkin custard and crème brûlée are crowd favourites.
Pricing: INR 1,800 for two (approx.)
2. Heritage Khorikaa, Guwahati
Promoting Assamese cuisine in its home state is Chef Atul Lahkar’s Heritage Khorikaa. This humble old-school restaurant in Guwahati has zero social media presence and depends entirely on word-of-mouth marketing. It lets the food do the talking, whether you’re dining in or ordering from home. The recipes are largely inspired by Lahkar’s travels across the state and the tribal food of the neighbouring regions. Additionally, the menu is seasonal, which means the ingredients used vary throughout the year.
Best dishes: Think soulful curries, fish cooked in banana leaves, traditional barbecue, and local herb-infused preparations.
Pricing: INR 600 for two people (approx.)
3. C’est L’avi, Goa
An artisanal 12-seater table restaurants in the hills of Velim in Goa, C’est L’avi by Chef Avinash Martins is perfect for a physically distanced meal amid nature. Rustic, quaint, and peaceful, it sits on Martins’s 200-acre ancestral land of coconut and cashew plantations. A short walk on a muddy path along a riverbed brings you to the estate. The food is a way of preserving the chef’s family recipes and celebrating traditional Goan cuisine. Each meal is put together based on the guests’ dining preferences and dietary requirements, and thus requires advance booking. One can also partake in foraging and in-house feni tasting sessions.
Best dishes: Smoked duck breast, jaggery cheesecake, and fresh mussels are among their specials.
Pricing: INR 5,000 per person (approx.)
4. Nibbana, Delhi
A plush new cloud kitchen in Meharchand Market helmed by Chef Somya Budhia, Nibbana celebrates regional Indian flavours with the spotlight on traditional breads. There’s an array of curries to choose from, and the restaurant offers a dedicated keto menu. Perfect for no-cook weekdays at home!
Best dishes: Go for modern starters such as thepla tacos filled with mushroom, kachoris made of laal maas, and much more. The mouth-watering combos include Kashmiri girda roti served with raw mango curry, meat kulcha with chholey, Hyderabad-style rumali roti with soya chaap, and akki roti from Karnataka paired with Mangalorean chicken.
Pricing: INR 450 for one order (approx.)
