11 October,2026 09:59 AM IST | Mumbai | Nasrin Modak Siddiqi
Pics/Restaurant Week India
How many new restaurants have you dined at in the last six months? Or, how experimental are you with trying new dishes at an unfamiliar eatery? Guilty as charged: most of us prefer to return to our favourites on autopilot. The familiar table, the similar order, the place where you know exactly what to eat. Well, there's a dining festival that wants to shake that habit.
Revived earlier this year after a decade-long hiatus, Restaurant Week India (RWI) returns for its Autumn Edition from October 16 to November 1, expanding from three cities to ten, including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR and Kolkata. It brings together more than 100 restaurants to create special three-course menus at set prices, giving diners a focused way to experience a broader range of India's dining scene.
The previous edition was held in April across Mumbai, Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru. More than 6,000 diners made over 2,100 bookings, generating more than '1 crore in revenue for participating restaurants. Nearly 1700 additional diners remained on the waitlist when bookings closed. More revealing was the repeat behaviour. Eighty-one diners booked three or more times during the 10-day festival. The numbers indicated that the dining festival addressed a particular need: diners were willing to try restaurants they might have otherwise overlooked, provided the prices were reasonable.
Restaurant Week India's original edition launched almost a decade ago under Cellar Door Hospitality, founded by Nachiket Shetye and Mangal Dalal. At the time, the prix-fixe (fixed price in French) format itself was unfamiliar to many diners. But it gave participating kitchens a concentrated audience. Fast forward to now, India's restaurant landscape has changed dramatically. There are more restaurants, more ambitious chefs, and a dining audience increasingly interested in regional cuisines, new formats, and distinctive culinary voices.
For Shetye, who returns as mentor and original architect of the platform, it is this evolution that has made the revival timely. "When we started Restaurant Week India over a decade ago, the prix-fixe menu was still a new idea for many diners," he says. "Today, diners are more adventurous, chefs are more ambitious, and India's dining culture has evolved enormously."
The new Restaurant Week India, therefore, is less a resurrection than a rewrite. The Dining Collective, which now operates the festival, is led by co-founders Aatish Nath, Gauri Vij and restaurateur Chaitanya Rele, with Shetye as mentor. They aim to build a platform that brings restaurants and diners together around the quality and character of the food, rather than simply price.
Explaining why The Dining Collective decided to retain the IP, Nath says, "A lot of people who have travelled know about it. It's also something that was a very successful part of the Indian dining landscape till a decade ago, and we each had fond memories of discovering some of the city's best restaurants at the time. We're grateful that Nachiket Shetye, one of the co-founders of the previous edition can share his insights from running the event earlier, and we're excited to make this a regular fixture on the Indian culinary calendar," he adds.
With India's restaurant scene expanding at pace, curation becomes the festival's most important job. The selection is not based simply on fame, social media visibility or the ability to fill tables. The team eats at restaurants, speaks to chefs and owners, and considers whether the kitchen has a distinctive voice.
Nath explains, "We look for restaurants that have a clear culinary identity, are known for their craft and have a strong point of view. Each participating restaurant creates a three-course menu specifically for the festival. For some chefs, that becomes a creative exercise rather than a discounted version of the regular menu. Some chefs develop new dishes specifically for RWI, while others use the format to showcase the cooking that defines them. The difficulty, says Nath, is saying no. "There are simply too many good restaurants."
While the Summer Edition was deliberately compact with fewer restaurants and cities, the Autumn Edition is considerably larger, running for 17 days. The expansion is not simply about adding restaurants. It also lets RWI experiment with formats outside the traditional restaurant-week format.
In addition to the prix-fixe, one can look forward to the One Service Only format where each venue will host two sittings in an evening, serving a three-course menu created exclusively for RWI. A separate drinks menu will be available for purchase at the venue.
The format is intentionally limited. One evening, two sittings, a finite number of seats. It also acknowledges how India's dining culture has broadened. Some of the country's most compelling food now happens in places that do not fit neatly into the traditional restaurant mould, from chef-led bars to increasingly ambitious pastry programmes. RWI is widening its frame accordingly.
With this edition, the experiment is national. And that may be the real evolution of Restaurant Week India: not simply a festival built around fixed-price meals, but a recurring platform that also documents India's evolving culinary culture. On the one hand, a restaurant can attract a new audiences and encourage loyal diners to try unfamiliar dishes. On the other, diners can look for new favourites and be open to experimentation. A win-win for all.
WHAT: Restaurant Week India Autumn Edition
WHEN: October 16 to November 1
TO BOOK: District app
PRICE: Lunch Rs 1,300; dinner Rs 1,600- Rs 2,200, plus applicable taxes. All bookings are prepaid.
