Lucknow, the nawabon ka sheher, is changing. Earlier, whenever I spoke to my friend back home about meeting in the city, the conversation almost always went the same way: “Chalo, Lucknowi khana khayenge.” We’d plan around the old favourites: nihari, kebabs, biryani, chaat, kulfi, bun makkhan, and the places that have shaped Lucknow’s food identity for generations.
But now a change is afoot.
Alongside the authentic Lucknowi spread, the city is now making room for sushi, matcha, tacos, chaap, momo, hot dogs, and all kinds of trendy dishes. And yet, somehow, the most Lucknowi thing about this is that we’re not replacing the old with the new; we’re simply adding more to the table.
The new Lucknow food map is a strange and rather fabulous mix of old-school tehzeeb (culture) and Gen Z appetite. Walk through Gomti Nagar’s food valley or 1090 chauraha, and you are as likely to encounter sushi, ramen, Korean fried chicken, rasgulla tres leches, as well as the good old chaat and galouti kebab.
| Saqiba Khan | ThePrint
It was astonishing when I first saw sushi being served on a food cart. While walking down the Food Valley at the Gomti Nagar riverfront, I saw fusion desserts such as brownie laddoos, Reese’s peanut butter laddoo or salankate (an Egyptian dessert). The combinations may be scary. But try a paneer tempura sushi in Chatori Gali, and then we’ll talk.
So basically, Lucknow’s new lingo is like, “Prakash ki kulfi ke baad ek plate tres leches hojaye (After Prakash’s kulfi, let’s have some tres leches)?”
Be our guest, be our guest. Put your taste to the test
But this isn’t a city abandoning its food culture. This is Lucknow doing what Lucknow has always done best: mehmaan-nawazi (hospitality). Only this time, the mehmaan or guest happens to be sushi, tacos, chaap, matcha and desserts. We let them in, make room at the table, feed them generously, and, before long, “Apne rang mein rang lete hain (We paint them in our colours).”
That is the Lucknow way, you don’t have to be from here to belong here. Give us something new and we’ll welcome it with open arms, add a little spice, a little drama, a little apnapan (belonging), and make it feel like it has always had a place in the city. Maybe that is why international food trends don’t feel like outsiders in Lucknow. They’re simply the latest mehmaan, and Lucknow has never been very good at letting its guests leave without making them feel at home.
Let us take chaap, for example. Delhi may have the most perfect “soya chaap”, but Lucknow has given it an Awadhi touch, resulting in fan favourites such as Afghani chaap, malai chaap, or tandoori chaap. And so, a city famously lauded as a meat-lovers paradise has somehow made room for a vegetarian dish pretending to be meat.
But there is something even more amusing than our faux meat: matcha served in a kulhad. The kulhad belongs to dusty lanes, roadside chai stalls and long conversations that begin with “do chai laga do (two teas please).” But somehow the glazed clay pot goes perfectly with matcha. The drink may be Japanese and the aesthetic may be very 2026, but the vessel is saying, “Beta, Lucknow mein ho (You are in Lucknow, son).”
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‘Muskuraiye, ki aap Lucknow mein hain (Smile, for you are in Lucknow)’
Eating out in Lucknow is no longer simply about finding something delicious. It is about finding something new. A new café. A new cuisine. A new dish to put on the group chat with the message: “Guys, we need to try this.”
And that is where Gen Z, Instagram and food trends have changed the city more than any restaurant opening ever could.
Food discovery has become communal. Someone living in Lucknow can discover a Tokyo-style dessert, a New York hot dog or a Korean dish online in the morning and be chomping it down in Gomti Nagar by evening.
But here is the part I love: after all that, Lucknow still comes back to chaat and galouti kebab at Tunday Kebabs. Lucknow-wallas, especially Gen-Z, enjoy sushi from a thela almost as much as a nalli nihari.
You can eat tacos, hot dogs and Korean fried chicken all weekend, but mention Chowk and suddenly everyone has an opinion on where to go and which OG Lucknow dish they are craving.
Because food in Lucknow isn’t just food. It is memory, rivalry, recommendation and identity. Everyone knows a place that is “the real deal”. Everyone has an uncle who swears his favourite kebab shop was better twenty years ago. Just like everyone has a younger cousin who swears your life will change after you try kulhad matcha.
The old Lucknow isn’t disappearing. It is sitting at the same table as the new one. The galouti doesn’t need to fight the taco. The chaat doesn’t need to defeat the sushi. The kulfi can happily coexist with the tres leches at Crude Coffee and Desserts.
If there’s one thing you need to know about people from Lucknow, it’s that we don’t discriminate against food. We eat everything.
So yes, come to Lucknow for the iconic chaat. Come for the kebabs. But don’t be surprised if your friend takes you out for sushi served on a thela and later for a matcha kulhad.
When it comes to the old and the new, the local and the global, Lucknow knows what to say: “Janaab, humse seekhiye (Sir, learn from us).”
This is Lucknow. We don’t let trends replace our food. We feed them until they become part of it.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)