Eating your way through Delhi, one market at a time

Chaat in one market, chole bhature in another, and a langar where nobody pays. Where to eat in Delhi, and what to order when you get there.

Delhi cooks for crowds, and the best food is often where the crowd is. A market is a good place to start, because you can eat a little in several places instead of a lot in one.

Chaat

Chaat is the city’s snack: crisp, sour, sweet and hot at once. Order papdi chaat, aloo tikki or golgappe, small puris filled at the stall with spiced water that you eat in one mouthful. Choose a stall that is busy and fills them as you eat.

A vendor serving kachori from a metal tray — Kachori near Connaught Place, served hot with a potato curry. Photo: Zoshua Colah, Unsplash.

Dilli Haat

Dilli Haat, opposite INA metro, is an open-air market with a small entry ticket and stalls run by craftspeople and cooks from different states. It is a good place to try food from the northeast or Kashmir without leaving south Delhi.

Gurudwara Bangla Sahib

The Sikh gurudwara near Connaught Place serves a free meal, the langar, to anyone who sits down, all day. Cover your head (scarves are provided), leave your shoes at the counter and wash your feet before entering. Volunteers cook and serve, and helping to wash up afterwards is welcomed.

Chai

Tea in Delhi is boiled with milk, sugar and often ginger or cardamom, and served in small glasses or clay cups from street stalls. It costs very little, and it is how most of the city starts its day.

If you are cooking

Staying in a flat with a kitchen changes how you eat in Delhi. The local sabzi market sells vegetables and fruit at a fraction of supermarket prices, and the vendors will tell you what is in season.

A vegetable stall piled with fresh produce — A neighbourhood sabzi market. Photo: Wandering Indian, Unsplash.