When an Indian chef whose Bangkok restaurant has topped Asia’s 50 best restaurants list five times opens a restaurant in Delhi, expectations are sky-high. That’s exactly what happened with Raga, chef Gaggan Anand ‘s much-awaited Indian restaurant in New Delhi, which opened in August 2026 in collaboration with chef Rydo Anton and restaurateur Zorawar Kalra . Also read | First look, first taste: Gaggan Anand’s hot new Delhi restaurant, Raga
A 22-course tasting menu that deconstructs Indian flavours into avant-garde bites, for ₹ 11,111 per person. Taiwanese content creator and Delhi-based teacher Lily Shih decided to find out on day 2 of Raga’s opening. In a September 12 Instagram video, Lily documented her entire experience — from an empty 7 pm restaurant to popping candy, golden eggs, and literally being asked to lick the plate.
The pitch? But is it worth the hype? And she did not hold back. Then came what would become her favourite: the ‘pink blossom’. It was a jelly-like bite made of yoghurt , guava, chilli, and popping candy, she shared. Dessert started with a shaved-ice dish with glass noodles and green mango, followed by Gaggan’s iconic ‘lick it up’ — a dish where you’re literally supposed to lick the sauce off the plate. In her caption, Lily wrote: “Even though I’m a foreigner and not deeply familiar with Indian cuisine, I was still amazed by how Indian food could be deconstructed, reassembled, and reinvented in such unexpected ways. She also had notes. Lily didn’t shy away from constructive critisism, writing: “At the end, I do have a few suggestions that could make the experience even better. The AC was constantly leaking water. There were quite a few small bugs in the restaurant. The refinement of some tableware could be improved. Some of the plates with Japanese or Chinese-inspired elements didn’t feel quite as fitting (to me).”
“I arrived right at 7 pm, and the restaurant was basically empty,” Lily shared. Her journey began with a delicate course served over ice that ‘tasted like aam panna’ — it was ‘sour and salty, familiar’, she said. Lily’s reaction said it all: “It literally explodes in your mouth. “I still don’t have the courage to literally lick the plate in a restaurant, so fingers it is,” Lily shared, wiping sauce with her finger.
