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Over the past month, Lodhi Colony saw two back-to-back massive openings of cafes dedicated almost exclusively to cookies. Given that the neighbourhood is already stuffed to the brim with bakeries and coffee spots, I’ve got to admit I was wondering… why. One’s straight from the streets of Oxford – Ben’s Cookies – and another builds on an already loved homegrown dessert brand – FES’ flagship multi-storeyed outlet.
If you look back a few years, Delhi’s relationship with the cookie was polite, I guess. It was an afterthought to a cup of chai or a celebration, stuffed in a Defence Colony bakery container or a steel dabba for unexpected guests. But we seem to have moved past nostalgia when it comes to the cookie. It turns out the luxury of an expertly baked cookie only enhances what everyone already considers a casual treat.
The early wave more or less began with molten-centre supreme Dohful, one of very few coffee spots I know where the cookies are just as, if not more, popular than the coffee (for good reason, too). There's also the FES outlets, where a cookie's a pleasant, buttery option nestled safely between artisanal cakes.
Take a look at what may well be Delhi’s third wave in cookies.
Ben’s Cookies
More than eighty-five outlets across the world later, Ben’s Cookies opened in Lodhi to a massive swirl of excitement. I’m talking balloons being released into the sky on a Delhi summer afternoon excitement. Founded in 1984 by a cookery writer and named after her son, cookies and baked goods back then were a neighbourhood experience – the freshness of ingredients nearby being the most important thing to the brand. In Delhi of 2026, this has translated to a trust in tried-and-tested recipes.
Their menu’s compact but far ranging (some fruit, some dark chocolate, some milk, some a little salty), and the space itself isn’t too big, lending that neighbourly feeling to it.
Where: 86, Lodhi Rd, Meharchand Market, Lodi Colony, New Delhi, Delhi 110003
Opening hours: Mon-Sun. 11am-11pm.
FES’ flagship outlet
Fictional stories and cafes don’t typically go well together, if you ask me. But this caught my attention, because FES already has small outlets dotted across the city. Here, three floors: one a shop of a character by the name of the Cookie Dealer, the second his living room – a floor where you’re permitted to sit for hours – and the third, dedicated to easter eggs and cryptic pictures about the Cookie Dealer, complete with its own music programme. Not a lot of dessert spots lean hard on the playfulness anymore, and I’ve got to say this is a risk I’ll be happily taking soon. FES, of course, has got excellent baked stuff and cookies. Something I’ve always liked about them is that they know exactly where to stop with the gooeyness.
Where: Shop No. 117, Meharchand Market, Lodi Colony, New Delhi 110003
Opening hours: Mon-Sun. 8am-midnight.