Indian Accent

Inside the Glass Walls: Fine Dining at The Lodhi

The dining room at Indian Accent signals its ambitions before the first course arrives. Set within The Lodhi on Lodhi Road, the space is built around a glass-walled interior that lets the hotel's manicured grounds press in on all sides, creating an atmosphere that is controlled and composed without tipping into austerity. This is a room designed for a specific kind of occasion: one where the food is expected to carry weight and the setting is expected to hold it. In New Delhi's premium dining tier, where hotel restaurants have historically oscillated between grand-hall formality and glossy modernity, Indian Accent occupies a position of deliberate restraint.

Where Indian Accent Sits in New Delhi's Fine Dining Tier

New Delhi's high-end Indian restaurant scene has two broad camps. The first is the heritage-preservation school, represented by restaurants like Dum Pukht and Bukhara, where the authority of a particular regional tradition, whether Awadhi slow-cooking or North-West Frontier tandoor work, is the primary proposition. The second camp, smaller and more recently established, applies global technique to Indian ingredients and structures without abandoning regional identity in the process. Indian Accent belongs firmly to the second group, and its award trajectory confirms the position: ranked #89 in the World's 50 Best Restaurants in 2024, #46 in Asia's 50 Best in 2025, and scoring 95 points on La Liste in 2025 and 90 in 2026. These are credentials that place it in direct comparison with the most recognised contemporary Indian restaurants operating anywhere, including Trèsind Studio in Dubai and Opheem in Birmingham.

For readers mapping the wider India scene, comparable ambition in terms of format and critical recognition appears at Farmlore in Bangalore and The Table in Mumbai, though each operates with different regional emphasis and menu architecture. Within Delhi itself, Inja and Varq occupy adjacent territory, though Varq's international framing makes it a slightly different proposition for the diner seeking specifically Indian reference points throughout the meal.

The Regional Argument on the Plate

Contemporary Indian fine dining in the tasting-menu format has had to answer a recurring question: which India? The subcontinent's regional distinctions, Punjabi dairy richness, Keralan coconut and spice, Bengali mustard and freshwater fish, Goan sourness and pork, Rajasthani arid-land preservation techniques, are not interchangeable. Restaurants that flatten these differences into a single pan-Indian aesthetic tend to produce menus that feel geographically vague.

Indian Accent's approach, as documented by La Liste, involves a six-course tasting structure in which regional identity surfaces through specific ingredients and technique rather than through the menu's overarching geography. The bread course is the clearest illustration of this method: rotis, naans, and parathas appear alongside less conventional bread forms, framing the subcontinent's carbohydrate diversity as the opening argument rather than a side note. This is a decision with real editorial logic. Bread in Indian cuisine carries regional encoding that is immediately legible to anyone who has eaten across the country: a paratha signals Punjab in a way that a sourdough roll cannot signal San Francisco. By leading with it, the kitchen establishes its terms of reference early.

From there, the menu moves through what La Liste describes as artful miniatures before reaching mains. The tamarind crab with coconut curry, cited as a signature preparation, brings coastal South Indian flavour logic, specifically the Keralan and Chettinad tradition of combining tamarind's sharpness with coconut milk's fat, into a plated format that the same La Liste entry describes as a show-stopping main. The combination is not arbitrary: it demonstrates how a geographically specific flavour grammar can be applied to a premium ingredient (crab) without losing its regional legibility. Dishes from Adaa at Falaknuma Palace in Hyderabad or Chandni in Udaipur approach similar regional honesty from a more palace-tradition perspective; Indian Accent's distinction is that it folds these reference points into a progressive tasting format rather than a à la carte expression of a single court cuisine.

Chef Rijul Gulati leads the kitchen. In the context of this editorial, what matters is less his biography than the fact that the kitchen under his direction has maintained a consistent critical trajectory across multiple global ranking systems simultaneously, a technical achievement that speaks to precision and repeatability at scale.

The Wine Program

India's fine dining wine culture has developed unevenly, with many leading restaurants defaulting to French and Italian safe harbours on their lists. Indian Accent's program, directed by Kevin Rodrigues and managed on the floor by sommelier Hrushikesh Mawalkar, takes a different geographic position: its documented strengths are Chile, Argentina, Germany, and Italy. This is a list shaped around food-pairing logic rather than prestige signalling. The acidity structures of German Riesling and the fruit profiles of South American reds and whites work with the spice, fat, and sour elements that cycle through Indian cooking in ways that high-tannin Bordeaux rarely do.

At 900 bottles across 135 selections, the inventory is substantial without being encyclopaedic. The pricing tier lands at mid-range for a fine dining context, meaning the list is accessible rather than trophy-heavy. For visitors comparing this to wine programs at other Indian fine dining establishments, the South American and German emphasis makes it a genuinely distinct offering rather than a variation on a standard European luxury list. Those interested in exploring New Delhi's wider drinking culture can consult our full New Delhi bars guide.

A Regional Context: Indian Fine Dining Beyond Delhi

The questions Indian Accent raises about how regional Indian cooking translates into a contemporary tasting format are being answered differently in other cities. Naar in Kasauli applies Himalayan ingredient logic to a format oriented around the local environment. Bomras in Anjuna draws on Burmese-Goan crossover. Baan Thai in Kolkata operates within an entirely different regional conversation. Together, these restaurants describe a dining culture that is plural and geographically self-aware in ways that were less visible to international critics a decade ago. Indian Accent's sustained presence on global rankings has been part of the infrastructure that made that visibility possible.

For those planning a broader Delhi trip, our full New Delhi restaurants guide maps the city's dining options across price points and cuisines, while our New Delhi hotels guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide cover adjacent planning decisions.

Planning Your Visit

Indian Accent is located within The Lodhi on Lodhi Road, in the Pragati Vihar area of central Delhi, accessible by car from most central hotel districts. The kitchen serves lunch Wednesday through Sunday and dinner every day of the week, with Friday and Saturday dinner service extending to 10:30 pm. Weekend lunch runs from 11:30 am on Saturday and Sunday, while weekday lunch service opens at noon. For visitors staying elsewhere in the city, The Lodhi's location on Lodhi Road places it within reasonable distance of the diplomatic and cultural core. Dress code expectations are signalled by La Liste's recommendation to dress formally; in practical terms, this is a room where smart-casual reads as underdressed. Reservations are advisable given the restaurant's ranking profile; the general manager is Dhwaneil Desai and the ownership is held by Rohit Khattar.

What Do Regulars Order at Indian Accent?

The six-course tasting menu is the format around which the kitchen is built, and the La Liste documentation points to two courses that have drawn particular notice from returning guests and critics alike. The bread course, which expands standard Indian bread formats into a broader survey of the kitchen's carbohydrate repertoire, tends to be cited as the moment the meal announces its intentions. The tamarind crab with coconut curry is the main course most consistently referenced in critical coverage, combining coastal South Indian flavour logic with premium seafood in a way that threads regional specificity through a technically demanding preparation. Wine pairing with the tasting menu draws on the strength of the South American and German selections; regulars with wine knowledge tend to flag the Chilean and Argentine pours as the program's most distinctive choices relative to comparable restaurants in the city. Those who have dined across the broader Indian fine dining scene, at venues like Adaa at Falaknuma Palace or Farmlore, tend to use the bread course specifically as a reference point when comparing Indian Accent to its peers.