Delhi Chandni Chowk: Food walk with spice market & tea

4.96

(84 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

The first thing that hit me in Chandni Chowk wasn’t the crowd — it was the smell. Spices everywhere, sharp and sweet at once, like someone had just cracked open a hundred jars. Our guide, Rishi, waved us through a tangle of cycle rickshaws and pointed out a Jain temple painted in faded reds. I tried to keep up but kept getting distracted by flashes of gold jewelry in shop windows and the way people called out to each other across the street. There’s this constant hum here — not loud exactly, just busy, like everyone’s got somewhere to be but nobody’s rushing.

We ducked into Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib and Rishi showed us how to tie a scarf over our heads before stepping inside. The kitchen was something else — huge pots bubbling away, volunteers handing out chapati after chapati. I helped roll dough for maybe three minutes before an old lady laughed and gently took over (I’m not offended; she was way faster). The air smelled of cardamom and something buttery I couldn’t place. After that we wandered into Khari Baoli, which is apparently Asia’s biggest spice market. My nose tingled from all the chili powder in the air — I sneezed so hard a shopkeeper grinned and handed me a tissue without missing a beat.

Upstairs in one of those old havelis (I think it was called Gadodia Market), we climbed this narrow staircase that felt like it might collapse under us. Suddenly we were on a rooftop looking down over Old Delhi — pigeons everywhere, kids flying kites between tangled wires. Someone handed me a cup of masala chai so hot I nearly dropped it (worth it though; still thinking about that taste). The city looked softer from up there somehow, less chaotic. We finished with some street snacks — samosas that burned my fingers and something sweet I never caught the name of because Rishi was already telling another story about his childhood here.