The Top Spots in Delhi for an Indian Breakfast
Delhi is a big city with a big appetite. Day or night, Delhiites love to sit down, order big and dig in – feasting on everything from street-food snacks to lavish fine-dining spreads. However, the all-day banquet starts early in the city. Citizens hit the streets at first light for grab-and-go quick meals of chole bhature, bedmi poori and fresh-off-the-griddle parathas.
Many of Delhi’s tastiest breakfasts are served in small hole-in-the-wall restaurants and at roadside snack stands, so look for the places teeming with Delhiites on the way to work. The following breakfast stops are great places to see how the city gets going in the morning.
1. Shyam Sweets
Food Stall, Indian
When it comes to street food, smart travellers follow the crowds into the tangled Medieval lanes of Old Delhi for the city’s best portable feasts. In the Chawri Bazar, famous for brassware, cooking pots and paper, Shyam Sweets is legendary for both its lip-smacking ladoos (Indian sweets) and its bedmi poori (fried, puffed-up bread made with wheat and urad lentil flour, and served with a spicy potato side for dipping). Four generations of chefs have guarded the family recipe, which includes dried red chilli and cumin.
2. Cafe Lota
Cafe, German, Coffee, Tea , Fast Food, Vegetarian
4. Sita Ram Dewan Chand
Restaurant, Indian
Tucked away in the tangle of lanes linking Old Delhi with the traveller hang-out of Paharganj, Sita Ram Dewan Chand is a one-hit wonder in food terms, but the chole bhature (chickpeas with fried maida-flour bread) here is so good that most people wouldn’t think of ordering anything else. The bhatura (fried leavened bread) is crisp and puffy, and not too oily, and the chole (chickpeas) are carefully spiced, leaving a fresh taste on the palate. There are no chairs, so just order and eat standing up at one of the counters. Ask for a well-prepared lassi (Indian drinking yoghurt) to wash it down.
5. 1911 Restaurant at The Imperial Hotel
Restaurant, Indian
6. Jung Bahadur Kachori Wala
Food Stand, Indian
7. Karim’s
Bar, Restaurant, Indian, Asian, Halal
Legend has it that Mughal armies marched into battle on a breakfast of nihari – a rich lamb stew slow-cooked overnight, with bone marrow adding extra vim to the gravy. It’s the perfect breakfast to set you up for the daily battle with Delhi’s traffic. Delhiites swear by the version served at Karim’s near the Jama Masjid, one of the city’s most old-school Mughlai eateries. The first plate flew out from the kitchen in 1913, using generations-old family recipes, and residents still love to drop in for a plate on the way back from Friday prayers at the city’s most famous mosque.
8. Purani Dilli
Restaurant, Indian
While haleem is a Hyderabadi dish, Delhiites have taken this rich, meaty stew of lamb and ground pulses and grains to their hearts, particularly in Muslim districts of the city. Traditionally, people eat haleem at the breaking of the fast during Ramadan, but residents now seek it out year-round at hole-in-the-wall canteens such as Purani Dilli on Main Road in Zakir Nagar, south of Nizamuddin. The measure of this centuries-old dish is the consistency, and at Purani Dilli, the haleem is silky smooth and satisfying, with just the right balance of spice and bready wholesomeness.
9. Kulcha Junction
Restaurant, Indian
With Amritsar just down Grand Trunk Road, it should be no surprise that Amritsari kulcha (fluffy, slightly leavened bread) is eaten with gusto in Delhi. Rustic Kulcha Junction, just yards from the Bangla Sahib Gurdwara on Hanuman Road, serves a crowd who demand authenticity. It’s an eat-and-go kind of place, with plastic chairs on the roadside, and the tasty kulchas – crisp on the outside, light on the inside – are slathered with butter and served with curried chickpeas and chutney.
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