Old Delhi — the walled city that Shah Jahan built in 1639 — is one of the most sensory-dense places on earth. Chandni Chowk, its main artery, has been a trading street for nearly four hundred years, and in that time it has developed a chai culture of remarkable depth and variety.
You can drink chai on the steps of the Jama Masjid at Friday prayer time, in a courtyard tucked behind a wedding-garland shop, at a stall that has occupied the same corner since Partition, or on the upper floor of a crumbling haveli whose owner will insist you stay for two cups before leaving. Old Delhi's chai is not a transaction. It is a relationship.
Jama Masjid Steps: The Grand Stage
The steps of the Jama Masjid — India's largest mosque, capable of holding 25,000 worshippers — are lined with chai wallahs from early morning. The best are on the eastern steps overlooking the old city. The chai here is Muslim-household style: lighter on spice, heavier on cardamom, the tea leaves steeped briefly so the result is aromatic rather than astringent.
After Friday prayers, the chai stalls do extraordinary business. The combination of the crowd dispersing, the call to prayer fading, and the chai warming your hands is one of the great Delhi experiences.
Khari Baoli: The Spice Market
Khari Baoli is Asia's largest wholesale spice market — a narrow lane off Chandni Chowk where sacks of dried chilli, turmeric, cardamom, and cinnamon are traded in volumes that supply restaurants across South Asia. The fragrance is overwhelming and wonderful.
The chai served in and around Khari Baoli is spiced with unusual confidence — traders who work all day surrounded by the finest spice in the world are not going to accept a timid masala. Ask for chai at any of the small tea stalls tucked between the spice wholesalers and you will get something that reminds you why masala chai earns its name.
Parathe Wali Gali: Chai and Stuffed Bread
Parathe Wali Gali (literally: the lane of stuffed flatbreads) has been making parathas since the 1870s. The original stalls — still run by descendants of the founding families — stuff their parathas with everything from potato and onion to rabri (sweetened condensed milk) and dry fruit. The accompanying chai is a separate institution: strong, thin, almost salty-sweet, poured from a blackened kettle that looks older than independence.
Bengali Market and Modern Delhi Chai
Outside the old city, Bengali Market in central Delhi represents a different chai tradition — the dhaba-style roadside culture of the 1950s and 60s that fed Delhi's bureaucratic expansion. The dhabas here serve chai in small steel glasses that retain heat for minutes, accompanied by bread pakora (battered and fried white bread sandwiches) that are the definitive Delhi street breakfast.
“📍 North IndiaIn Old Delhi, the chai wallah is the real historian. He has watched empires come and go from his corner, and he is still there — same corner, same bhagona, same extraordinary tea.