India (Frommer's, 4th Edition) (242 page)

Five-Star Culinary Flagships Where You Can’t Go Wrong

The city’s five-star hotels offer consistent, refined service, and unlike in most capitals, the (elite) locals dine at them. All listings (barring South Delhi’s Hyatt and Crowne Plaza in Gurgaon) are in Central Delhi. Expect to pay a premium.

Bukhara
(
011/2611-2233
), the Indian restaurant at the ITC Maurya Sheraton , has a busy display kitchen, where meat and vegetables hang from swordlike kebab spears and chefs slave to produce delicacies from a menu that hasn’t changed in 30 years and continues to earn accolades as one of the world’s finest Asian restaurants. Staff is for instance immensely proud that Bill Clinton apparently chose to stay at the hotel “because of our restaurant,” and there’s even a dish named in his honor. Start by ordering an assorted kebab platter and follow that up with any of the classic lamb (raan) dishes, best savored with thin butter naans. Finish off with a traditional rice-based phirni pudding or one of their amazing kulfis (ice cream). Next door to the Sheraton is the glitzy Taj Palace Hotel , where the city’s elite line up (sometimes literally) to get a table at
Masala Art
(
011/2611-0202
), which makes a very conscious (usually successful) attempt to dazzle. The chefs turn cooking into performance art, putting on engaging food demonstrations at mealtimes; spectators eat whatever delicacies are produced. Of the daily a la carte specials, look for achari jhinga (prawns flavored with raw mango), and galouti kebabs prepared with finely minced lamb and 126 different herbs. Reinventing Indian cuisine is
Varq
, the new restaurant at Taj Mahal . Absolutely sumptuous in design and cuisine, it soars higher than any of legendary Chef Hemant Oberoi’s creations so far; a mix of contemporary meets classic, innovatively using Indian recipes with exotic ingredients—prawns and asparagus curry from Calicut, meat curry cooked in a martabaan (clay pot), sea bass, and diver’s scallops—all seem to blend in effortlessly. Taj Palace also does old-school dining pretty well, so if you prefer a stiff, formal (and potentially very romantic) evening in the company of exquisite French cuisine, dress smart for
Orient Express
(
011/2611-0202
), where you dine in a posh replica of a Pullman train carriage. Enjoy preboarding drinks on the “platform,” as the bar area is called; your four-course journey is inspired by the countries through which the Orient Express passes on its Paris-to-Istanbul run, and is likely to include items such as Camembert soufflé with paprika sauce, pan-seared reef cod with raw papaya salad, and the extremely popular oven-roasted New Zealand rack of lamb, encrusted with herbs and almonds and served with lamb jus.

If you need a good excuse to swan through the lobby of The Imperial , reserve a table at
The Spice Route
(
011/2334-1234
), voted one of the top-10 restaurants in the world by Condé Nast Traveler. The decor alone is worth a visit—every nook and cranny is hand-painted by temple artists flown in from Kerala. The food takes you on a complex culinary journey, from the Malabar Coast to Sri Lanka, Malaysia to Indonesia, Thailand to Vietnam. Certainly, it has the best ever tom kha kai (classic Thai soup) and mouthwatering chemeen thoren (Kerala-style prawns).

There’s a veritable war going on among supporters of Delhi’s top Chinese restaurants. Many lean toward
Taipan
(
011/2436-3030
) at The Oberoi , where you can fill up on amazing dim sum (tiny dumplings filled with an assortment of tasty morsels, steamed, and served in bamboo baskets), best enjoyed at lunchtime with fantastic views over Delhi Golf Course. On par is the range of Oriental dishes served at the Shangri-La’s beautiful
19 Oriental Avenue
(
011/4119-1919
), where you can savor close-to-perfect Thai, Japanese, and Chinese cuisine. Thai chicken soup (flavored with galangal and lemon grass), Cantonese-style steamed red snapper (green spring onions and top-notch soy sauce bring out the flavor), and silky-smooth teppanyaki tofu steak are just a handful of recommendations from a diverse menu. There’s also an exquisite sushi bar (arguably the finest in town). The Taj Mahal Hotel boasts the excellent
House of Ming
, which is gorgeously decorated and, thanks to a recent revolution in the kitchen, has emerged as a formidable culinary force focusing on Cantonese and Szechuan cooking; it now also offers delectable dim sum and seafood selections and has an enviable tea menu. But our current favorite is Hyatt Regency’s
China Kitchen
the restaurant that has become pretty much the talk of the town and understandably so—one bite of the fresh prawn dim sum and you know you’ve arrived! The setting is refined and the Peking duck reputed to be the best in the country with much drama attached to the way it is served; we sampled 25 different dishes and loved every one, so put your money here—it’s a sure win.