A city with two kitchens
The Mughal kitchen: when Babur's family made Agra their capital in the sixteenth century, they brought Central Asian and Persian cooking: skewered meat, rice with meat and spice, dried fruit, nuts, saffron and rosewater.
How it became Mughlai: in India it met local spices, ghee, yoghurt and the tandoor.
Akbar's kitchen on paper: his minister Abul Fazl described it in the Ain-i-Akbari, with its many cooks, careful tasting and dishes from meatless to elaborate meat and rice.
- Signature sweet
- Petha, candied ash gourd
- Breakfast
- Bedai with potato curry, then jalebi
- Savoury snack
- Dalmoth
- Mughal table
- Kebabs, korma, biryani, breads
- Braj table
- Vegetarian, milk sweets
- Meatless days: the emperor kept them, and his kitchen was famous for vegetarian dishes as well as meat.
- The Braj kitchen: Agra sits at the southern edge of Krishna's land, around Mathura and Vrindavan, where the god is said to have stolen butter from the village women.
- Offered first: here food goes to the deity before it is eaten, and many families are strictly vegetarian.
- What it is built on: milk, ghee, butter, curd and sweets, with seasonal vegetables, lentils and wheat breads. Much temple cooking avoids onion and garlic.
- Where to find both: old family sweet shops and breakfast stalls, the restaurants of the great hotels and the homes of local families.
- The neighbours: our food guide covers Rajasthan, and our food of Jaipur guide and food of Delhi guide cover the cities either side.
Petha, the sweet of Agra
The gourd: a large pale green ash gourd with a white, waxy bloom on its skin.
The method: the flesh is cut, pricked all over, soaked in lime water to firm the outside, then boiled and simmered in sugar syrup until translucent.
How good petha tastes: slightly crisp at the edges, soft and juicy inside. It snaps a little before it melts, and tastes of clean sugar and gourd, not chemicals.
- Made from
- Ash gourd
- Classic
- Sukha, plain dry blocks
- Also try
- Angoori and kesar
- Famous name
- Panchhi Petha, founded 1926
- Keeps
- A week or more, dry kinds
- The legends: Agra says it was invented in Shah Jahan's kitchens to feed the Taj's builders, or that the emperor wanted a sweet as white as the marble. Lovely stories, and no one can prove them.
- What is certain: Agra has made petha for generations, and the city and the sweet are now inseparable.
- Sukha: the classic plain dry petha in white blocks.
- Angoori: small cubes in light syrup, named for their likeness to grapes.
- Kesar: flavoured and coloured with saffron. With the plain, our favourite.
- Newer kinds: rose, betel leaf, coconut, chocolate, and sandwich petha with a layer of nuts and dried fruit.
- Panchhi Petha: founded in 1926, the most famous name, which has inspired dozens of similar names along every highway into Agra.
- Where we buy: long-established family shops in the city, not roadside stalls. Quality varies enormously.
Bedai and jalebi, the Agra breakfast
Bedai: a small, puffed, deep-fried wheat bread stuffed with spiced, coarsely ground lentils.
The curry: thin and sharp, often with fenugreek and a touch of sourness, sometimes with a dab of chutney.
How to eat it: tear, dip and eat it hot, standing at the stall. It is heavier than it looks.
- Bedai
- Fried bread stuffed with lentils
- Served with
- A sharp potato curry
- Then
- Hot jalebi
- Best known
- Deviram Sweets
- When
- Early morning only
- Then the jalebi: batter piped in spirals into hot oil, fried crisp and dropped into warm syrup.
- Why together: in Agra jalebi comes straight after bedai, so the sweet cuts the spice.
- With rabri: some stalls add thickened sweet milk. Delicious and entirely unnecessary.
- Deviram Sweets: the name every Agra family knows for bedai, one of the oldest sweet shops in the city. Many others in the old lanes have loyal followers.
- Go early: by late morning the stalls switch to sweets and snacks. On a Taj morning, save it for the next day.
- Other breakfasts: kachori with potato curry, close to bedai but flatter, and in winter hot milk with cream and saffron from huge iron pans.
- Tasting walks: our food experiences page has them across the region.
Street food and how to eat it safely
- Go with
- A guide who knows the stalls
- Eat
- Hot, cooked, in front of you
- Best time
- Morning or early evening
- Water
- Bottled or filtered
- Skip
- Raw salads, cut fruit at stalls
Chaat
Aloo tikki: crisp potato cakes topped with chickpeas, yoghurt and chutneys.
- Papdi chaat and dahi bhalla: crisp wafers with yoghurt and tamarind, and soft lentil dumplings in yoghurt.
- Golgappe: hollow puris filled with spiced water.
- Choosing a stall: busy ones that cook in front of you. Go in the early evening, when everything is fresh.
Dalmoth
- Agra's own snack: a crunchy mix of fried lentils, nuts and spices, sold by weight in the sweet shops.
- Travels well: many visitors carry a packet home with the petha. Taste first, as the spicing varies from shop to shop.
Winter snacks
From the carts: roasted sweet potatoes with lemon and spice, and roasted peanuts in their shells.
- Gajak: a brittle sweet of sesame and jaggery.
- Tea: on every corner, in small glasses or clay cups.
Staying safe
A guide who knows: which stalls cook fresh.
- Hot and early: favour cooked food, and the morning, when oil and batter are new.
- Careful choices: bottled or filtered water, no raw salads or cut fruit at stalls, and caution with golgappe water unless you trust the stall. Our health and safety notes have more.
An evening food walk in the old city
The start: the steps of the Jama Masjid around five in the evening, as the light goes and the stalls light their stoves.
The lanes: Kinari Bazaar and the streets around it, past wedding-trimming shops, spice sellers and sweet makers stirring milk in wide iron pans.
- Start
- Jama Masjid steps, about 5 pm
- Lanes
- Kinari Bazaar and around
- Length
- About two hours
- Group
- Usually just your own party
- Typical stops: aloo tikki at a chaat stall, a hot jalebi or fresh petha at a sweet shop, and a kebab stall where the meat goes onto the charcoal as you watch.
- The pace: about two hours, easy.
- Come prepared: comfortable shoes, your bag in front of you, and hunger. Pace yourself, because every stop tempts you to finish the plate.
- How our guides choose: by the freshness of that evening's cooking, never by any arrangement.
- For comparison: read our piece on the Old Delhi food walk.
The Mughal table
- The old city: some of Agra's best Mughlai cooking is in small, busy family restaurants around the Jama Masjid. Not for everyone, and we go with a guide who knows them.
- More comfortable: the hotel restaurants below serve the same tradition with more polish.
Kebabs
The method: minced or cubed meat marinated in yoghurt and spices, cooked on skewers over charcoal or in the tandoor.
- What to order: seekh, minced meat on long skewers, shami, soft patties of meat and lentils, and boti, marinated cubes.
- With: sliced onion, lemon and green chutney.
Korma
Slow and rich: meat in yoghurt, slowly browned onions and often ground nuts, scented with cardamom, cloves and sometimes saffron or rosewater.
- How to judge it: fragrant rather than fiery, with the oil separating at the edges.
- Eat with: breads rather than rice.
Biryani
- Layered and sealed: rice and meat cooked together and finished slowly over low heat, so the rice absorbs spice and juices.
- Agra's style: gentle and aromatic, the North Indian way, rather than fiery.
Breads
- A dazzling range: naan and roti from the tandoor, flaky layered parathas, and sweet saffron-tinted breads for feasts.
- Order: whatever comes hottest from the tandoor.
Mughal sweets
Shahi tukda: fried bread soaked in syrup, topped with thickened milk and nuts, the royal bread pudding.
- Phirni: ground rice cooked in milk, set in clay bowls, cool and fragrant with cardamom.
- Kulfi: dense frozen milk, often with falooda noodles, the perfect end to a summer evening.
Agra's great hotel restaurants
- Lively
- Peshawri, ITC Mughal
- Refined
- Esphahan, Amarvilas
- Taj breakfast
- Bellevue, Amarvilas
- Relaxed
- Taj Bano, ITC Mughal
Peshawri at ITC Mughal
The cooking: the North-West Frontier, in clay tandoors: kebabs, whole legs of lamb, tandoori chicken, paneer, giant breads and a black dal simmered for many hours over embers.
- The ritual: you eat with your hands from copper platters, wearing a checked apron.
- Book ahead: lively, informal and among Agra's most famous restaurants.
Esphahan at The Oberoi Amarvilas
Refined: Indian and Mughlai dinners in a calm, elegant room.
- Dinner only: small, and suited to a special evening.
- Begin outside: with a drink on the terrace facing the Taj, then go in.
Bellevue at The Oberoi Amarvilas
- All day: the hotel's restaurant, with a terrace looking towards the Taj.
- The breakfast: after a sunrise visit, with the dome changing colour in front of you, one of the great hotel breakfasts in India.
Taj Bano at ITC Mughal
- The second restaurant: Mughlai and North Indian dishes, quieter than Peshawri.
- Who it suits: families, and guests who prefer a relaxed dinner with cutlery.
Vegetarian and Jain food in Braj country
A Braj thali: dal, a seasonal vegetable, kadhi of yoghurt and gram flour, spiced potatoes, puris or chapatis, rice, pickles, curd and a sweet.
Winter: sarson ka saag, mustard greens, with maize bread and butter.
Spring: the first green peas, cooked with cumin and ginger.
- Satvik
- No onion or garlic
- Jain
- No root vegetables, often before sunset
- Famous sweet
- Mathura ka peda
- Krishna's favourite
- Makhan mishri
- Simple and wholesome: and when it is good, wonderful.
- Temple cooking: in Mathura and Vrindavan it usually avoids onion and garlic, in the satvik tradition.
- Jain cooking: goes further, avoiding root vegetables such as potatoes, onions and carrots. Many Jain families eat before sunset.
- In hotels: most good Agra kitchens cook to these rules if asked, and we tell them in advance.
- Mathura ka peda: a round brown sweet of slowly caramelised milk and sugar, famous across India.
- Makhan mishri: fresh white butter with sugar crystals, Krishna's favourite, offered in temples.
- Rabri: milk boiled down for hours into a thick pudding, alone or with jalebi.
- Eat them at source: if you visit Mathura and Vrindavan, eat these where they are made.
What to drink
Lassi: thick sweet or salted yoghurt, often in a clay cup with a layer of cream. Have it in the late morning, never late in the evening.
Masala chai: tea boiled with milk, sugar, ginger and cardamom, in small glasses or clay cups. In winter a necessity.
- Lassi
- Late morning, in a clay cup
- Masala chai
- Every corner, all year
- Thandai
- Holi and the hot season
- Alcohol
- Hotel bars, except dry days
- Shikanji: Indian lemonade with salt, sugar and roasted cumin. The most refreshing thing in the heat, but only where the water is safe.
- Thandai: cold milk with almonds, fennel, rose and pepper, drunk at Holi and through the hot season.
- Bhang: at Holi thandai is sometimes laced with it, made from cannabis leaves. Ask before you drink, and be cautious.
- Sugarcane juice: pressed in front of you at street stalls. Delicious, best from a stall your guide trusts.
- Wine, beer and spirits: served in hotel bars and restaurants. Some dates are dry days in Uttar Pradesh, explained in our note on dry days and alcohol.
What to eat in each season
- Winter
- Gajak, rewri, gajar ka halwa
- Holi
- Gujiya and thandai
- Summer
- Mangoes, kulfi, aam panna
- Monsoon
- Pakoras and ghevar
- Diwali
- Boxes of mithai
Winter, from November to February
The richest season: gajak and rewri, brittle sweets of sesame and jaggery, and gajar ka halwa, carrots slow-cooked in milk and ghee.
- Evenings and homes: hot saffron milk with cream, and mustard greens with maize bread and white butter.
- Fog mornings: made for jalebi straight from the pan.
Spring and Holi, March
- Gujiya: before Holi every Braj kitchen fries these crescent pastries filled with sweetened milk solids, nuts and coconut.
- Thandai: mixed in great pots. The best week for sweets, and the worst for your diet.
Summer, April to June
Mangoes: sold by the crate from May.
- Anything cold: kulfi, lassi, shikanji and aam panna, a tangy drink of raw green mango with roasted cumin.
- Eat like locals: lightly at midday, saving rich food for the cooler evenings.
Monsoon and festivals, July to November
First rains: pakoras, vegetables fried in gram flour batter, with tea while the rain falls.
- Ghevar: in Shravan the honeycomb sweet appears for Teej, as in Rajasthan. Our note on ghevar and Teej tells its story.
- Diwali: in October or November sweet shops work through the night, and boxes of mithai pass between every family and its neighbours.
Taking Agra's food home
Dry petha: ask the shop to pack it in a sealed box, and keep the syrupy kinds for eating in Agra.
Dalmoth and namkeen: travel well in sealed packets.
- Dry petha
- A week or more, longer chilled
- Dalmoth
- Weeks, in sealed packets
- Gajak
- Well in winter, softens in humidity
- Mathura pedas
- A few days
- Gajak: keeps well in winter, but softens in humid weather.
- Mathura pedas: best within a few days, so buy them on the last day of your trip.
- Flying home: check your destination country's food rules. Sealed, commercially packed sweets are usually simplest.
Cooking with a local family
What happens: you learn a dal, a vegetable dish, a bread and perhaps a sweet, then sit down and eat it with the family.
The mood: informal, warm and often full of laughter. It teaches you more about Agra than any monument.
- Where
- Homes of families we know
- You learn
- A dal, a vegetable, a bread, a sweet
- Book
- In advance
- Good for
- Children and vegetarians
- Ask in advance: hosts need time to prepare and shop.
- The market first: a typical session begins with a walk with your host to buy vegetables and spices, a lesson in itself.
- In the kitchen: grind spices on a stone, knead dough, learn when the oil is hot enough for puris and how to judge a dal by its smell.
- Who loves it: children, and vegetarians are completely at home, since many Agra families cook only vegetarian food.
- Going on to Jaipur: our haveli cooking class goes deeper, and our food trail journey follows the dishes from the Mughal kitchen to the desert.
Table manners, the local way
Right hand: eat with it, as the left is traditionally used for other things. Cutlery is always available in good restaurants, and at Peshawri hands are part of the fun.
Bread as a spoon: tear it with the fingers of one hand and scoop. Never put bitten bread back on a shared plate.
- Prasad: temple food offerings are received with the right hand, or both hands cupped. It is polite to eat rather than refuse.
- In homes: you may be served first and pressed to eat more. Leave a little on your plate when full, and say so with a smile.
- Wash before and after: most restaurants have a basin, and in homes you will be offered water.
- Vegetarian homes: many Braj families are vegetarian. Don't bring meat or alcohol into a vegetarian home or temple area. Our notes on etiquette cover more.
A food day in Agra
- Around the monuments: our things to do in Agra and Agra itinerary show how to fit food in.
Early morning
- Breakfast: bedai and jalebi in the old city, with hot tea, at a stall your guide trusts.
- Walk it off: through Kinari Bazaar as the shops open, past spice sellers and sweet makers starting their day.
Late morning
- Agra Fort: then a cold lassi.
- Shopping: an established petha shop to taste the varieties and buy boxes for home, with a packet of dalmoth.
Afternoon
- Light lunch and rest: then a home cooking session with a local family, ending with the meal you helped make.
Evening
- Sunset: at Mehtab Bagh.
- Dinner: Peshawri, kebabs and black dal with your hands, then kulfi. Go to bed very full.
