Chandni Chowk Delhi: Oldest Market Street & Street Food Guide

Chandni Chowk is one of India's oldest and most chaotic market streets, a 17th-century bazaar commissioned by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan running west from the Red Fort through the heart of Old Delhi. The street and the labyrinthine lanes branching from it constitute one of the world's great market experiences — an overwhelming sensory assault of colour, sound, and aroma that has barely changed in essential character for 350 years.

The lanes off Chandni Chowk are famously specialised — Dariba Kalan for silver and jewellery, Kinari Bazaar for wedding finery and embellishments, Nai Sarak for books and stationery, and Khari Baoli for Asia's largest wholesale spice market where the air is perpetually thick with the combined fragrance of hundreds of spices sold in sacks and barrels by vendors whose families have worked these streets for generations without interruption.

For food, Chandni Chowk is unparalleled in Delhi — the lane of Paranthe Wali Gali has been serving stuffed flatbreads since the 19th century, while the neighbourhood's numerous halwai sweet shops sell extraordinary traditional Indian sweets that have been made to the same recipes for over a century. The neighbourhood is best navigated by cycle rickshaw and is most atmospheric in the morning hours before the heat and crowds intensify to their afternoon maximum.