Indian desserts are their own world: warm, fragrant, and often built around milk, nuts and slow-cooked sugar rather than chocolate or cream. If you usually skip pudding, they are worth getting to know.
The classics
Gulab jamun, soft milk dumplings soaked in rose-scented syrup, is the one most people meet first. Then there is kheer, a cardamom-scented rice pudding; kulfi, denser and slower-melting than ice cream; and gajar ka halwa, made from slow-cooked carrots and especially popular in winter. In the east of India, particularly Bengal, milk sweets such as rasgulla and sandesh are famous.
Spice, even in sweets
What sets Indian desserts apart is the seasoning. Cardamom, saffron, rosewater and pistachio appear again and again, giving sweets a perfume that a plain sugar pudding never has. They are sweet, but rarely one-note.
How they are eaten
In India, sweets are as much about hospitality as dessert. They are offered to guests, shared at festivals and weddings, and often enjoyed with a cup of masala chai. A little goes a long way: a single gulab jamun is usually enough.
Try them at home
Several of these are easier to make than they look. Sooji halwa, semolina toasted in ghee with sugar and cardamom, is ready in around fifteen minutes, and sweet vermicelli, or seviyan, is just as quick.
A sweet note at our table
Our kitchen concentrates on savoury cooking, so desserts are one to enjoy at home. If you like a sweet note with your meal, a mango Lacee from our drinks list sits well beside a spicy curry, and the Mango Chicken brings a gentle sweetness of its own. Browse our menu, and for an early dinner see our Pre-Theatre menu, served from 12pm to 5.30pm daily. Book a table and save room for another naan instead.
