Shankar Mahadevan's Malgudi Brings Its Dosas to Delhi

Shankar Mahadevan is better known for giving Hindi cinema its songs. This month he gave Delhi a menu. Malgudi, the vegetarian South Indian resto-café he co-founded with entrepreneur K.S. Ramakrishnan, held the official launch of its Rajouri Garden outlet on October 13, according to ThePrint, which reported that the restaurant turned into a dance floor for the night.

The outlet on Ring Road had opened its doors on September 18, ThePrint and Business Today reported. The October 13 celebration was the formal announcement, with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari attending as special guest. Several outlets, including Business Today, Mint, Mid-day and Open, describe the Delhi restaurant as Malgudi's 10th location as the brand grows across Mumbai and the United Arab Emirates.

A launch night with a soundtrack

ThePrint's Triya Gulati reported that guests and staff ended up dancing as Mahadevan sang Woh Ladki Hai Kahan from the 2001 film Dil Chahta Hai, adapting a line to praise the Malgudi team for the way they feed their guests. Open, citing the news agency ANI, reported that he also sang Jai Ganesha, and that singer Harshdeep Kaur attended and performed Ek Onkar and Dilbaro.

For one third of the Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy composing trio, the choice of setting was unusual. The stage was a dining room with terracotta walls, brass lamps, teak tables, cane-backed chairs and a traditional wooden swing, a look that ThePrint said steers clear of the usual muted, minimalist restaurant style.

A childhood dream, then a bigger plan

Mahadevan has framed the venture as something personal. Speaking to ANI, in remarks carried by Business Today and Open, he said: "Since childhood, I have had a dream that I want to open a restaurant because cooking is my passion." He added that he had long cooked for friends and family but had never taken that interest public.

The push came from Ramakrishnan, whom Mahadevan met around 10 years ago. According to the ANI interview, Mahadevan told him he wanted to be part of a South Indian restaurant. "So he said, don't do just one restaurant. Let's do 100 together," Mahadevan recalled.

Ramakrishnan told ANI, as reported by Open, that the Malgudi name had an earlier life as a quick-service restaurant business in Mumbai with around 10 to 14 outlets. The current resto-café format is a reworking of that identity. The name itself borrows from R.K. Narayan's fictional town of Malgudi, the setting of his much-loved stories, which gives the brand an easy hook of nostalgia.

What is on the plate

ThePrint reported that the menu was curated by Mahadevan himself, and that it mixes regional classics with fusion experiments. On the familiar side are thatte idli, rasam mini idli, curd rice, uthappam and the buttery benne dosa. Restaurant India and ThePrint both single out the Mulbagal Legacy Dosa, which Restaurant India describes as a 100-year-old recipe exclusive to Malgudi.

The fusion list is where the kitchen plays. Starters include podi cheese balls, Anna-style crispy lotus root and butter pepper garlic water chestnuts. Larger plates include bisi bele bibimbap, a paneer ghee roast with neer dosa, Sri Lankan Tamil curry with idiyappam and a vegetable stew with appam, as listed by ThePrint and Restaurant India.

Coffee gets its own counter. Restaurant India reported that the filter kaapi barista station uses beans from Chikmagalur, and that the drinks include a filter kaapi made with ghee and jaggery. Mocktails lean on South Indian ingredients; the Malgudi Picante, according to Restaurant India and Hindustan Times, uses guava, pomegranate and Guntur chilli.

What the first reviews said

Hindustan Times ran an early review on October 8. Its writer, Krishna Pallavi Priya, found the podi cheese balls "a must-try" and the Davangere Benne Dosa a reason to return, and praised the paneer Chettinad with Malabar parotta. She was less taken with the ghee podi thatte idli, which she felt was light on ghee, and the crispy lotus root, which "didn't really impress". The review's recommended order ended with an iced kaapi with jaggery and ghee and a filter kaapi panna cotta.

ThePrint placed the opening in a crowded field. Delhi NCR, it noted, already has Nadoo, Dravida Canteen, Carnatic Cafe and Juggernaut, while Benne still draws long queues in Greater Kailash 2. Malgudi's price of about Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,900 for two, ThePrint reported, sits close to Juggernaut's, which is a five-minute walk away. One diner the paper spoke to, 47-year-old Rachna Arora, said the reason she switched was simple: "It's Mahadevan's restaurant."

Cooking for Delhi, not like Delhi

Mahadevan's pitch to the capital, as he put it to ANI, is that Malgudi will not adjust its food to local taste. "We have to bring our South Indian cuisine to Delhi. So we didn't have to do it according to Delhi," he said, calling the city the food capital of the country. "We are not going to mess with it. We are adding South Indian food to it."

He also claimed, in the same interview reported by Open, that the Rajouri Garden outlet was already "doing much better business than any other outlet in the country". The brand has not published figures to back that up, so it remains his own assessment.

The kitchen interest is not new for viewers who follow his appearances. ThePrint and Mint both recalled that in August 2025, on Farah Khan's YouTube channel, Mahadevan cooked potli prawns and thecha. Malgudi, by contrast, keeps its menu fully vegetarian, with Jain-friendly options, according to Restaurant India.

Frequently asked questions

Where is Malgudi in Delhi? Hindustan Times lists the address as Ground Floor, D-4, Ring Road, opposite Pillar Number 184, Block D, Rajouri Garden.

Who owns Malgudi? It is co-founded by Shankar Mahadevan and K.S. Ramakrishnan, the founder and chairman of Eatopia Holdings, according to Open.

How much does a meal cost? ThePrint and Mint put it at about Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,900 for two.

Sources

Cover photo: Aantardhwani, Wikimedia Commons, [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bapu_Padmanabha_with_Shankar_Mahadevan_at_Purple_Haze_Studio_in_recording.jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bapu_Padmanabha_with_Shankar_Mahadevan_at_Purple_Haze_Studio_in_recording.jpg) (CC BY-SA 4.0).