This year’s awards come with the same qualifications as always. These are not the most popular restaurants in Delhi.
They may not even be – on an objective basis – the city’s best restaurants. But, for better or for worse, these are the places I go to. And the personal awards are for the people who have impressed me most over the last year.
1. Best Chinese (Hotel restaurant): The China Kitchen, Hyatt Regency.
Ever since it opened half a decade ago, China Kitchen has rewritten all the rules for Chinese restaurants in India. Created by global Hyatt chefs along the lines of the chain’s successful restaurants in mainland China, the outlet broke with tradition by staffing its kitchen with a brigade of chefs from the People’s Republic. While this led to language problems and some initial confusion, it also provided an authentically Chinese experience.
The menu (especially under the current chef) leans towards the spicy food of Hunan and Sichuan but the restaurant’s stand-out dish remains the same: a killer Peking Duck, with skin and meat so good that you should really eat them on their own without bothering with the pancake.
2. Best Chinese (Standalone) : Royal China, Nehru Place.
The Royal China group in London is a loose federation of separately owned properties, some of which are very good and some of which are just so-so. It is the same in India. The two Bombay Royal Chinas opened well but have slid into dull mediocrity. The Delhi outpost, on the other hand, has different owners from the Bombay branches and standards remain high.
The restaurant’s strengths remain the dim sum brunch and the quality of the cooking. Its weakness remains the location: an ugly office block in Nehru Place. But prices are reasonable for food of this quality and, so far at least, Royal China has successfully negotiated the fine line between serving authentic Chinese food and giving Delhi’s Punjabis what they want.
3. Best India (traditional): Bukhara, ITC.
