🍛 Food & Cuisine

Top 10 Street Foods in India

India's street food is its real food culture — the chaat at Chandni Chowk, the vada pav in Mumbai, the kati roll in Kolkata. Here are ten dishes you have to try at the source, with a note on the city most associated with each.

📅 May 27, 2026 👁 65 views 🏆 10 picks

1

Pani Puri / Gol Gappa / Phuchka
Pan-India

Crisp hollow puris filled with spiced potato, chickpeas and a shot of tangy mint-tamarind water. Named differently across regions — pani puri in Mumbai, gol gappa in Delhi, phuchka in Bengal.

Photo: Sruthi612 · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
2

Vada Pav
Mumbai

Mumbai's defining street food — a spicy potato fritter in a soft bun with chutneys. Eat it at Ashok Vada Pav in Dadar or any roadside stall outside a Mumbai local station.

Photo: Rutvi Mistry · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
3

Pav Bhaji
Mumbai

Mashed mixed-vegetable curry topped with butter, served with buttered toasted pav. Sardar Pav Bhaji in Mumbai's Tardeo set the standard.

Photo: Rupali Banarase · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
4

Kati Roll
Kolkata

Egg-coated paratha wrapped around grilled meat or paneer, with onions, lime and green chutney. Nizam's in Kolkata is widely credited as the original. Best eaten standing on the pavement.

Photo: Satyajit Dhawale (Satyajit888) · Wikipedia/Wikimedia · CC BY-SA 4.0
5

Bhel Puri
Mumbai / Pan-India

Puffed rice, sev, chopped onion, tomato and a sweet-sour-spicy chutney mix. Light, addictive and instant. Chowpatty Beach in Mumbai is the cultural home.

Photo: Barry Pousman from New York, NY · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
6

Aloo Tikki Chaat
Delhi

Crispy potato patties topped with yogurt, chickpeas, tamarind and mint chutneys, and a generous sprinkle of chaat masala. Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi is the original chaat district.

Photo: Raveesh Vyas from [Ahmedabad, Noida], India · Wikipedia/Wikimedia · CC BY-SA 2.0
7

Misal Pav
Maharashtra

A fiery sprouted-moth bean curry topped with farsan, onions and a slice of lemon, served with pav. Pune's Bedekar Misal and Nashik's Sai Misal are legendary.

Photo: Ankushkr2020 · Wikipedia/Wikimedia · CC BY-SA 4.0
8

Litti Chokha
Bihar

Wheat-flour-and-sattu dough balls roasted over coal, served with a smoky aubergine-tomato-potato mash. Bihar's signature dish, increasingly available in north Indian cities.

Photo: Eddie Stann · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
9

Dabeli
Kutch, Gujarat

A spiced potato filling, peanuts and pomegranate sandwiched in a buttery pav. Sounds simple; tastes incredible. Best at Mumbai's Kutchi stalls or anywhere in Bhuj.

Photo: Kanikatwl · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
10

Idli-Vada with Coconut Chutney
South India

Soft steamed rice cakes and fried lentil donuts served with three chutneys and sambar. Murugan Idli Shop in Chennai and Vidyarthi Bhavan in Bengaluru are the temples.

Photo: Soumya dey at English Wikipedia · Wikipedia/Wikimedia · CC BY-SA 3.0