Country guide

Iconic restaurants
in India

A personal selection of 5 memorable dining rooms in India: places chosen for their architecture, history, atmosphere and enduring sense of place.

Maharashtra 400001, India

Leopold Cafe

I selected it for its distinctive setting, atmosphere and sense of place.

View this place →Mumbai, India

Britannia & Co.

A fragile living record of Mumbai’s Persian migration, cosmopolitan history and rapidly disappearing Irani café tradition.

View this place →Mumbai, India

Kyani & Co.

Not conventionally luxurious, but visually authentic: a rare complete Irani café interior whose wear, furniture and social rhythm are precisely what make it worth travelling for.

View this place →New Delhi, India

United Coffee House

A theatrical yet deeply established Delhi dining room where the city’s pre-independence café culture survives in unusually formal surroundings.

View this place →Kolkata, India

Indian Coffee House, College Street

Its beauty is civic rather than polished: monumental proportions, whirring fans and generations of conversation make the room one of India’s most culturally important café interiors.

View this place →