Restaurant in Bangalore, India
Serious Indian fine dining, La Liste-backed.
Jamavar at The Leela Palace holds La Liste recognition two years running and a 4.5-star rating from over 1,200 Google reviews, making it one of Bangalore's most credible fine-dining Indian restaurants. Best for occasion dining and returning guests who want to go deeper into the menu. Not the right call for delivery or a casual weeknight meal.
Jamavar at The Leela Palace is one of Bangalore's most credible fine-dining Indian restaurants, backed by consecutive La Liste recognition (82.5 points in 2025, 80 points in 2026) and a 4.5-star Google rating across more than 1,200 reviews. If you've been once for a special occasion and want to know whether to return, the answer is yes — but with a clearer sense of what you're booking and why. This is a hotel restaurant that earns its place on merit, not just by association with a luxury address.
The most common misconception about Jamavar is that it's a showpiece dining room coasting on Leela Palace's prestige. It isn't. The kitchen takes Indian cuisine seriously enough to hold ground on La Liste's global list two years running, which places it in company with restaurants that compete on cooking quality, not ambiance alone. That said, if you're expecting street-level regional intensity or the kind of deeply personal cooking you'd find at a chef-driven independent, recalibrate. Jamavar operates at a formal hotel register: refined, consistent, and calibrated for an international guest who wants to experience Indian food in a high-comfort setting.
For a returning guest, the question isn't whether it's good — it clearly is , but whether you've worked through the menu enough to go deeper. Indian cuisine at this level rewards repeat visits: regional breadth, preparation techniques, and ingredient sourcing tend to vary significantly across a menu, and a second visit lets you move past the crowd-pleasing signatures toward whatever the kitchen does with less-familiar culinary traditions.
A restaurant at this tier, positioned inside one of Bangalore's landmark hotel properties, is not built around off-premise dining. The setting, service ritual, and formal plating are integral to the experience at Jamavar , the food does not travel well in the sense that the full value proposition requires being in the room. If you're considering delivery as a proxy for the restaurant, it won't be. For high-quality Indian food that performs well off-premise in Bangalore, a neighbourhood specialist will serve you better. Jamavar's value is the complete experience: the Leela Palace lobby, the formal room, attentive service, and cooking that earns critical recognition. Strip those out and you're paying a premium for packaging.
Reservations: Easy to book , walk-ins may be possible, but a reservation is advisable for evenings and weekends given the hotel-restaurant format. Dress: Smart casual at minimum; the Leela Palace setting makes this a room where formal or business-smart attire fits naturally. Budget: Price range not published in our data , expect fine-dining hotel pricing; budget accordingly for a full dinner with drinks. Location: Lobby level, The Leela Palace, HAL Old Airport Rd, Kodihalli, Bengaluru. Cuisine: Indian, formal register. Booking difficulty: Easy.
For context on how Jamavar compares within the city, see the How It Compares section below. If you're building a broader Bangalore dining itinerary, our full Bangalore restaurants guide covers the city's full range, and our Bangalore hotels guide is useful if you're deciding whether to stay at the Leela itself. For Bangalore bars, Bangalore wineries, and Bangalore experiences, Pearl has dedicated guides for each.
If you're travelling across India and want to benchmark Jamavar against comparable formal Indian restaurants elsewhere, Dum Pukht in New Delhi and Adaa at Falaknuma Palace in Hyderabad are the most direct comparators: both operate at the luxury-hotel Indian-fine-dining register and reward the same kind of intentional, occasion-driven visit. For something more chef-driven and less formal, Farmlore in Bangalore itself or Naar in Kasauli represent a different philosophy entirely.
Go in knowing this is formal hotel fine dining, not a casual curry house or a chef-led independent. The setting inside The Leela Palace on HAL Old Airport Road sets the register immediately. The kitchen holds La Liste recognition two years running, so the cooking is serious , but the experience is designed for occasion dining, not a quick weeknight meal. Budget for fine-dining hotel pricing, dress smart, and book ahead for evenings. For a broader view of the city's Indian dining options, see our Bangalore restaurants guide.
Karavalli is the most direct alternative if you want formal Indian dining with serious regional credentials , it focuses on coastal Karnataka and Kerala cuisine and has its own long-standing critical reputation. Farmlore is the right choice if you want chef-driven, ingredient-focused Indian cooking in a less formal room. Indian Durbar is worth considering if you want a more accessible price point without sacrificing quality. Bastian Garden City and Citrus shift the category entirely toward contemporary multi-cuisine dining.
Smart casual is the floor, but the Leela Palace context makes business-smart or formal attire a natural fit. This is not a room where you'll feel overdressed in a jacket or saree. Shorts and casual footwear would be out of place. If you're coming directly from a business meeting, you're already dressed appropriately. Think along the lines of what you'd wear to a formal dinner at a five-star hotel, because that's exactly what this is.
Yes, straightforwardly. The combination of La Liste recognition, a formal hotel setting, attentive service, and serious Indian cooking makes it one of the more credible choices in Bangalore for a celebratory dinner, client meal, or anniversary. It delivers on the markers that make a special-occasion dinner feel intentional: a grand room, consistent kitchen performance, and a menu with enough range to satisfy a table with varied preferences. For a comparable special-occasion experience in Hyderabad, Adaa at Falaknuma Palace operates at a similar register.
It works for solo dining if you're comfortable in formal hotel restaurant settings , the service standard and room quality mean you won't feel like an afterthought at a table for one. That said, Indian menus at this tier are designed for sharing across multiple dishes, so solo visits mean either committing to a smaller cross-section of the menu or spending more to sample broadly. If solo dining and menu exploration are both priorities, a counter seat or tasting menu format suits better , and venues like Farmlore may offer a more comfortable solo experience. For solo Indian fine dining elsewhere in India, The Table in Mumbai and Bomras in Anjuna handle solo guests well.
| Venue | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Jamavar - Leela Palace | — | |
| Karavalli | — | |
| Farmlore | — | |
| Le Cirque Signature - The Leela Palace | — | |
| Bastian Garden City | — | |
| Citrus | — |
What to weigh when choosing between Jamavar - Leela Palace and alternatives.
Jamavar takes Indian cuisine seriously — this is not a hotel restaurant coasting on surroundings. It has held consecutive La Liste recognition (82.5 points in 2025, 80 points in 2026), which signals consistent kitchen performance rather than one-off press attention. Book in advance for evenings and weekends; the hotel-restaurant format means walk-ins can work at quieter times, but don't rely on it. Come prepared for a full-service, formal paced meal rather than a quick dinner.
Karavalli at The Gateway Hotel is the comparison most worth making if you want regional South Indian cooking with comparable credibility and a longer track record in the city. Farmlore is the better pick if you want a more contemporary, produce-driven format. Le Cirque Signature, also at The Leela Palace, covers European fine dining if you want variety without changing venue. Jamavar is the stronger choice when the specific goal is refined Indian cooking in a formal setting.
Jamavar sits at lobby level inside The Leela Palace, one of Bangalore's established luxury hotel properties, so the setting implies smart dress. While no dress code is confirmed in available records, arriving in anything less than smart casual would feel out of place with the room and the clientele. For special occasions or business dinners, err toward formal.
Yes — it is one of the more defensible choices in Bangalore for a milestone dinner. The La Liste ranking (82.5 points in 2025) gives it external credibility you can point to, the Leela Palace setting handles the occasion physically, and Indian fine dining as a format tends to accommodate dietary variety better than most European tasting-menu alternatives. Reserve in advance and flag the occasion when booking.
Workable, but not the obvious format. A La Liste-recognised restaurant inside a five-star hotel is designed around the full table experience rather than solo counter dining. If you are travelling alone on business and want a serious meal, Jamavar is a reasonable call given its location on HAL Old Airport Road. For solo diners who prefer a less formal atmosphere, Citrus or Bastian Garden City would be more relaxed options.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
