Why Old Delhi is a city you eat
The court kitchen: slow-cooked meat, breads and gravies scented with saffron and cardamom came from the cooks of the Mughal court and the old Muslim families of the city.
The merchant kitchen: the Hindu and Jain trading families gave the lanes their fried breads, lentils, pickles and endless sweets.
- Old city built
- From the 1640s, as Shahjahanabad
- Main avenue
- Chandni Chowk, laid out around 1650
- Mughal layer
- Nihari, kebabs, korma, breads
- Trading families
- Parathas, puris, chaat, sweets
- After 1947
- Punjabi and Sindhi kitchens
- The refugee kitchen: after Partition in 1947, families from Lahore, Peshawar and Sindh opened shops here, and much of what the world calls Delhi food grew from them.
- Everything sorted by lane: like our walled city in Jaipur, Old Delhi gives each trade its street, and the food follows the same rule.
- Why walk, not drive: cars stop at the edge of the old city. Food here is found on foot and by cycle rickshaw.
- Why early: the best dishes are morning dishes. By ten the pots of nihari are empty and the crowds have arrived.
History on a plate
A princess's avenue: Jahanara, Shah Jahan's daughter, laid out Chandni Chowk around 1650 with a canal down its middle. The food stalls still follow the line of her bazaar.
The Mughal cooks: their descendants, by family tradition, still run kitchens in the lanes south of the avenue.
- The Bania sweet shops: the Hindu and Jain traders gave Old Delhi its fried breakfasts and its sweet shops, many run by the same families for generations.
- 1857 and after: the British filled in the canal and ran a tram down the street. The old families moved out, and the havelis filled with workshops.
- 1947: Punjabi and Sindhi families arrived from across the new border and opened shops and kitchens. The tandoor came with them.
- Butter chicken's birthplace: it is usually credited to Moti Mahal in nearby Daryaganj, opened after Partition by restaurateurs from Peshawar.
- 2021: the main avenue was rebuilt and closed to motor traffic in the day, so walking it is calmer than for decades.
How to eat well and stay well
Walk with a guide who knows the stalls: ours grew up eating in these lanes and know which kitchens are busy and clean.
Fresh and hot only: parathas, jalebis, kebabs and fried snacks made in front of you.
- Follow the queue: busy stalls turn over their food quickly.
- Skip the risky things early in your trip: raw salads, cut fruit, and chutneys or water that have been sitting out.
- Golgappe with care: the hollow puffs are filled with spiced water. Eat them only where your guide trusts the water.
- No ice on the street: and only bottled or filtered water.
- Not on landing day: rest after your flight first. Our Delhi in two days plan puts the walk on day two.
- Carry sanitiser and tissues: most stalls have nowhere to wash your hands.
The route, stop by stop
Seven o'clock, nihari behind the Jama Masjid
What it is: beef or mutton shank cooked slowly overnight with bone marrow and spices until it falls apart.
- The name: from nahar, the Arabic for morning, because it was eaten after the dawn prayer.
- How it comes: with khameeri roti, a leavened bread, and lemon, ginger and green chilli on top.
- Be on time: by ten the pots are empty.
Or, for vegetarians, bedmi puri and halwa
- What it is: fried bread stuffed with spiced lentil paste, with a spicy potato curry, then sweet semolina halwa with small crisp nagori puris.
- When: mornings only, from a handful of shops in the old city.
Tea in a clay cup
- Masala chai: tea boiled with milk, sugar, ginger and cardamom, served in a kulhad, a small clay cup thrown away after use.
- Why it matters: it settles the stomach between the heavier tastes.
By cycle rickshaw to Chandni Chowk
- The classic ride: through Chawri Bazaar to the eastern end of the avenue, high above the crowd.
- Fair pay: we choose the rickshaw pullers ourselves and pay them properly.
Jalebi and rabri at the corner of Dariba Kalan
- Where: the Old Famous Jalebi Wala at the corner of Dariba Kalan, frying for generations.
- What: spirals of fermented batter fried in ghee and soaked in syrup, eaten hot with rabri, milk reduced until thick and creamy.
Paranthe Wali Gali
The lane: family shops frying stuffed parathas in ghee since the nineteenth century.
- The fillings: potato, paneer, cauliflower, radish, lentils, and for the adventurous, banana or bitter gourd.
- How to order: three or four between you, with tamarind chutney, pickles and potato curry.
- When: mid-morning, before the lunchtime crush.
Dahi bhalla on the avenue
- What: soft lentil dumplings soaked in yoghurt with sweet and sour chutneys, perhaps the finest chaat of all.
- Where: Natraj Dahi Bhalle Wala, a tiny counter on Chandni Chowk. Expect to eat standing up.
Sindhi sweets near the Fatehpuri Masjid
- Where: Chaina Ram, founded by a Sindhi family who came from Lahore at Partition.
- What to try: Karachi halwa and ghee-rich sweets, a small box for the car.
Khari Baoli, the spice market
- Not for eating, for smelling: one of the largest wholesale spice markets in Asia, with sacks of chillies, turmeric, cardamom and dried fruit.
- The roof: with a guide, climb Gadodia Market for a view over the whole old city.
Lunch at Karim's
Where: in Gali Kababian, the lane of kebabs, near the southern gate of the Jama Masjid.
- Since: 1913. The founding family traces its ancestry to cooks of the Mughal court.
- What to order: mutton korma, seekh kebabs and fresh breads. Busy, simple and essential.
The dishes, explained
Seekh kebab: minced meat pressed onto skewers and grilled over charcoal.
Shami kebab: a soft patty of meat and lentils, fried on a flat griddle.
Korma: mutton slow-cooked in a gravy of browned onions, yoghurt and spices, the centrepiece of a feast.
- Khameeri roti: a soft leavened bread, the partner of nihari.
- Chole bhature: spiced chickpeas with deep-fried breads that puff into golden balloons. Heavy, so early in the day.
- Aloo tikki: a crisp potato cake topped with chickpeas, yoghurt and chutneys.
- Papdi chaat: crisp wafers with potatoes, yoghurt and tamarind.
- Golgappe: hollow puffs filled with spiced water, eaten in one bite at the cart.
- Rabri: milk reduced slowly in a wide pan until it thickens into sweet layers.
- Kulfi: dense frozen milk in cone-shaped moulds, sometimes frozen inside a whole mango and sliced to order.
The walk changes with the season
Winter mornings: daulat ki chaat, milk and cream whipped by hand through the cold night into a cloud of foam, dusted with saffron and pistachio. It melts away once the sun warms the trays.
Winter afternoons: gajar ka halwa, red winter carrots cooked for hours in milk and ghee, in every sweet shop.
- Daulat ki chaat
- About November to February
- Winter halwas
- Gajar ka halwa, moong dal halwa
- Monsoon sweet
- Ghevar, in the Teej season
- Ramzan
- Food stalls near the Jama Masjid after sunset
- Summer
- Kulfi, shikanji, start at dawn
- The monsoon: the shops stack ghevar, the honeycombed sweet we are so proud of in Jaipur. Read ghevar and Teej.
- Before Diwali: sweet shops at their busiest, with boxes of barfi, ladoo and kaju katli exchanged between families.
- Ramzan evenings: the lanes around the Jama Masjid fill with food stalls after sunset. We move the walk to the evening for it.
- Summer: from April to June we start at dawn and finish by nine, with kulfi and shikanji, lemon water with roasted cumin and black salt.
- Smog days: in November and December, check the air before a long walk. We shorten it if needed.
A vegetarian and Jain walk
The vegetarian route: bedmi puri for breakfast, jalebis, parathas, dahi bhalla, chaat and sweets. You miss only the kebab lane.
Jain food: many Jains avoid onion, garlic, potatoes and other root vegetables as well as meat and eggs. The old city's large Jain community means many kitchens understand this.
- Say it once: tell your guide at the start, and every stop will be chosen for you.
- The langar instead of Karim's: the free community kitchen at Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib serves a simple vegetarian meal to everyone.
- Vegans: ghee, butter, cream and yoghurt appear in almost everything here. Your guide will help, but options are fewer.
- More: our food of Delhi guide covers vegetarian Delhi in depth.
The most moving meal in the old city
Where: Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib, marking the place where the ninth Sikh Guru, Tegh Bahadur, was executed in 1675.
What: dal, vegetables, roti and sometimes kheer, sweet rice pudding, cooked and served by volunteers.
- How: cover your head, remove your shoes, wash your feet and hands, and sit in a row on the floor with everyone else.
- Receive with both hands: bread is placed in your cupped hands. Take only what you will eat.
- Give back: half an hour helping in the kitchen is a lovely way to understand the Sikh idea of service.
What to drink along the way
Masala chai: in clay cups, all year, at every corner.
Lassi: sweet or salted yoghurt, a Punjabi favourite. Ours in Jaipur is better, of course. Read lassi in Jaipur.
- Rooh Afza: a bright red rose sherbet first made in Old Delhi in the early twentieth century, especially loved during Ramzan.
- Shikanji: the lemon cooler of the summer streets.
- Thandai: milk with almonds, fennel and spices, the drink of Holi.
- Bottled water: always, between everything else.
Manners in the lanes
Eat with your right hand: the left is traditionally kept for other tasks.
Tear bread with your fingers: and use it to scoop up curry.
- Accept prasad with your right hand: a small blessed sweet offered at a temple is never refused.
- Say bas when you are full: enough, with a smile and a hand over your plate.
- Ask before photographs: most cooks are happy if you ask with a smile.
- Don't haggle over food: prices at stalls are fixed and fair.
What most visitors miss
The Lal Mandir's bird hospital: behind the Jain temple at the eastern end of the avenue, injured pigeons and parrots are cared for.
The Naughara: a tiny lane of nine painted Jain havelis off Kinari Bazaar, a quiet stop between sweets.
- The rooftop view: from Gadodia Market above Khari Baoli, kites and pigeon flocks circling over the old city.
- The cooks at work: ask to watch the paratha makers roll and stuff the dough, or the halwai stir a pan of rabri.
- Ghalib's lane: in Ballimaran, the haveli where the great Urdu poet spent his last years. Our guides often recite a couplet.
- The attar sellers: near the Jama Masjid, the old perfumers of oil-based scents, a fragrant break from frying oil.
Before you go
Come hungry: skip the hotel breakfast entirely.
Leave valuables behind: jewellery at the hotel, phone in a front pocket.
- Wear
- Closed shoes that slip off easily
- Cover
- Shoulders and knees, scarf for your head
- Carry
- Small notes, sanitiser, tissues, water
- Sunday
- Many wholesale markets closed
- Monday
- Red Fort closed, food walk fine
- Wear shoes you can lose to the dust: the lanes are wet, uneven and crowded.
- Plan a rest afterwards: lunch, a swim and a sleep before anything else.
- Weekdays are best: the trading life of the old city is busiest Monday to Saturday.
- Read ahead: our Chandni Chowk guide explains the lanes you will walk.
Delhi's lanes and ours in Jaipur
Kachori: Delhi fries its puris with lentils. Jaipur and Jodhpur fill theirs with onion. Read our pyaaz kachori guide.
Sweets: Delhi's jalebi and rabri, our ghevar. Jaipur's walled city has sweet shops every bit as old, such as LMB in Johari Bazaar.
- Bikaner in Delhi: some of Delhi's best-known snack and sweet shops were founded by families from Bikaner, famous for bhujia.
- What Delhi lacks: Rajasthani food. Save dal baati churma, ker sangri and laal maas for home. Our Rajasthani food guide tells you what to look forward to.
- A food journey: our food lover's Rajasthan begins where this walk ends.
Who will love it, and how we adapt it
First-time visitors: the best possible introduction to how Indians eat, with a guide to explain every dish.
Families: children love the jalebis and the rickshaw ride. We keep the walk to two hours and the stops sweet.
- Serious food lovers: we start at dawn and finish after lunch, with a dozen stops and the kebab lane.
- Cautious stomachs: fewer stops, all cooked fresh in front of you, and a quiet lunch at the hotel instead of Karim's.
- Evening walkers: in Ramzan, or for those who cannot face an early start, we walk the Jama Masjid lanes after sunset instead.
After the walk
The Red Fort: a short walk from the eastern end of Chandni Chowk, unless it is a Monday. Read our Red Fort guide.
A rest: three hours in the old city is a full day anywhere else.
- A grand dinner: if you still have room, Bukhara or Dum Pukht at ITC Maurya, or Indian Accent at The Lodhi.
- A cooking lesson: we can arrange one in a Delhi family home, or later in Jaipur at our haveli cooking class.
- Where to stay for an early start: The Imperial on Janpath is closest. Compare it in our guide to luxury hotels in Delhi.