Ресторан Naar в Гималаях популяризирует уникальную микрорегиональную кухню и местные вина

There is destination dining and then there is Naar. Nestled in a tiny place called Kasauli on the Himalayan foothills in India’s Himachal Pradesh region, the restaurant is a good three-hour drive away from Chandigarh, the city that is closest to it. To get there, you’ll have to drive through sloping mountain roads, encountering steep hairpin bends and increasingly wild, rugged terrain once you pass the two-hour mark. It’s a soul-awakening, sensory journey – one filled with lush, panoramic vistas and charming scenes straight out of a Bollywood epic – fat-plaited children running down the hills, men in thick sweaters hunched over hot cuppas, tiny little shops selling all sorts of curious things – and the pinnacle of this visual feast: the 16-seater restaurant itself. Naar is the brainchild of visionary chef Prateek Sadhu, who previously helmed Masque in Mumbai (now India’s highest-ranked restaurant on the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2026 list). Prateek hails from Kashmir in the northwestern part of the Himalaya mountain range and it is this strong connection to the Himalayas that fostered an interest in crafting a sustainability-driven restaurant nestled in a mountainous region with the Himalayas serving as both backdrop and canvas. Prateek opened Naar alongside his wife Aashina Kaul, a former movie marketing specialist who worked with top Bollywood stars like Shah Rukh Khan before moving to the mountains to help run the restaurant’s operations. Rounding out the team is seasoned hospitality maven and Prateek’s long-time friend Akshay Tripathi as well as Deepak Gupta, the owner of the sustainable boutique lodge Amaya – where Naar is physically located. Naar has seen its star on the ascent since it first opened its doors in 2023. In 2024, it was named one of Time magazine’s ‘World’s Greatest Places’ and this year, it emerged at No 30 on the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2026 list. Naar’s charm is half-location, half-what-Prateek-has-done-with-the-location. The restaurant is perched on a little elevated enclave, surrounded by paradisiacal views of the lush green mountains, pristine waterways and hinterlands beyond. This magical aura is gilded by the cool, crisp mountain air that wends its way throughout the area. The immediate surrounds are about 25 acres and part of this make-up is a working farm which cultivates 80% of the vegetables and fruits that appear on the menu, from turnips to cabbages, spinach, mustard leaves and different kinds of gourds and pumpkins, to name a few. The region is known for being the mushroom capital and fruit bowl of the country – wild mushrooms like lion’s mane, morel and shiitake can be found aplenty as well as various kinds of berries, apples and peaches. Everything is harvested seasonally – in winter, there are citrus fruits, in summer, there are berries. Whatever cannot be grown on-site is sourced from local villages – like wheat, rice and chicken. Every day before the start of service, the team also forages the surrounding areas like scavengers on a treasure hunt for native produce, like Himalayan golden raspberries as well as edible flowers and garnishes – many of which are scattered through the wild. “This is sorrel fruit – it’s very sour so we make chutneys out of it,” says executive chef Kamlesh Negi, spotlighting a bright red calyx while walking through the area. Kamlesh has been Prateek’s right-hand man for the last 14 years – a relationship Prateek champions by fondly calling him his “work wife”. Although the practice of foraging and farming has been around for thousands of years in Indian civilisation, it is relatively new (and rare) in terms of being the foundational force of a restaurant’s operations. Even on a global scale, only a handful of restaurants in the world operate this way. “With restaurants, obviously in urban cities you do not find farms and stuff like that. It’s just concrete jungles. So here the intention was just to go back in terms of what has been happening for a long time and concurrently also showcase the cuisine of the Himalayan belt. “Because unfortunately, the generalisation of Indian food is around only those 10 or 12 dishes from North and South India. And wherever you go, if you say, ‘I want to have Indian food’, the Indian food is either butter chicken or naan or dosa and idli and that kind of stuff. It’s just 10 dishes going round and round in the world,” says Prateek. Prateek’s determined focus on micro-regional cuisine is also what has given Naar a huge point of differentiation. You won’t find anything on the restaurant’s menu anywhere else. In fact, there’s a pretty high chance you’ve never even heard of half the things on your plate. And it isn’t just the food that is eye-opening; the restaurant’s incredibly talented in-house sommelier Sonakshi Soni also has a particular gift for uncovering Indian wines that pair remarkably well with Indian ingredients, providing an experience that deftly weaves together terroir and tipples in seamless harmony. As a result, you could indulge in a range of homegrown alcoholic beauties like Fratelli Wines Shiraz Rose, a fizzy, buzzy, happy introduction to what India has the capacity to produce. The Source Chenin Blanc Reserve 2023 wine from India’s Nashik Valley meanwhile is a premium oak-aged white wine that has lively citrus elements juxtaposed against fruity pineapple-tinged nuances in what proves to be a rich, lush odyssey from which you’ll emerge thoroughly impressed. The food menu meanwhile is built on the range of ingredients that grow wild in the area or are cultivated for the restaurant. So you might find all sorts of off-the-beaten-track Indian fare like Kachori or lamb brain with black pepper jam and yoghurt sauce; or Sharjen – a delicious pairing of duck and nettle leaves that leaves a lingering impression on the palate. Naar’s Dirty Toast has been on the menu since the restaurant’s inception and it isn’t hard to see why. Trout was introduced to the region by the Scottish and as a result, the fish has proliferated in the area and is widely consumed. In this iteration, the trout on toast is accentuated by mustard emulsion, smoked apple chutney, wood oil and sea salt in what is likely to be one of the most decadent yet simultaneously hearty, wholesome toasts you’re likely to experience. The Utterakhand staple of Sundarkala, or traditional hand-rolled wheat noodles features in a stand-out dish marrying lamb gyuma (traditional Tibetan blood sausage made using lamb intestines, blood and indigenous spices). The dish is deeply rooted in the culinary traditions of the Himalayas and in Prateek’s iteration, it is paired with a timru broth (a wild thorny shrub from the citrus family native to the Himalayas) in what results in a stand-out constellation of flavours and textures that marries acidity with heaty, meaty overtures and noodles to foster a closer bond. A warm, homey shared meal is a key part of the savoury epilogue – using Swarna rice (Indian medium to short grain rice) alongside a morel dish that utilises morels sourced from the surrounds as well as a smoky, unctuous dish of barbecued pork. It is a collaborative meal that displays Naar’s philosophy to fullest effect – drawing from the bounty of the region, paying respect to it and eking out the best flavours from each ingredient with the mastery of a captain leading his ship through uncharted waters only to discover treasure in the process. Naar has rightfully gained a reputation for going where few have gone before and striking the right chord in showcasing what can be achieved when a kitchen is able to harness the bounty of its natural surrounds and marry this successfully with the cuisine that is intertwined with this rich treasure trove of ingredients. “The real Indian food is in the regions and the micro-regions. If you go to people’s homes around here, this is some of what they will be eating. “So we thought – let’s tell the story we want to tell about the Himalayas through our food,” concludes Prateek.