The 8 best North Indian restaurants in Gurugram, ranked
Butter chicken and kulcha at a Gurugram North Indian restaurant
Eight places for dal makhani, butter chicken and kebabs, ranked with prices and the honest catch for each.
1. Dhaba by Claridges, Cyber Hub
Dhaba by Claridges is the flagship of the Claridges hotel group's dhaba-style concept, tucked on the ground floor of Cyber Hub. The order is fixed: dal makhani (slow-cooked 24 hours, roughly ₹761), murgh makhani (₹1141), tandoori pomfret (₹1521), and the amritsari kulcha with chole (₹571). Two people eat well for ₹4279 including one round of drinks. Reservations essential Thursday to Sunday from 7:30 pm.
The catch is the noise — the room is small, the acoustics are hard, and if you want a conversation you want the 6:30 pm slot, not the 9 pm one. Service is quick verging on hurried on weekends. But the food is genuinely the North Indian benchmark in the city, and the dal makhani is the version everyone else is trying to match. Do not order pizza, biryani or anything modernist here; stick to the classics.
2. Bukhara at ITC Maurya (worth the Delhi trip)
Bukhara sits at the ITC Maurya in Delhi, 30 minutes from Cyber City in evening traffic, and it is on this list because no restaurant in Gurugram matches it. Frontier cuisine — the sikandari raan, the dal Bukhara, the tandoori jhinga — priced at ₹5705-₹8558 a head. No cutlery by tradition, tables carved from single wood slabs, dress code smart-casual.
Book two weeks ahead for weekends; walk-ins are refused. This is not a Gurugram address but it is the North Indian meal a first-time visitor should have if the budget allows. If you are already staying in DLF Phase 1 or MG Road, the cab is ₹1141 each way. Skip if ₹19018 for two on food alone is not a normal decision — several places lower on this list serve the same dishes at a third of the price.
3. Punjab Grill, MGF Metropolitan Mall MG Road
Punjab Grill is a chain, but the MG Road branch is the one to eat at — the kitchen is tighter and the room is quieter than Cyber Hub's version. Sarson ka saag with makki roti (₹856), murgh tikka lababdar (₹1046), and the raan-e-sikandari (₹2092 for a shared plate). Two people at ₹3328-₹3804 with a lassi each. Lunch buffet weekdays at ₹1712 is the best value in the mall.
Service is polished, portions are generous, and this is where locals bring visiting parents. The catch: it is inside a mall, so there is no atmosphere beyond the room itself. If you want the food without the mall, the Cyber Hub branch has the outdoor terrace but charges 15% more and the kitchen is under pressure. On MG Road, ask for a corner booth.
4. Made In Punjab, Cyber Hub
Made In Punjab is the more casual sibling to the Punjab Grill kitchen, a two-level space on Cyber Hub's ground floor with truck-art walls and a proper tandoor visible from the pass. Amritsari fish (₹1331), butter chicken (₹1141), pindi chole with kulcha (₹666). Two eat for ₹3328. Open till midnight Friday and Saturday, which is unusual for the block.
The catch is that it fills up with corporate groups from 8:30 pm and the noise is on the wrong side of loud. Come at 7 pm or after 10:30 pm. The Sunday lunch is genuinely good — quieter, a proper buffet at ₹2092 including one drink — and worth it if you are staying anywhere within a 15-minute cab. Skip the desserts; the kulfi is factory-made.
5. Zambar, DLF Cyber Hub (South Indian, listed as the contrast)
Zambar makes this list precisely because you should eat one non-North Indian meal on any Gurugram trip. Coastal Kerala, Chettinad and Andhra dishes — appam with stew (₹856), Chettinad chicken (₹1046), meen moilee (₹1331), roughly ₹2662 for two with a lime soda. It is on Cyber Hub's first level and the room is much calmer than the North Indian rooms downstairs.
This is the honest recommendation for the fourth night of your trip, when you have eaten butter chicken three times and want something else. The kitchen is Kerala-run and the appam batter is fermented properly. Skip if you are a first-time visitor with only one dinner in Gurugram — take a North Indian option instead. Reservations not usually needed except Saturday evening.
6. Comesum, IFFCO Chowk metro area
Comesum is a step down in price and a step up in honesty. It is a big, brightly-lit family restaurant near IFFCO Chowk metro station, and it is where lower-middle-class Delhi and Gurugram families actually eat out. Thali at ₹475, butter chicken and rumali roti for two at ₹951, no alcohol, no reservations, high turnover. The kitchen is old-school Punjabi and the dal fry is legitimately good.
Do not come here for a date. Come here after a Sultanpur morning or a Sadar Bazaar walk when you want to eat a proper North Indian meal for ₹571 without a mall corridor around you. The room is 40 tables of Formica, the AC works, and the service is fast. This is where you go if the Cyber Hub prices annoy you but you do not want to eat street food.
7. Gulati, Cyber Hub outpost
Gulati started at Pandara Road in Delhi in 1959 and the Cyber Hub outpost is its faithful franchise. The dishes to order are the same as the original: butter chicken (₹1141), dal Gulati (₹761), mutton rara (₹1521), and the tandoori chicken (₹1331 half). Two eat for ₹3804. The menu barely changes and that is the point — this is a 65-year-old kitchen, not a trend.
The catch is that everyone above 40 in Delhi has an opinion on whether Gulati has gone downhill since Cyber Hub opened. My take: the food is 90% as good as Pandara Road at slightly higher prices, and the room is more comfortable. If you have never been to Pandara Road, you will not notice the difference. If you have, you might. Either way it belongs on this list.
8. Karim's, Old Gurugram (Sadar Bazaar)
Karim's in Old Gurugram is a smaller cousin to the original Jama Masjid outpost in Delhi, and it does the Mughlai side of North Indian that the mall restaurants do not. Mutton burra (₹761), chicken jahangiri (₹856), sheermal (₹143), no starters, no dessert culture, just meat and bread. Two eat for ₹2092, cash preferred, no alcohol.
This is a proper meat lunch, not a dinner. Come at 1 pm on any day the temperature allows an auto ride into Old Gurugram. The room is basic — six tables, ceiling fans, a photograph of the founder — and the crowd is entirely local. Skip if you do not eat meat: the vegetarian menu here is an afterthought. Order the mutton burra first and add on from there.
Before you book
The questions people ask about Gurugram, answered with this month’s numbers.
Dhaba by Claridges, Bukhara, Punjab Grill and Gulati take reservations and you should use them Thursday to Sunday. Made In Punjab and Zambar take them but you can usually walk in before 8 pm. Comesum and Karim's are walk-in only — Comesum turns tables fast, Karim's rarely has a wait outside dinner rush.
Dhaba by Claridges at 7 pm. Order the dal makhani, murgh makhani, one amritsari kulcha with chole, and a raita. Skip the biryani. Add a mutton dish if you are two or more. That is the single most concentrated North Indian dinner in the city and it will run about ₹4754 for two with a drink each.
All eight are restaurant food — the truly authentic North Indian meal is home cooking you cannot access as a visitor. Within restaurant food, Karim's and Comesum are closest to the everyday register, Dhaba and Gulati are the polished versions of dhaba classics, and Bukhara is a hotel-scale reinvention that has become a category of its own. All are honest to a real tradition.
