Who says you can’t travel back in time?
At Mala Akbari in Gurugram, Chef Bhaskar Menon is doing precisely that. Since opening in 2019, the Gurugram-based restaurant chain has stood out for a rare proposition: food that draws directly from the kitchens of Indian history.
The Past, Reimagined
The result of this approach is a menu traverses the length and breadth of the subcontinent’s history and geography. At one end of this broad spectrum is the Manjal Meen, a turmeric-marinated grilled fish served with mustard rice, dated to the Harappan civilisation circa 1700 B.C.E., and on the other, cold curried chicken on lettuce — a colonial legacy of the British Raj.
Other offerings occupy the time and space between these extremes: the Rig Veda comes into play with Madhu Apupa, or barley pancakes fried in ghee and glazed with honey caramel; Oon Soru, a black pepper and coriander-spiced chicken and rice preparation, traces its roots to the Pandyan Empire in 2 C.E.; Sabzshoro, minced vegetables wrapped in flaky pastry and finished with apricot oil and sesame, takes diners to the Hunza valley circa 1600 C.E.; and the Suran ke Kebab, or elephant foot yam roundels paired with saffron flatbread and date chutney, pays homage to the Maratha Empire of the 18th century.
Dining As Immersive Storytelling
Mala Akbari’s dining rooms are designed with restraint, avoiding the kitsch of themed restaurants. Instead, the culinary storytelling is contained on the plate. Waitstaff often introduce the dishes with their historical context, turning dinner into something closer to a guided tour through India’s rich and layered culinary heritage.
What keeps the experience from feeling like a museum tour, however, is the attention to ingredients and execution. Menon’s team sources sustainably and cooks with modern precision, making even Rig Vedic pancakes feel thoroughly contemporary.
India’s Living Culinary Heritage
The restaurant’s unusual concept taps into broader curiosity about heritage dining and “lost recipes” in India. Across the country, chefs are turning to archives and regional traditions for inspiration. But Mala Akbari’s timeline approach — serving dishes that span millennia — makes it stand out. For Delhi NCR diners, it is also an antidote to the predictable rhythms of globalised fine dining. At a time when Japanese-inspired small plates and cocktails dominate menus, Mala Akbari insists that India’s own culinary history is just as rich, layered, and experimental.
Led by Chef Menon, the restaurant chain takes India’s culinary history outside its usual academic bounds and transforms it into an edible living archive. It reminds diners that Indian cuisine did not begin with butter chicken and biryani, nor does it end with fusion tacos. It is, instead, a 4,000-year conversation between land, people, and ingredients — one that continues at the table even today.
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