Where to eat this May... in Delhi and NCR

May brings a bunch of new openings, menu updates, and limited-time pop-ups across the capital city. Restaurants are expanding into larger formats, cafes are sharpening their focus, and bars continue to play with both format and flavour.

Greater Kailash continues to make room for new hangouts. There’s Room 304, a vinyl-driven speakeasy started by three friends. Cafe Loco, known for its slow breakfasts, has introduced a zero-proof programme around Ayurvedic ingredients. In neighbouring Kailash Colony, Mido Social House brings European plates alongside a lunar-inspired cocktail menu. And Delhi’s much-loved dal makhani and butter chicken spot Daryaganj has a new outpost, Daryaganj Gold, in Aerocity, serving modern Indian plates.

CinCin, Mumbai’s all-day Italian restaurant, lands in Gurugram and is joined by Altogether Experimental Omakase’s coffee-led tasting and Gram Street Coffee by Vanshika Bhatia, with its compact, K-drama-inspired setup.

Also in the mix are limited runs, like the Tory Burch-led Romy Cafe at Roastery Coffee House and Barbet & Pals’ Meghalaya-inspired cocktail menu. All in all, there’s plenty to make it worth stepping out in the capital city.

New openings

CinCin , Godrej GCR, Gurugram

Mumbai brings its all-day Italian format CinCin to Gurugram on Golf Course Road. The 110-cover space channels a classic trattoria—lively, unfussy, and built for everything from quick lunches to long dinners. The menu sticks to the fundamentals: Tajarin pasta from Piedmont, Neapolitan-style pizzas with San Marzano tomatoes, and classics like panna cotta. The bar leans into aperitivo with spritzes and easy, refreshing pours, while the all-day Cincineria fixes you with coffee, light bites, and bakes.

Altogether Experimental (ATE) Omakase, Ireo City Central, Gurugram

After Delhi, Altogether Experimental brings its coffee, small plates, and bakes to Gurugram, but this time around centres it on an omakase format. The four-course menu pairs coffees with desserts, moving from citrusy iced pour-overs to rich, more dessert-like brews. Diners can opt for a single course or the full experience, with bookings exclusively on Zomato’s District platform. Although it serves all-day breakfast plates like Turkish eggs and bun with omelette and smashed hash brown alongside pastas and an exclusive pizza menu with toppings like butter garlic prawn, the omakase is where it really clicks.

Three Zero Four, GK-1

Room 304, created by three friends who once shared a hostel room numbered 304, joins the slew of speakeasies in the city. Tucked behind a discreet entrance in GK-1 (directions are provided on registration), the speakeasy is also a record bar, aptly following the footsteps of local favourites like Together and Genre. The cocktails, named after the owners’ shared memories, draw on familiar flavours. Take for instance the whisky-tea cocktail Saleem ki Chai or chaat-inspired Sadar Bazaar with tamarind cordial and raw mango lactic acid. Experimental small plates, from Japanese dahi puri to nihari toast, take the same approach. 

Daryaganj Gold, Aerocity

Even as Delhi keeps debating the eternal question of who really owns butter chicken (and dal makhani), Daryaganj has built its own camp of loyalists for both north Indian classics. Its elevated flagship, Daryaganj Gold, which debuted in Bangkok last year, arrives in Aerocity this month. It brings the region’s signature dishes in playful formats. Think live chaat counters, performance-led evenings, and dishes like dahi bhalla mingsu, mushroom ram ladoo, and India Gate avocado bhel puri.

Mido Social House, Kailash Colony

After GK, Kailash Colony is turning into one of Delhi’s livelier dining pockets, with a wave of new restaurants reshaping the neighbourhood’s food map. Mido Social House is one such new entrant. The menu pulls from across Europe but doesn’t really follow a structure—small plates, pastas, flatbreads, and a coal-fired kebaberie all sit together on the same table. Dishes like harissa chicken borek, lamb adana and baked vodka rigatoni are made for sharing. Their cocktail menu, The Lunar Ritual, is divided in three phases—The Waxing Ritual, The Full Illumination, and The Waning Eclipse—and ranges from lighter builds, like the gin-based First Quarter with notes of blue pea and chamomile, to more intense pours, like the Gold Rush with bourbon, fresh lime juice, and honey.

Gram Street Coffee, Arjun Marg, Gurugram

Chef Vanshika Bhatia’s Gram Street Coffee is a 10-seater space that feels straight out of a K-drama. The focus here is playful brews—think gelato-laced coffees and foamy cold brews—and small-batch gelato. House blends sourced from across India, from Karnataka to Nagaland, come with names like Concrete and Commute, nodding to Gurugram’s daily rhythm. Matcha options with fruit and tender coconut water step in for balance. Read our full review of this laptop-free elevated QSR.

Limited menus and pop-ups

Loco Rasayan at Cafe Loco, GK-1

Cafe Loco’s all-day breakfast format—featuring plates like Benedicts served on sourdough uttapam—has already been a hit with regulars. Now, within the same space, they have launched an Ayurvedic bar—Loco Rasayan—that serves drinks built around ingredients like ashwagandha, shilajit, and giloy. The descriptions may read medicinal on paper, but owner Joy Mukherjee (of Raasta fame) reassures it’s closer to cocktails than wellness shots. The menu is also mapped by mood—Agni, Prana, Rasa—and features drinks like Alchemist’s Milk with shilajit, matcha or kesar, and nuts; Rasayan Sour with apple, tulsi, tamarind, jaggery; and Agni Tonic with beetroot, spice, and citrus.

Romy Cafe by Tory Burch, Roastery Coffee House, Delhi

The Roastery Coffee House in Sarvodaya Enclave has been taken over by the Tory Burch-led Romy Cafe, turning it into a brand universe until May 10. While this format is far more common internationally, with fashion houses like Louis Vuitton building full-scale dining rooms, in India it still sits in a fairly limited set of experiments. A sculptural Romy installation sets the tone at the entrance, doubling up as a photo op, while the cafe brings the Tory Burch sensibility alive through custom table settings, branded cups, and sleeves. The experience also includes coffee and dessert moments finished and personalised in real time, along with illustrated portraits by a live artist.

Bird’s Eye View, Meghalaya edition, at Barbet & Pals, GK-2

Barbet & Pals continues its travel-led cocktail series, this time landing in Meghalaya’s Khasi region. The focus stays on ingredients you don’t usually see behind a bar—fermented bamboo shoot, tungrymbai (fermented soybean), and wild honey—turned into drinks that feel experimental but are still easy to drink. The menu moves between herbaceous, spicy, and bittersweet, each cocktail loosely tied to the landscape it is borrowing from. There’s Tha Khasi with gin, Khasi pine vermouth, fish mint, and liquorice; and Silk, a tequila drink with tungrymbai, tamari, silkworm, and worm salt that’s already been making waves on the ’gram.