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AI generated summary, newsroom reviewed
For much of the twentieth century, Indian cuisine's global identity was shaped almost entirely by post-war curry houses in cities like London, run in large part by Bangladeshi and Pakistani immigrants who arrived in Britain from the 1950s onward. Dishes like chicken tikka masala and vindaloo, developed abroad rather than in India, became the default reference point for an entire cuisine, flattening centuries of regional cooking, coastal Kerala, Awadhi court kitchens, Bengali fish preparations, Kashmiri wazwan, into a single, standardised idea of curry. The first real crack in that perception came in 2001, when British chef Atul Kochhar became one of the first Indian chefs to receive a Michelin star, at his London restaurant Benares, proving that Indian food could operate at the same technical register as French or Japanese fine dining. It has taken close to a quarter century since for that proof to become a pattern rather than an exception. Below, take a look at five restaurants and the chefs behind them who have made that case most convincingly on the world's biggest stages.
Trèsind Studio, chef Himanshu Saini's 20-seat restaurant on a rooftop terrace at the St. Regis Hotel on Palm Jumeirah, became the first Indian restaurant in the world to receive three Michelin stars, awarded at the Michelin Guide Dubai ceremony on May 23, 2025. It remains the only Indian restaurant globally to hold the distinction. Saini moved to Dubai in 2014 to lead a modern Indian restaurant called Trèsind, and opened the more intimate Trèsind Studio in 2018 to pursue his most ambitious tasting menus. His food takes ingredients and techniques from around the world and folds them into Indian spice and technique without diluting either, dishes including a Murabba variation pairing apples with date and whey mole, and a tomato tikka masala served with naan soufflé and black lentil brodo.
Cost for two: AED 2,000 (Rs. 51,943).
Masque opened in a repurposed textile mill in Mumbai in 2016, led today by chef Varun Totlani, and has placed on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants list every year it has been eligible. In 2026, the restaurant continued its climb on the strength of a 15-course tasting menu built around local, seasonal produce reworked with contemporary technique. The recognition reflects a broader shift in how regional Indian cuisine is understood internationally, moving well beyond the narrow, decades-old association with curry and butter chicken toward a genuine engagement with the country's own ingredient ecosystems and flavour traditions.
Cost for two: Rs. 16,500.
Manish Mehrotra opened Indian Accent at The Manor in New Delhi in 2009, a restaurant now widely credited with founding the modern Indian cuisine movement. It moved to The Lodhi hotel in 2017, and has appeared on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list, the only Indian restaurant to do so, every year since 2015, alongside a decade-long run on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants, where it has repeatedly been named Best Restaurant in India. The restaurant is also included on Time Magazine's 100 Great Destinations in the World. Mehrotra's menu reinterprets nostalgic Indian dishes, blue cheese naan and daulat ki chaat among them, through global technique, an approach that expanded briefly to New York in 2016 and London the following year. In January 2026, Mehrotra opened his first fully independent restaurant, Nisaba, within the Humayun's Tomb Museum Complex in Delhi.
Cost for two: Rs. 6,000.
Naar, chef Prateek Sadhu's 16-seat restaurant inside Amaya in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh, debuted on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants 2026 list at No. 30, one of only three cities, alongside Kasauli, Penang, and Ubud, to appear on the top 50 ranking for the first time this year. Built entirely around Himalayan produce, foraged across six mountain seasons from Kashmir, Ladakh, Uttarakhand, and Sikkim, Naar has positioned an under-explored regional cuisine at the centre of Asia's fine-dining conversation. Sadhu, who co-founded Masque before opening Naar in 2023, has built a restaurant far removed geographically from India's major cities, proof that global recognition in Indian dining is no longer concentrated in Mumbai or Delhi alone.
Cost for two: Starting at Rs. 6,800 and going up to Rs. 14,000.
Farmlore, an 18-seat restaurant set on a working farm in Bengaluru, placed at No. 83 on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants 2026 extended list. Founded by chef Johnson Ebenezer and entrepreneur Kaushik Raju, the restaurant is built entirely around seasonality and sustainability, with produce grown on-site shaping the menu rather than a fixed set of dishes dictating what gets planted. Its inclusion reflects a broader shift within Indian fine dining recognised internationally in 2026: restaurants built around farm-to-table integrity and deeply personal sourcing, rather than scale or spectacle, increasingly commanding a place on the world's most closely watched dining lists.
Cost for two: Rs. 6,500.