Mahelal's

For many in Delhi, Mizo Diner was the first introduction to home-style Northeastern food, its thalis and rice beer shaping familiarity with the cuisine. With it shut on Sundays for church, I ended up at Mahelal’s. Opened in October 2024, it sits right before the main Humayunpur market – easy to spot.

The layout feels more like a drawing room than a restaurant when I enter. There’s a projector playing music videos, a mix of tables and couches, and even some games.

I found Mahelal roasting coffee for a customer, speaking about his interest in bringing Northeastern coffee into the mainstream. He sources his beans from Nagaland, a discovery he made while running a café in Manipur.

The menu itself leans into Manipuri flavours: ingredients like black rice, sirarakhong hathei chilli and mountain pepper turn up everywhere across the menu, from chicken skewers to pastas.

For the Manipuri thali, I went with the duck curry. It came with four sides: sinju (a salad with a tangy, spicy dressing made from roasted red chillies, fermented fish (ngari), gram flour and roasted perilla seeds or sesame), eromba (a chutney of bamboo shoot, potatoes, tomato, fermented fish and chillies), boiled vegetables and dal. It’s a bold, spice-forward plate with fermented flavours that doesn’t soften for unfamiliar palates. To finish, there’s heimang tea (sumac berry), tangy like tamarind, which I was told helps digest the meal.

On Sundays, they host a post-service community buffet priced at ₹699. You can come for the thali or explore Mahelal’s take on café food, but don’t skip the coffee. It explains exactly why he wants Nagaland coffee on the larger Indian coffee map.