Gaggan Anand returns to India with RAGA: 22 courses, ₹11,111 price tag and months-long wait

After years of exploding yoghurt, broccoli cookies and white asparagus served as rat brain at his Bangkok restaurant, chef Gaggan Anand has brought his brand of culinary rebellion back to India. In central Delhi this week, Anand opened RAGA, marking his latest attempt to enter a dining scene he said has changed significantly over the past decade, according to a Bloomberg report.

Co-founded with his long-time executive chef Rydo Anton, RAGA is a 30-seat restaurant serving a 22-course tasting menu priced at ₹11,111 ($116). The menu includes signature dishes such as Golden Egg and Nalli Nihari alongside new creations, and the restaurant is already said to be booked up for the next few months.

Gaggan Anand opens RAGA in Delhi

For more than a decade, Anand's experimental style helped push his eponymous Bangkok restaurant to the top of regional and global rankings. Now, the Kolkata-born chef has turned to India, opening RAGA in Connaught Place. Anand said India had changed a lot and that 10 years ago he was not sure the country was ready for "what I wanted to do."

That approach refers not only to his use of molecular gastronomy, but also to the immersive theatre that often comes with it. At Gaggan in Bangkok, background music curated by the drummer-turned-chef could turn into "curry-oke", with staff and guests singing everything from Backstreet Boys to Bon Jovi as the food arrived.

Anand said he had tried several times over the past decade to open a restaurant in India, but the plans did not materialise. "But now there are so many young chefs doing incredible things here," he said of India's fine-dining scene. "So, I think I am also coming at the right time."

RAGA menu, identity and pricing

The name RAGA combines RA from Rydo and GA from Gaggan. Anand said the restaurant had to be distinct from his Bangkok establishment. "It has to be different; otherwise why am I opening another restaurant?" Anand says. "We didn't want to copy Gaggan in Bangkok. RAGA had to find its own language, its own rhythm, its own identity."

The 22-course tasting menu includes dishes such as Golden Egg and Nalli Nihari, described as a slow-cooked meat stew, as well as new plates. There are no reports of singing or dancing...yet.

One notable point is the price. At ₹11,111 for the signature tasting menu, RAGA is cheaper than Anand's earlier India pop-ups and sits within the range of the country's other top fine-dining restaurants. That price covers only the food, while drinks or a wine pairing could easily double the bill, before taxes.

Anand said he did not want to return to India to showcase only what he already knew. "I don't want to come here and show India what I know. I want to come here and learn also, be part of what is happening here," he says. The remark stands in contrast to how he once described himself, saying he had a "Kurt Cobain punk rock personality" and was "anti-fine dining, anti-establishment, anti-everything."

Zorawar Kalra backs the project

Anand's India partner is restaurateur Zorawar Kalra, who brought him back with a vacant property in Delhi's Connaught Place, minutes away from where protesting students endured baton charges and tear gas last month. Kalra said the restaurant business was both fragile and resilient. He said macroeconomic shocks could curb discretionary spending and wars could lead to cooking gas shortages. He added that when the protests happened, everything in Connaught Place came to a standstill, and intense rains also affect both delivery and dining, even though business can recover quickly.

"In the restaurant business, eternal optimism always helps," Kalra said.

Kalra said giant food-processing machines, glassware from Germany, crockery from Japan and an internationally decorated team made RAGA the most expensive restaurant in India in terms of cost per square foot. While he did not disclose the investment, he said it was certainly the most expensive restaurant he had built, costing "at least two to three times" what it would take to set up a Masala Library, the most premium brand in his company's portfolio.

Kalra said the pricing had to be sustainable. "You will not have months of advance bookings if you charge ₹50,000. It has to be a marathon, not a sprint," said Kalra, the son of food writer and restaurateur Jaspal Inder Singh Kalra, better known as Jiggs Kalra. He called the meal "incredible value."

India's fine-dining scene has changed

Masala Library, launched by Zorawar Kalra in 2013 with his father as mentor, was among the early local attempts to take progressive Indian cuisine mainstream. It received a mixed response at the time. In a review, veteran editor and food critic Vir Sanghvi wrote: "The idea is to do a vaguely Manish Mehrotra-Gaggan Anand take on reimagining Indian food."

Kalra and Anand said much has changed since then, driven by a millionaire boom and social media virality. According to a UBS report cited in the Bloomberg report, India added more than 31,000 millionaires last year, around 80 a day. Many of them are young, including start-up entrepreneurs and stock market investors, while many others are chasing Instagrammable experiences.

A wealthier, better-travelled and more venturesome clientele has helped India's experimental dining scene grow, drawing internationally recognised Indian chefs back home while also producing a new generation of culinary talent.

The report cited restaurants such as Masque, Ekaa, Ziya, Trèsind and Papa's in Mumbai; Indian Accent, Nisaba and Inja in Delhi; Farmlore in Bengaluru; and Naar in Kasauli. At the upper end of the market, tasting menus can cost from around ₹6,000 to ₹15,000 a person.

Puchka and nihari among menu highlights

Kalra said more world-class chefs would come to India as they saw that the market existed. He said he expected RAGA to help place India's fine-dining business on the global map. His favourite dishes on the menu are a version of puchka and nihari.

For now, diners may have to wait. RAGA is said to be fully booked for the next few months, as Anand's long-planned India entry begins with a restaurant that he says has found its own language, rhythm and identity.