Nadoo Brings The Full Diversity Of South Indian Cuisine To New Delhi

What do you think of when you think of South Indian food?

For many North Indians, the concept of South Indian cuisine is limited to staples like sambhar, idli, dosa, and vada. But while these familiar favourites form the foundation of what we broadly think of as South Indian cuisine, they are also only the surface of the South Indian peninsula’s diverse food cultures. Nadoo, founded by restaurateur Sahil Sambhi and led by veteran Chef Shri Bala, is a counterargument to the flattening of South Indian food cultures.

Nadoo, alluding to the Tamil word for ‘land’, is inspired by the dishes Sahil’s mother cooked for him in his childhood. “It is a tribute to my mother — to the generosity of her table, to the instinct of feeding before asking, and to the comfort that Southern food holds. It’s about preserving a feeling and presenting it with dignity,” he says.

At Nadoo, Chef Shri Bala has drawn from the culinary heritage of all five Southern states — Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana — to create a menu that truly embodies the peninsula’s foodways. Tamil Nadu’s rich culinary heritage and biryani traditions, seasoned with a mélange of Chettinad spices; Kerala’s coastal seafood traditions, shaped by salt air and coconut groves; Andhra’s heat; Karnataka’s regional ingredients and techniques; and Telangana’s distinct flavours — all come together at Nadoo. Shri Bala especially emphasises the region’s non-vegetarian and seafood heritage, acknowledging centuries of maritime exchange and the spice trade along India’s Southern shores.

Nadoo’s signature dishes are built around Chef Shri Bala’s house-ground masalas, blended with the precision and complexity central to many southern kitchens. Standouts include a Chettinad Raan fragrant with roasted spices, the coastal richness of Kundapura Ghee Roast, the sharp heat of Andhra Mirapakayi Kodi, and the layered depth of Gutti Venkaya Koora. The Arab-influenced Malabar Biryani nods to centuries of maritime trade and cultural exchange across the Arabian Sea, while the cult-favourite Shivaji Nagar Military Donne Biryani and classic Bisi Bele Bath are rooted in hyperlocal classics. For vegans and vegetarians, a playful Chettinad Saiva Meen Varuval, fashioned as a plant-based alternative to the fish steak, rounds out the menu.

The restaurant’s Kaapi Bar, developed in collaboration with Bharat Singhal of Bili Hu Coffee, treats South Indian filter coffee with the seriousness usually reserved for cocktails. A blend of peaberry, arabica, and robusta is brewed through traditional metal drip filters, producing the dense decoction and caramel depth that define a proper dabarah of filter kaapi.

The first cup of filter coffee, colloquially known in many southern homes as the “first dose”, is as much a morning ritual as a beverage, poured repeatedly between a dabarah and a tumbler to cool the brew and release its aroma. At Nadoo, that daily ceremony is interpreted through both classic and contemporary forms. The First Dose Kaapi is a strong, stripped-back cup inspired by the coffee Chef Shri Bala’s father drank after his morning exercises. Karupatti Kaapi, sweetened with palm jaggery, evokes the warmth of Tamil home kitchens. And Chill Maadi, an iced version shaken with jaggery, draws from Sahil Sambhi’s childhood memories of sneaking sips of his mother’s freshly brewed decoction.

The programme extends into the evening with coffee-led cocktails layered with jaggery and native spices, allowing kaapi to move fluidly from breakfast ritual to nightcap. As Singhal puts it, “At Nadoo, we wanted the kaapi to feel exactly as it does in Southern homes — bold, aromatic, and deeply comforting — while exploring how this ritual can evolve into contemporary expressions.”

Beyond the Kaapi Bar, Nadoo’s drinks programme turns to the geography of the southern peninsula for inspiration. Framed by the Eastern and Western Ghats and rising toward the Nilgiris, with the Konkan-Malabar coast to one side and the Coromandel coast to the other, the region’s varied terrains and climates become the conceptual backbone of the cocktail list. The cocktail programme draws from the five elemental forces that shape the landscape: Earth, Fire, Rain, Wind, and Sea.

Nadoo’s interiors mirror the restaurant’s larger ethos of a rooted, tactile experience. Raw stone, oxidised metal, brushed brass, aged copper, and muted rust tones create a palette drawn from soil, clay, spice, and dusk, while lighting is used sparingly to produce a warm, welcoming ambience. Installations by artist Aarna Jai Madan of Sidhi Arts lend the space a spiritual charge, while details such as a Nandi sculpture reinforce its connection to South Indian sculptural heritage. A selection of artworks on display is also on sale, positioning Nadoo as a cultural space.

Nadoo stands at the meeting point of two inheritances: Chef Shri Bala’s tribute to the land that shaped her, and restaurateur Sahil Sambhi’s homage to his late mother. Instead of diluting southern Indian cuisine for the north Indian palate, the restaurant embodies the southern peninsula’s cultural and culinary specificity as a form of resistance to north Indian hegemony over what counts as “Indian” cuisine.

Address: Masjid Moth market, Greater Kailash 3, Delhi, India 110048

Follow @nadooindia on Instagram.

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