Amritsar’s hottest new restaurant looks beyond chholey-kulchey

For the longest time, Amritsar’s travel itinerary has followed a pretty predictable script: a stop at the Golden Temple followed by dhaba-hopping for chhole-kulchey, buttery black dal, towering glasses of lassi, and enough ghee to make your cardiologist nervous. The city has always worn its food culture loudly and proudly. But lately, alongside old-school institutions like Kesar Da Dhaba and Brothers Dhaba, Amritsar has also been making room for a different kind of dining. One with cocktail bars, mood-lit restaurants, and people actually making reservations to go out for dinner.

Much of that shift can be credited to Kavish and Shruti Khurana, the couple behind some of the city’s most popular new-age dining spots. Their first breakout success, Elgin Café, opened in 2020 and quickly became Amritsar’s go-to modern European cafe. Since then, they’ve steadily expanded into a multi-format hospitality group: Grain, a continental all-day breakfast cafe with a coffee-and-wine bar; Lord Elgin, a maximalist cocktail bar with an unmistakable Bridgerton energy; and Pappadh, a delivery-only kitchen serving north Indian staples such as dal makhani and butter chicken.

Their spaces have always gravitated towards old-world drama and nostalgia in their decor. Their newest venture, Governor House, located in the same complex as Sarovar Premiere, in the upscale Mohindra Colony, takes that aesthetic to its grandest scale yet. Housed inside a heritage structure that once functioned as a circuit house dating back to 1863, the modern Indian restaurant immediately makes an impression with its framed arches, imposing black door, and a gilded lion statue at the entrance. The whole thing sits somewhere between a colonial club and an old-money bungalow, which makes sense, considering the property was once home to the governors of the East India Company.

Like all of the Khuranas’ hospitality ventures, Renesa Architecture Studio—the design firm behind Delhi hotspots like Lair and Call Me Ten—was brought in to shape the space. But instead of giving it a glossy makeover, the brief was to preserve the soul of the building. Though the building was leased nearly two years ago, the first seven to eight months were spent obsessing over the layout alone. The team exchanged nearly 767 WhatsApp messages and references, pulling inspiration from European heritage homes, colonial-era mansions, and Goan bungalows. “The idea was never to modernise the structure beyond recognition. Existing walls, uneven ceiling heights, ageing proportions, and even structural quirks were intentionally retained instead of hidden away,” says principal architect Sanchit Arora.

The Governor House is divided into multiple interconnected rooms instead of one massive dining area, with food and drinks served across each of the spaces. Walking through it feels like entering somebody’s ancestral home, where every room has its own personality. The Reading Room, for instance, has shelves carrying books like Little Women and The Three Musketeers, heavy curtains inspired by the Orient Express, and gold-framed paintings that make the whole space feel like an old European library. The Drawing Room goes all in on the drama—chequerboard floors, marble busts, vintage chandeliers, crystalware-lined shelves, porcelain curios, and a piano sitting right in the middle of it all.

A few steps ahead, the energy completely changes inside the Assembly Hall, where the arched bar takes centre stage and the restaurant starts feeling a little more social, with people hanging around and chatting with the bartender. Meanwhile, the Governess Parlour carries a distinctly after-hours energy with cigars, wine bottles, brass accents, and low lighting, while the Council Chamber seems a little more suited for long family dinners. Soon, the Archival Room, an intimate bar space inspired by old hunting lodges and private whisky chambers, will open deeper within the property.

The opulence of The Governor House can leave you a little distracted, but the Khuranas have clearly put just as much thought into the food and drinks too. For Kavish Khurana, the idea behind the restaurant came from a gap he felt in Amritsar’s dining scene, which largely swings between comfort-food institutions and multi-cuisine restaurants. Nobody was really doing refined Indian food in the city yet. He admits that places like Loya and Comorin in Delhi and Mumbai were on his mind while conceptualising the restaurant.

To shape the menu, the team brought in chef Anuj Wadhawan, whose résumé includes restaurants like Kheer at Roseate House New Delhi, Le Mirch in Malaysia, and Tansen in Hyderabad. A lot of the smaller plates take familiar Indian snacks and have fun with them. I started the evening with the tokri chaat paired with the lightness of avocado yoghurt foam with sharp pickled onions, while the sesame oil and togarashi added a subtle smokiness and heat. The aloo tikki, pressed in a waffle iron until crisp at the edges, came layered with parmesan, teriyaki, edamame, and yoghurt. But it was the truffle bhel puri with wasabi peanuts that stayed with me. The earthiness of truffle worked surprisingly well with the familiar sweet, spicy, and tangy flavours of a classic bhel.

Even the salads avoid playing it safe. A roasted beetroot salad, for instance, came paired with kasundi sour cream, where the sharpness of the mustard cut neatly through the natural sweetness of the beetroot.

And then, there’s the kulcha. In a city this obsessed with it, you can’t really get away with ignoring the staple. The Governor House clearly knows that, which is why the kitchen pushes beyond the usual aloo-and-pyaaz territory. I tried a version stuffed with asparagus, goat cheese, and sundried tomato—it was creamy, tangy, and generously filled, though it tasted more like a good flatbread than a traditional Amritsari kulcha. Other kulcha varieties include lamb keema and chicken Chettinad, both leaning into bolder flavours.

The mains travel the length and breadth of the country. There’s everything from Kashmiri dum aloo and kale ka saag served with white butter and makki ki roti to a smoky baingan bharta finished with burrata threads and pesto. But I gravitated towards the non-vegetarian side of the menu, particularly the Country Captain Chicken Curry— a homestyle, onion-heavy preparation that goes back to British mess kitchens, which I paired with The Governor’s Paloma, a tequila-based drink where watermelon, chilli, and citrus cut through the richness.

Another standout was the Durban mutton curry with baby potatoes, a dish invented sometime between the 1860 and the 1900 by Tamil labourers who worked at British-owned sugarcane plantations. The curry carried a gentle sweetness from the onions and baby potatoes before giving way to a deep, peppery warmth that stayed on the palate. It worked especially well with Pickle Garden, a tequila-based drink with raw mango and cucumber brine that kept the palate clean between mouthfuls.

By the time desserts arrived, I was already well past full, but I gave in anyway. The dark chocolate ghevar topped with 73 per cent chocolate mousse, saffron, and cardamom felt slightly overworked, the cardamom pushing through more than it should. The coffee-and-rum-soaked rasgulla with salted ice cream, though, was the easier, more balanced bite: soft, lightly boozy at the edges, and pulled together neatly by the salt. I had it with Garden After Dark, a coffee cocktail with Irish whisky, vanilla, mint, and blueberry pickle that felt like an unlikely addition but still managed to hold its shape.

The Governor House isn’t subtle, and it doesn’t try to be. It’s a restaurant built on spectacle, where rooms, plates, and pours all hold equal weight. But beneath the theatre, there’s intent in the way it cooks and composes, nudging Amritsar’s dining scene a little further from comfort and a little closer to conversation.

Address: Circuit House, inside Sarovar Premiere, near Rialto Chowk, Mohindra Colony, Amritsar - 143001

Timings: noon to midnight

Reservations: +91 9779125774

Cost for two (with alcohol): ₹5,000 + taxes

The restaurant opens to the public on May 20, 2026