To start a restaurant in India is not to build a business—it is to enter into a conversation with time, place, memory, and identity. It is to cook not only for taste, but for meaning. And in a nation as plural, paradoxical, and performative as India, food is never just food. It is gesture, archive, community, resistance, invitation, labor, and celebration.

Starting a restaurant in Delhi means embracing its complexity—not bending it to a trend. Your space must resonate with the city’s layered soul, where every corner pulses with stories of survival, celebration, and change. Delhi is no backdrop; it’s a living, breathing entity demanding respect and understanding.

Mumbai isn’t merely a city—it’s a contradiction in motion. It is at once the birthplace of revolutions and the temple of commerce. It feeds millions with vada pav from streetside stalls and with French soufflé in sea-facing dining rooms. This is not just a backdrop for hospitality; it is the protagonist. To build a restaurant in Mumbai is to enter into dialogue with a city that never pauses, never forgets, and never eats quietly.

Starting a restaurant in Bengaluru isn’t about being louder, newer, or more Instagrammable. It’s about crafting relevance—spaces that resonate with a rapidly evolving, culturally astute, and deeply local audience.

This is a guide for visionaries: restaurateurs, designers, chefs, and storytellers who see restaurants as cultural works, not just commercial ventures