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The wait is over, sort of on schedule for a chef who's made an art form out of the tease. Gaggan Anand – five-time Asia's 50 Best champion – opens the doors of Raga, his first-ever restaurant in India, on August 26.
The address: 21A, Janpath Road, Connaught Place, next to Le Meridien. It’s a short walk from Rashtrapati Bhavan in a part of the city that has seen every kind of restaurant boom except, until now, a Gaggan one. His own announcement was characteristically brief and entirely on-brand: ‘Dilli, I'm back.’
The name is a small act of flattery disguised as branding. RA for Rydo Anton, Gaggan's long-time co-chef and collaborator of a decade, GA for Gaggan Anand himself, with a nod to the Indian classical structure of a raga, which is part improvisation. If you've ever sat through one of his 20-something-course tasting menus in Bangkok, it tracks.
Menu details remain deliberately scarce; Gaggan has never met a reveal he couldn't stretch into a slow one. What's known: two tasting menus, and an expectation that some of his greatest hits will make the trip.
More about Gaggan Anand
Before any of this, Gaggan Anand was a Kolkata boy who wanted to be a musician. He started in the restaurant business as a trainee with the Taj Group, before landing a stint at El Bulli in Spain, working alongside Ferran Adrià. It's this formative detail that explains everything that followed: the spherified yoghurt, the sense that dinner ought to be on a stage of a table.
In 2010, he opened Gaggan in Bangkok, which has since been named the Best Restaurant in Asia five times over. That's a run few chefs anywhere can match, let alone one working out of a two-storey house in Langsuan with Indian food as the pitch. He's known today especially for Indian fusion that manages to not piss Indians off.
Details
Address: 21A, Janpath Road, Connaught Place, next to Le Meridien Hotel, New Delhi 110001
Opening date: August 26
Timings: Dinner only, 5:30-9pm (last seating); closed Tuesdays. Lunch service is not active for now.
Price: ₹11,111 per person for the signature tasting experience (food only; drinks and wine pairing charged separately). A 3% booking fee applies at checkout, and full payment is required upfront to confirm. The booking is non-refundable.
Seating: Chef Counter (5 seats, facing the kitchen) or Main Dining Room (individual bookings up to 6 guests). Private dining is coming soon, with a minimum spend of ₹2,00,000.
Good to know: Arrive 15 minutes early; tables are held for 30 minutes past the booking time.
Reservations: ragabygaggan.com/reserve