Tomar fort, Sultanate capital, Mughal Shahjahanabad and a colonial New Delhi laid out beside them — the ruins here are not scattered, they are layered.
1052
Lal Kot
The Tomar Rajputs wall the ridge.
1192
Sultanate
The Qutb rises on temple columns.
1648
Shahjahanabad
Shah Jahan moves the Mughal court.
1931
New Delhi
Lutyens' capital is inaugurated.
Price per person₹ under ₹300₹₹ ₹300–1,000₹₹₹ ₹1,000–3,000₹₹₹₹ over ₹3,000
Opened in 1913 in the lanes below the mosque by a family that claimed descent from Mughal court cooks, serving the same slow-braised mutton the old kitchens did.
Order the mutton burra, nihari (mornings) and korma. Go to the original in Gali Kababian, not the branches.
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Next door to Karim's since 1947, quieter and often preferred by locals, continuing the Mughlai kebab tradition of the old walled city.
Try the mutton stew, seekh kebabs and the sheermal.
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A single alley of fried-bread shops, some working since the 1870s, off the street Jahanara Begum laid out in 1650. Nehru and Indira Gandhi were regulars.
Pick one of the old shops (Pt. Gaya Prasad Shiv Charan is the best known) and try something unusual such as rabri or papad parathas.
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A corner stall at the mouth of the silver bazaar, frying thick ghee jalebis since 1884.
Ask for them hot from the pan; the stall also serves aloo-samosa in the mornings.
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A tiny kiosk near the Central Bank corner selling two things since 1940: dahi bhalla and aloo tikki.
Eat standing at the counter, as everyone does.
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A family kulfi shop in Kucha Pati Ram for more than a century, known for kulfi frozen inside whole mangoes, pomegranates and oranges.
The stuffed mango kulfi is the one to try, best in the summer months.
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Founded in Lahore's Anarkali Bazaar in 1901 and re-opened in Delhi by the family after Partition, famous for karachi halwa beside Fatehpuri Masjid.
Buy karachi halwa and pinni to carry home; they keep for days.
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A Partition-era family stall that made chole bhature Delhi's breakfast, still frying them stuffed with paneer in a Paharganj lane.
Go before noon; it closes early once the batter runs out.
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A Partition-era restaurant that claims to have invented butter chicken and dal makhani — a claim its rivals contest in court.
Order the butter chicken with garlic naan at the original Daryaganj restaurant.
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Since the late 1970s the city's most famous North-West Frontier restaurant: tandoor kebabs and a black dal simmered overnight, eaten with your hands at low tables.
Book ahead. Order the dal Bukhara, sikandari raan and the family-size naan.
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Delhi's most acclaimed modern Indian restaurant and a regular on Asia's 50 Best list, reworking Mughal, Punjabi and street dishes as tasting menus.
Book well ahead and choose the tasting menu.
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The courtyard café of the National Crafts Museum, serving regional dishes from around India made with millets and local grains.
No reservations; expect a queue at lunch on weekends.
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