Jaipur New: Local Cuisine Restaurants

Once the royal banqueting hall at Rambagh Palace, this dining room now serves Rajasthani, Mughlai and Hyderabadi menus under painted ceilings and chandeliers. Staff talk guests through the regional dishes, and the kitchen keeps to court recipes. Dinner service only, from seven until close. It is the highest-rated of Jaipur's palace restaurants on Google.

Regional Rajasthani cooking is the focus at this Civil Lines dining room, run by Taj at Jai Mahal Palace. Methi mangodi with besan roti is the house speciality, alongside laal maas and kebabs from the tandoor. The room is small, which keeps service attentive. Lunch and dinner sittings are separated by an afternoon closure.

North-West Frontier cooking on the Bukhara model, built around a tandoor and eaten by hand rather than with cutlery. Dal Bukhara, slow-cooked overnight, is the dish most guests come for, with kebabs and breads alongside. A fixed thali menu is available but has to be requested. Lunch and dinner sittings both operate daily.

A vegetarian thali restaurant on the first floor above a handicraft showroom near Govind Dev Ji Temple, reached by an external metal staircase. Live Rajasthani and Sufi music runs through most services. The open kitchen is visible from the floor. Prices sit well below the palace-hotel restaurants, and it holds the largest review count of any restaurant on this list.

Modelled on the Sheesh Mahal at Amer Fort and lit entirely by candles, this dinner-only room at Kukas serves Rajasthani, Mughlai and Awadhi thalis. Walls carry Thikri mirrorwork, with gold leaf on the ceiling and mother-of-pearl underfoot. Table numbers are limited and two seating slots operate each evening. Reservations are required rather than advised.