Megu

Megu is the Japanese restaurant on the lobby level of The Leela Palace in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi. Shubham Thakur leads its kitchen as chef de cuisine.

The hotel set Megu up to serve modern Japanese food in a traditional Japanese setting. A crystal Buddha is the room's signature piece, and a bonsho, a Japanese temple bell, takes its model from Todaiji in Nara. The World's 50 Best Discovery guide has called it the only authentic Japanese fine-dining room in the city.

The kitchen cooks with sumibi aburiyaki, grilling over binchotan charcoal, and brings in ingredients from the Tokyo markets. Crispy asparagus is the house's original signature, a vegetable given the same charcoal treatment as fish and meat. Raw plates include yellowtail carpaccio and salmon tartare, while an avocado tartare, shira-ae, a dressed salad of tofu, and a silken tofu carpaccio serve vegetarians. An omakase leaves the choice to the chef, and small izakaya plates are the other way in, which also have their own outdoor setting in the evening. Charcoal grilling and raw fish sit on the same menu, so heat and smoke balance the clean, cold plates.

A long sake list goes with the food, chosen to sit beside both the grilled and the raw dishes. Asia's 50 Best Restaurants has included Megu in its extended list, which sets a Japanese room in Delhi beside restaurants from across the continent. Inside a large palace hotel, Megu keeps to one tradition, and the bell, the Buddha and the grill all point the same way, towards Japan rather than towards a mix of styles.