Two restaurants from India have made it to The 50 Best Restaurants 2026, the first time Indian establishments have featured on the global ranking since 2007.The list was announced at an awards ceremony in Lima, Peru, on November 4. Mumbai’s Masque was placed at No. 26, while NAAR, in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh, came in at No. 49. The last Indian restaurant on the list was New Delhi’s Bukhara, which first appeared in 2004 and was featured again in 2007.Masque, located in Mahalaxmi, is led by chef Varun Totlani and entrepreneurs Aditi and Aditya Dugar. It entered Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2021 and ranked No. 68 on the World’s 50 Best extended list last year. In a social media post, the restaurant said it opened in an old textile mill a decade ago with one question: “what does India taste like?” It added, “Tonight, that question has a seat at the world’s table.” Masque credited the win to its team across the kitchen, floor and back-end, the farmers, foragers and producers across India who supply it, and the guests who backed Indian cooking at this level.NAAR, a 16-seat restaurant led by chef Prateek Sadhu, also won the Sustainable Restaurant Award this year. In its post, the restaurant said the award recognises its commitment to local producers, community engagement and low-impact cooking. Most of its cooking is done over wood flame instead of gas, and ingredients are preserved through fermentation, drying, curing and smoking. Offcuts are reused in stocks, sauces, ferments, preserves and cocktails to cut waste. Sadhu also runs the Prateek Sadhu Foundation, which works on seed saving, heritage ingredients and recipe archiving.The rankings are decided by over 1,000 food writers, critics, chefs and other culinary experts across 27 regions. Voting is confidential, and voters must have dined at the restaurants within the previous 18 months.
