A few days ago, while a friend was visiting from Mumbai, we decided to head to a ramen bar tucked into the lanes of South Delhi’s Shahpur Jat. The first thing he said when we arrived was, “This is definitely not a village.” Fair enough. Shahpur Jat has travelled far from its old identity and transformed into one of the city’s buzziest pockets for fashion, food and coffee, where designer studios sit shoulder to shoulder with tiny cafés and experimental kitchens. Hidden among them is Zuru Zuru, a 14 seater ramen bar by Chef Navika Kapoor that has, over the last few years, built something close to a cult following among Delhi’s noodle obsessed diners.
The idea of Delhiites queuing up for bowls of ramen would have seemed unlikely a decade ago, but the city’s appetite has changed dramatically. What was once dismissed as instant noodles from supermarket shelves has now become one of the most exciting corners of the capital’s dining scene. A younger generation of diners is searching for ramen with the same seriousness reserved for good biryani or butter chicken. Some return from trips to Japan craving rich broths and perfectly chewy noodles, while others first encounter these dishes through anime films and manga, where food is presented with almost hypnotic detail. Suddenly, ramen is no longer just comfort food. It has become a full blown culinary fascination.
At Zuru Zuru, Chef Navika Kapoor leans fully into that obsession. The tiny 14 seater space in Shahpur Jat has the warmth of an old neighbourhood eatery, where diners squeeze in shoulder to shoulder and steaming bowls arrive almost as quickly as conversations begin. Kapoor, along with her business partner and chef Hitein Puri, has crafted a menu that balances classic ramen traditions with flavours designed for Delhi’s adventurous diners. There are bowls of silky tonkotsu with deeply layered broth, delicate shio chintan ramen that lets the ingredients shine, vegan oat milk ramen that manages to feel hearty without losing finesse, and mazemen, the rich brothless version that coats every strand of noodle in flavour. Then comes the unexpected star of the season. Her litchi ramen, created out of curiosity and a love for summer fruit, sounds outrageous on paper but lands brilliantly on the palate.
Not very far from Shahpur Jat, in the lanes of Hauz Khas, another young chef is reshaping how the city eats one carb loaded comfort dish at a time. At Casa Pasta Bar, Delhi’s first pasta and jazz bar, Chef Sambhavi Joshi is building an entire dining experience around fresh handmade pasta. Since opening two years ago, the restaurant has become a destination for diners looking to move beyond the usual penne in pink sauce routine. The menu reads like a love letter to regional Italian pasta making, with gigli, ziti, tortellini, pappardelle and other handcrafted varieties taking centre stage.
Joshi’s journey into pasta began unexpectedly. In 2020, she had landed what many chefs would consider a dream opportunity at a three Michelin starred restaurant in Paris, only for the pandemic to bring the world to a halt. “COVID completely changed the direction of my life,” she tells me. “At that point, I was trying to find something that I genuinely loved while also trying to fill a gap in the market. Nobody was really hiring then, so starting something of your own felt like the only way to keep moving forward. That’s when I realised two things. One, that I absolutely loved pasta, and two, that there was a huge gap in the fresh pasta space in India.”
At Casa, pasta is not treated like a side act buried under heavy sauces and cheese. It is the hero. The textures matter, the shapes matter, and diners are encouraged to understand why a ribbon of pappardelle works differently from a stuffed tortellini or a ridged gigli. Joshi admits there has been some education involved, especially when explaining why fresh pasta tastes different from dried versions or why it carries a different price point. But she believes Indian diners are evolving rapidly.
“Because of travel, social media and the digital age, people today have so much more exposure to global cuisine and different dining experiences,” she says.
And perhaps that is what makes places like Zuru Zuru and Casa Pasta Bar exciting. Beyond the queues, the Instagram posts and the novelty of slurping ramen or twirling handmade pasta in Delhi, there are two women building spaces around food they deeply care about. One bowl and one plate at a time, they are changing how the city eats.