Every month I tell myself that maybe the barrage of new restaurants and bars opening in India will slow down, and every month, I'm proven wrong.
May is a strange, generous month. The wine bars are multiplying in Delhi, the new hottest thing on the menu is listening bars, Mumbai is leaning into nostalgia, and Bengaluru got a Ritz speakeasy where the staff wear cloaks. It's a lot, it's fabulous, it's fun, and I'm surprised that we still find ways to be more inventive than ever.
One note before we begin: there are now two restaurants in this country called Nōdo, opened independently, by different teams, in different cities, in the same month — Khan Market does Pan-Asian grab-and-go, Andheri does a ramen counter that wants to be your weekday lunch the way khichdi already is. So, please don't be confused. Just have faith that you'll be given good recommendations as you read on.
This is a 45-seater speakeasy that has decided, against every prevailing instinct in Delhi, that wine bars will work in Delhi. The Charcoal Project has done the room in a New York loft register — low light, deep sofas, shelves stacked with books and small artefacts you'd want to steal — and the energy moves from quiet to social as the night thickens. The wines come from smaller, family-run vineyards and they show up in the cocktails: a Vineyard Picante with rosé and clarified green grape oleo, a Winemaker's Espresso built on grape reduction and cocoa-nib-fat-washed vodka. Order the Hot Gossip — vodka, clarified tomato, black pepper — with the hot honey brie crisp.
Listening bars are having a slow-burn moment in this country — Genre in Defence Colony, For The Record in Panjim, The Listening Room in Kala Ghoda — all of them quietly importing the logic of Tokyo's jazz kissa, where the music is the event and you are, mercifully, not. There's no DJ here, and no playlist optimised for reels. There is, instead, a record, an hour, and the increasingly radical proposition that you might enjoy hearing a song from start to finish. Bring someone you actually want to talk to. Or don't talk at all. That's allowed here.
CinCin's first outpost outside Bombay has now landed on Golf Course Road, sharing a building with Nara Thai (both ABNAH projects). The 110-cover space leans hard into Italian-summer staging — a bright yellow Fiat parked inside the restaurant with its bonnet piled with blood oranges and lemons, a corner that says "Mentally in Italy" in case you missed the memo, a mosaic-tiled pizzeria you can peek into, and a separate CinCineria handling the coffee program. The food is comfort-first Italian without gimmicks: the Maiali Di Bombette (grilled pork belly stuffed with tomme-style pecorino, finished with a smoky house barbecue) is the order, the Tajarin gets fresh black truffle shaved tableside, and the Lasagna Di Funghi is the kind of pasta you finish even when you'd promised yourself you wouldn't. Drink the 1889 Secret and have a slice of tiramisu before you go. Cincin, indeed.
In M Block Market, La Tarté is doing a wine bar and an espresso bar in the same space. Founder Raayyaana picked it up over years in New York and has translated it into M Block Market. The space evolved out of a legacy bakery, but the real draw is the daily workshop programme — groups of 10 to 15, moving through pasta, pizza, risotto, grills and the occasional dessert; wine tastings and cocktail-making thrown in for variety. Smaller groups get a dedicated chef, which makes it even more fun.
Most restaurants that call themselves "culinary-first cocktail bars" are bluffing. The First Floor is not. The food and drinks were built alongside each other, which you notice the second the Sesame Prawn Sando arrives next to a glass of something that has clearly been thought about for too long. Yumit Kumar — Sidecar, Naar — runs the bar with an ingredient-led, waste-aware programme, and his cocktails are quite interesting. Try Dealer's Choice (tequila, kimchi, Thai chilli), or She's Still Here? (pisco, melon, wasabi), or — and I cannot believe I'm typing this with a straight face — the Fake Orgasm, which is Irish whiskey, banana, almond and red wine. Order the Korean American Lamb Chops and the Coconut Laksa Curry with mantou.
Daryaganj's most elevated format first opened in Bangkok earlier this year, which makes the Delhi launch feel like a safer homecoming bet. It seats 150-plus, with private rooms for 8, 12 and 20, and the experience has been built out with a live tawa and chaat counter, Chef Theatre Nights, and Studio Nights with live performances. The menu sticks to the brand's North Indian DNA but adds a Daryaganj Gold list — Dahi Bhalla Bingsu, Gol Gappa Trio, 24 Karat Mutton Biryani, Daulat Ki Chaat — and revisits legacy recipes from 1947 like Jelly Fruit Cream Custard and Nargasi Kofta. There's also a Five Senses Curries section built to engage aroma, sound and flavour.
The Delhi Nōdo (yes, this is the other one) is India's first dedicated grab-and-go Pan-Asian kitchen. The sushi sits under a sub-section called The Tokyo Street and the dim sum runs from cream cheese with chilli oil to butter garlic prawn. Packaging has clearly been thought through — spill-proof ramen bowls, structured sushi trays, secure dimsum boxes — which is the bit most takeaway places get wrong.
Chef Vanshika Bhatia (Le Cordon Bleu, Noma, Gaggan) is trying to close the gap between café aesthetics and café food, which in India is currently a wide one. Coffee is sourced across three Indian regions — Karnataka for body, Andhra Pradesh for caramel-toned balance, Nagaland for citrus-forward 100% Arabica — and roasted in-house. The matcha programme is rare for India: white chocolate sea salt, strawberry cold foam, matcha affogato. Food is where it really separates itself, with Parmela Anderson (eggplant mozzarella) and Chuck Bass (jerk-spiced chicken) filling up the menu.
Chef Beena Noronha (formerly Scarlett House, Gigi) has built a 14-seater that is essentially a love letter to the 1980s American diner — red vinyl booths, checkerboard floors, chrome, a gumball machine, and a washroom that drops into a Michael Jackson disco mode when you walk in. The food matches the volume: burrata with pistachio pesto and hot honey on focaccia, slow-cooked Mangalorean pork in ciabatta, a lamb birria melt, truffle mac and cheese stuffed into a burger bun. Sundaes, milkshakes, coke floats. It's small, loud, and has no interest in holding back.
Specialty Restaurants Limited's new Pan-Asian project on Linking Road, and one of the first places in India to seriously engage with Chuka and Itameshi — Japanese cooking through Chinese and Italian filters. Sumessh Menon Associates has done the interiors around the idea of "Asian sound, soul," with a brass-and-bronze palette across three zones. Chef Sahil Singh leads a menu that runs from one of Mumbai's largest sushi programmes (Hamachi Jalapeño Roll, Aburi Toro Nigiri, omakase) to Chuka comfort bowls (Mapo Tofu with miso butter rice, Dan Dan Udon) to Itameshi plates — Udon Carbonara with Kurabuta bacon, Wafu Pizza with shiso pesto. The cocktails lean playful: Amai Netsu (red velvet gin, cream cheese, Campari), Tsuchi (shiitake-infused whisky, soy maple, vermouth).
A 130-year-old bungalow in Ranwar Village that has served as a Bollywood backdrop for years, has finally been restored as a shared neighbourhood space. The single major intervention was opening the ceiling for a glass skylight that reveals a 30-foot height; everything else (wooden frames, arched doorways, cast iron railings, old latches) was left exactly as found. There's a tap from an 18th-century Portuguese church and cabinets restored from old homes. The food is built for return visits: Turkish eggs with garlic yoghurt and chilli olive oil, Butter & Garlic Cream scrambles, quinoa poha, paratha pockets, French toast, sourdough toasts, sandwiches, slow-cooked keema, Goan-style vindaloo, citrus piri piri grilled chicken. The house specialty coffees are worth flagging — Smoked Cinnamon Cappuccino, Bourbon Vanilla Latte, Cinnamon Cold Brew & Tonic — alongside a proper matcha menu.
Sisters Chef Harshita Bhatia and Ankita Bhatia have opened a 6,000 sq. ft., 120-seater Italian space designed as an art parody of Italy itself. Harshita trained at Culinary Arts Academy Switzerland and the CIA; she handles the food, while Ankita runs hospitality, music, and table styling. The pasta uses '00' flour and durum semolina; the wood-fired pizzas come out lightly charred and properly structured. Standouts: Beetroot and Goat Cheese Salad, Polpette Con Polenta (lamb meatballs in rosemary truffle sauce), Pappardelle Verde, and a family-style tiramisu with house-made savoiardi. Bar Manager Tanmay Vepathak's cocktails are good — try the Raspberry Croissant Punch (raspberry jam, croissant, tequila, mezcal), the Pickle Martini (gin, fino sherry, bianco vermouth), or the House Limoncello Spritzer made with their in-house limoncello.
Pinky Chandan Dixit's project, built around Gujarati and Indian home cooking the way it actually shows up at home — a single bowl of moong dal khichdi, a Ravioli dal dhokli treated almost like pasta, or a full thali of roti, shaak and kadhi. The menu brings back things that have largely fallen off restaurant menus: Makai ki raab, Moong ka pani, Makai and nachni khichu, Rassa wali moong panoli alongside Dhokla, Muthiya, Handvo. There's a live chaat counter and a live Panki station, which adds a bit of theatre. Seasonality runs deep — when mango is in, it shows up everywhere, from Kela kaju karela shaak with aamras to Mango fajeto and Mango sandesh ravioli.
This place is not to be confused with the Delhi Nōdo — this one is a ramen and donburi counter from Raunak and Digvijay, opening in Andheri with a very specific argument: that a bowl of ramen should feel like a bowl of khichdi. Warm, honest, weeknight food. Nothing is Indianised; what's been adapted is the context — speed, ease of walking in, no booking, no dressing up. Tonkotsu broths simmered for hours, cleaner shoyu and miso variations, donburi piled over short-grain rice, and small plates like miso butter corn ribs, a cucumber salad, and karaage tossed in togarashi. As Raunak puts it: they're asking to be a weekday lunch.
Rupesh Acharya and Prateek Todi have opened a South Indian café that's trying to fit between the standing tiffin spot and the full Udupi sit-down. It takes its cue from Bengaluru's everyday tiffin culture but builds it out with community seating and a visible kitchen. The menu stays close to home — benne dosas, idlis, filter coffee — with a few small departures: idli shakshouka, mushroom podi masala, lotus stem crisps, pistachio filter coffee, banana jaggery ice cream.
This is a mithai shop redesigned as a retail experience. Out go the glass counters and packed displays; in come structured layouts. The sweets are familiar — kaju katli, nolen gur peda, mohanthal — but made with A2 ghee, while savouries and chaat are cooked in olive oil. There's a live dessert studio where you can customise laddoos and watch Bengali sweets being made.
Punam H. Singh's new 1,450 sq. ft. bistro and bar, designed to move with the day rather than commit to a single occasion. Inside, there are arched ceilings and textured walls. Chef Gregory Bazire's menu reflects that flexibility: Feel Good Bowl and The Crispy Green in the morning, Tokuri with toast, congee with ginger and fritters; later, the Grand Paratha with confit garlic lamb, Avocado Tartine on house-baked shokupan, Lamb Kimchi Sando, Gateway Rawas with idli crust, Moroccan spiced lamb with chickpea mash, and a Rice Sandwich inspired by onigarazu. The bar, built with Spill It, is structured into Foundations, Expressions and Intervals — Regal Rosetta, Marine Drive Martini, The 6pm Show, Art School Dropout, plus lighter pours like Jazz Age Spritz and Space Jam, and a classics list including Paper Plane and Hanky Panky.
Mumbai has a new vegetarian café from first-time restaurateurs Meyuri Shethia and Charmi Ajmera, built around the food they ate while travelling. It's vegetarian-leaning but eggetarian-friendly, which gives the menu enough flexibility. Chef Vinayak Mhatale's menu spans poke bowls (the Brain Booster and Hot & Spicy are both worth ordering), a Buddha Bowl, a Lebanese Bowl, Truffle Mushroom Scrambled Eggs, Akuri, Shakshuka, and toasts that lean indulgent — Hot Honey Truffle, Truffle Mushroom Melt, Podi Paneer Sandwich. There's a DIY ramen station, and the matcha menu (strawberry matcha, cloud foam) is the sleeper hit.
A reservation-only speakeasy at the Ritz that leans fully into theatrics — you're led in rather than walking in, staff are in cloaks, and the room runs on low light. The drinks are framed as "poisons" but the actual technique is precise: Japanese whisky with oolong and walnut, red wine with cognac and hibiscus, vodka with saké and bergamot. Food sits in the background — duck with fruit, truffle mascarpone tartlets, cauliflower cannoli — and the night closes with a sharp palate-cleansing "antidote." It's a bit, but it's a well-executed one.
Flavours of Modern Orient, but please don't hold the name against them. Built out of extensive travel through Vietnam and Northern Thailand, it moves past the global-favourites version of either cuisine. Banh Beo from Hue (steamed rice cakes with mung bean, shrimp floss, nuoc cham) sits next to Kaeng Hang Lay, the slow-braised Lanna pork curry that's defined precisely by its lack of coconut milk, and Hanoi-style Bun Cha that you actually assemble at the table. It's the most considered take on these cuisines we've seen in the city.
Chef Azaan Qureshi's restaurant carries serious lineage — his grandfather, Imtiaz Qureshi, is the man behind Dum Pukht — and Kesar Bagh stays close to that legacy: dum cooking, Awadhi technique. It's set inside a restored Portuguese home with multiple rooms, old doors, rugs and shaded courtyards. The food is exactly what it should be — kakori kebabs, murgh chandi tikka, dum biryani, shahi nehari, jhinga dum nisha. The bar plays with familiar Indian flavours without overworking them: Raqeeq (vodka, betel leaf, gulkand), Tarannum (tequila, curry leaf, jalapeño), Shifa (scotch, saffron, honey).
Goa has something to offer for everyone, and now they’ve added an excellent new Italian restaurant to their roster. Executive Chef Shardul Nigam runs the broader culinary direction; Chef Alessio Cosma Amodio handles Casa Limone specifically, drawing on European kitchens. The menu is structured around classical formats — Burrata Pugliese, Tonno Tonnato, Gamberi Genovese, Arancini, Truffle Bomboloni; Neapolitan-style pizzas (Scamorza & Truffle, Prosciutto Crudo, Diavola); handmade pasta and risotto including Spaghetti Limone e Gamberi, Tortellini all'Astice, Risotto ai Frutti di Mare, Tagliatelle alla Bolognese. The interiors do southern Italian cues — citrus tones, whitewashed surfaces, tiled textures — without tipping into Amalfi cosplay.
A new rooftop at Taj Club House with sweeping views of the Chennai skyline. The kitchen pulls from Indian, Asian and Western grilling traditions — Edamame with sea salt or pepperoncino to start, Marinated Gordal Olives with Beetroot Tzatziki, a Chicken Katsu Bao with Tonkatsu sauce, Duck Rillette Sliders with jalapeño-mint chutney, California rolls, Spicy Tofu Roll, Crispy Prawn Uramaki, water chestnut and mushroom dumplings, Persian lamb skewers, Harissa-spiked prawns with roasted grape salsa. It's an evening built to stretch.