Last year, news of Dubai’s Avatara restaurant being awarded the coveted MICHELIN Star — a hallmark of gastronomic finesse — made headlines. The victory felt personal to Indians across the globe. Rightly so. After all, Avatara rose to overnight fame; becoming the world’s first and only vegetarian Indian restaurant providing a MICHELIN Star fine-dining experience.
My curiosity about the prestigious award — who decides the awardees, the eligibility criteria to get one, and what sets three MICHELIN Stars apart from two — led me down a rabbit hole that ended at the MICHELIN Guide website that held the answers.
For a restaurant to be awarded a MICHELIN Star, I discovered, it is assessed against five criteria. These range from the quality of the ingredients, the harmony of flavours, and the mastery of techniques, to the chef’s personality as expressed through the cuisine and consistency across the menu.
A deeper dive into the nuances of the iconic rating — a practice that has been on since 1926 — led me to numerous Indian-origin fine-dining establishments. Once credited for putting desi food on the world map, they now boast of the MICHELIN Star honour for their culinary brilliance.
Today, we explore these.
1. Avatara, Dubai
The brainchild of chef Rahul Rana, Avatara infuses a hint of culture in every dish. The food here follows a capricious dynamic with unassuming ingredients — think along the lines of jackfruit momos, lotus roots and bitter gourd — making for a fantastic fine-dining experience.
Chef Rana credits his hometown in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand for his ability to champion magic with a pure vegetarian ingredient list. As is mentioned on Avatara’s website, he notes, “Cooking is like meditation for me. I have possibly inherited this from my grandfather, who was a chef for the Maharajas.”
2. The Song of India, Singapore
The story of chef Manjunath Mural — who greatly contributed to the restaurant’s success — is as compelling as the food at this Indian restaurant; also the first of its kind to receive the MICHELIN Star in 2016 when the Michelin Guide Singapore was launched.
Born into a family of doctors, chef Mural’s culinary calling was diluted amidst the din of his family’s dreams. But he persisted. Today, his dedication and natural talent for Indian food are reflected in the tandoori capon (a kind of chicken) and biryani (a mixed rice dish with meat and spices).
In conversation with MICHELIN Guide, he shared, “My culinary style has always been focused on traditional Indian recipes, but as I gained experience, I’ve introduced more innovative methods in the kitchen like cooking sous vide and also more contemporary ingredients. But they’re still infused with traditional regional flavours,” he says.
3. Veeraswamy, London
A fabled name in Indian cuisine abroad, Veeraswamy on Regent Street — home to the district’s most affluential shopping hubs and eateries — is a tale as old as time. Within its opulent interiors, dining spaces are marked out with mahogany furniture and plush velvet decor (that is reminiscent of the 1920s Maharaja quarters).
The MICHELIN Star received in 2016 only added glory to the crown that was resting on Veeraswamy’s head for being ‘UK’s oldest Indian restaurant’. But behind this legendary place is a story of a gentleman named Edward Palmer who arrived in England from India in 1880. Razor-sharp and adept at business, Palmer came up with an idea to give the city a taste of India — where he had grown up.
Palmer’s pickles and chutneys (a savoury condiment) were sold under the brand name ‘Nizam’, which expanded and grew into ‘Veeraswamy’.
4. Rania, Washington D C
Laccha aloo chaat (a potato snack) with sorrel (a leafy green plant) chutney.
Local wisdom, contemporary cooking techniques, and heritage flavours convene in every dish that the kitchens at Rania put out. The flavour quotient here oscillates between sweet, spicy, and savoury, and sometimes a single mouthful encompasses all of these.
Chew your way through the cult favourites of the menu — chana masala panisse (chickpea fritters), stuffed morrels, lamb cheela (an unleavened Indian pancake), and scallop Mangalorean. ‘Enticing’ is how the MICHELIN Guide describes Rania, and those who have visited it, bear testament to this.
5. Tamarind, London
The menu at this MICHELIN Star restaurant in Mayfair, London, is a delicious dichotomy of contrasts. Just as you begin to familiarise yourself with compressed watermelon salads, Allahabadi baked samosas (a fried Indian snack), and coastal crab cake with their subtle flavours, the tandoori Konkan prawns, char-grilled lamb chops, and chicken tikka hasnu (royal kebabs with spices) will take you by surprise with their complex bursts of flavour.
The focus on tandoori dishes is an example of how Tamarind has attempted to revive regional concepts of cooking, centric to different regions in India.
6. Semma, New York City
At this MICHELIN Star restaurant on Greenwich Avenue in New York, you are urged to remember the idyllic backwaters of South India. If you’re finding it hard to, the menu will make it easier.
The food here is a tribute to chef Vijay Kumar’s childhood in Tamil Nadu and the food he grew up eating. And to take the authenticity a notch further, everyone is encouraged to eat with their hands. Childhood vacations spent in the lap of paddy fields in Arasampatti village near Madurai had a great impact on chef Vijay’s mind, and his restaurant, today, is reminiscent of those memories. A must-have here is the nathai pirattal (snail masala).
7. Benares, London
In the heart of Mayfair is a restaurant named after Banaras (the holy city in Uttar Pradesh). True to its name, this MICHELIN Star restaurant is inspired by the vibrant street food culture that lurks not just in the streets of its namesake city but also across the country.
Khau gallis (cluster of food stalls) have been synonymous with India’s food scene for decades now. And Benares is attempting to recreate that nostalgia with a twist. The answer to ‘how’ lies in their samosa ragda tartlets (crushed warm potato on carom seed tartlets), junglee khum kebab (portobello mushroom and truffle griddled kebab with a hint of white chocolate), and kale and fig kofta korma (meatballs).
8. Gymkhana, London
Opulence and grandeur are the theme of the day at Gymkhana in London, which evokes the same mystique that colonial Indian clubs frequented by the elite, did. The restaurant — which was awarded two MICHELIN Stars in 2024 — is a product of the Sethi siblings — Jyotin, Karam and Sunaina — who are at the helm of the restaurant empire in the UK with Trishna, Gymkhana, and Hoppers.
Aside from its brilliant range of foods, Gymkhana also retails its famous butter masala; Goan curry masala with flavours of cumin, coriander and turmeric; vindaloo masala (a spicy Indian masala with a hot and sour taste); and rogan josh masala (a slow-cooked classic made using the finest chillies from Kashmir).
9. Junoon, New York
Translating to ‘passion’ in Hindi, Junoon banks on bold flavours. Whether it’s their Junoon chaat (dahi vada, sweet cumin raita, tamarind chutney, mint cilantro chutney, kala chana masala, beet papad) or their Portrait of India dessert (mango-saffron mousse, jamun plum, pistachio cake), each dish is a celebration of the land.
As MICHELIN Guide points out, the menu at Junoon makes the most of goat as a whole. This is reflected in their Oriya mutton curry (goat, mustard, garam masala, Kashmiri chilli powder, kala channa salad, tomato chutney) and goat chop pasanda (tandoor roasted marinated goat chops, saffron cashew sauce, garlic naan) among other dishes.
Junoon was the recipient of the prestigious MICHELIN Star in 2010, the year it opened, and according to its website, has earned the same coveted award eight years in a row.
10. Gaa, Thailand
Chef Garima Arora is a familiar face. We watched with bated breath as she passed the verdict on dishes on the sets of MasterChef India (Chef Garima was a judge for Season 7). Her culinary prowess is known across India, so when her restaurant Gaa received its second MICHELIN Star in 2023 (it received the first in 2018) — making chef Garima the only Indian female chef to earn this accolade — the country cheered.
Chef Garima explores the marriage between tradition and modernity at Gaa through dishes such as kuzhi paniyaram (a savoury rice ball made using fermented rice and urad dal batter along with tempered onion and spices), blue swimmer crab in a creamy coconut-based curry spiked with grilled banana leaves, and crispy okra (lady’s finger).
Edited by Pranita Bhat
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