Address: National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy, Bhairon Marg, Pragati Maidan,
New Delhi
Phone: 078 38 960787
Working hours: 8.00 am-10:00 pm All days open Valet Parking Also Available
There are some ideas that seem like a no-brainer – once someone has thought of them. Sitting at a table at the New Delhi National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy’s new outdoor restaurant, Café Lota, which soon fills up with what appear to be silver-haired doyennes of Indian arts and letters and ambitious design school graduates, we couldn’t help but wonder: Why wasn’t this here before?
The Ministry of Textiles, which runs the National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy, claims to have had a north Indian food cafeteria at the decades-old institution, which we must admit, we cannot recall at all. But the new spot, which offers contemporary versions of several regional Indian dishes, paired with a wide variety of grains, such as red rice and millet, seems much more in keeping with the museum’s back-to-the-roots ethos.
We can’t pretend to be the first to discover this spot. It opened in October and folks who have paid a visit have praised its version of fish and chips, amaranth-encrusted batter-fried sole with sweet potato fries.
What we liked about the food was that there are many options that seem – amazingly – pretty healthy. What we liked about the setting was everything, including the terra-cotta horse, the passing groups of visiting school children and the All India Radio broadcasts of classical music — so retro.
Information and photos taken from the site: nationalcraftsmuseum.nic.in