Best Indian Desserts and Sweet Dishes to Order

Indian desserts are unapologetically sweet — most are built on milk cooked down for hours, sugar syrup, cardamom, rose, saffron and nuts. After a spicy meal, that sweetness is exactly the point.

Gulab jamun

Milk-solid dumplings, fried golden then soaked in warm rose-and-cardamom syrup. Served warm, spongy, dripping. The most ordered dessert in almost every Indian restaurant, ours included. Two pieces is a portion; one is enough after a big dinner.

Ras malai

Flattened cheese dumplings sitting in sweetened, thickened milk with cardamom, saffron and pistachio. Lighter and less sugary than gulab jamun. If you find most Indian sweets too much, start here.

Kheer

Rice pudding, but slower — rice simmered in milk until the whole thing turns creamy, with cardamom, raisins and almonds. Served warm or cold. The most comforting thing on the list.

Gajar halwa

Grated carrot cooked down in milk and ghee with sugar and nuts until it's dense and fudgy. Sounds odd, tastes like spiced caramel. A winter dessert in Punjab, and a favorite at our banquet events.

Kulfi

Indian ice cream, but denser — the milk is reduced before freezing, so it's chewier and slower to melt. Usually mango, pistachio or malai.

Falooda

Half dessert, half drink: rose syrup, milk, vermicelli, basil seeds and ice cream. A whole event in a glass.

How to order dessert

One or two for the table, several spoons. Nobody finishes their own. Pair with masala chai — the tannin and spice cut through the sugar and it's how the meal is meant to end.

Have a look at what we're serving on our menu, and if you're planning a celebration, we build dessert trays for catering and full sweets tables for weddings and mehndi nights in our Hercules banquet hall. Questions? Get in touch.