- A plate of momos costs about ₹80–150 and a bowl of thukpa ₹100–180 in ordinary places in both towns in 2025–26.
- Sel roti is a morning and festival food, best bought warm from market stalls with aloo dum and tea.
- Hard chhurpi is a dried cheese meant to be sucked slowly, not bitten, and a small packet costs ₹50–150.
- The fermented foods, gundruk and kinema, are most often found in homestay kitchens and the old markets rather than on café menus.
A kitchen shaped by many peoples
Hill food is the story of who came to these mountains. Lepcha and Limbu families cooked with nettles, ferns, millet and fermented soybean long before the British arrived. Nepali settlers brought dal-bhat, pickles and the sel roti of Dashain and Tihar. Tibetan traders and, after 1959, refugee families brought momos, thukpa and butter tea. The British left bakeries, sausages and the habit of tea in the afternoon. Today most households cook from all of these traditions in a single week.
For a traveller that means the cheapest food is also the most local. You do not need a guide or a booking to eat well. You need to walk, look for the counters where people are queuing, and say yes when your homestay host offers something you have never heard of. We have walked these routes in Darjeeling and Gangtok for years, and this is the order we would eat in.
Morning in Darjeeling: sel roti and tea
Start early, around 7 am, in the lanes of Chowk Bazaar below the Mall, when the market stalls are frying. Sel roti is a ring of rice-flour batter, sweetened and poured by hand into hot oil, crisp at the edges and soft inside. It is the taste of Tihar, when every kitchen makes stacks to share, but you can buy it most mornings for ₹20–40 a piece. Eat it with aloo dum, the hills' spiced potato curry, and a glass of milky stall tea for ₹15–30.
Walk up afterwards to the Mall and Chowrasta for a second, better tea. Several tea rooms here will make you a pot of a named garden's first or second flush for ₹40–150, without milk, so you can taste the difference. If you want the old Darjeeling breakfast, Keventer's at Clubside has served ham, sausages and eggs on its terrace for generations, and Glenary's on Nehru Road is a bakery and café of the same vintage. Both cost more than the market, and we treat them as a once-per-trip treat.
Lunch: momos and thukpa
Momos are steamed dumplings of Tibetan origin, folded around pork, chicken, beef, or cabbage with cheese, and served with a clear soup and a fiery tomato and chilli chutney. A plate of eight to ten costs ₹80–150 in ordinary places. Steamed momos are the test of a kitchen: a thin wrapper, a juicy filling, nothing doughy. Eat them at lunch, when the steamers are freshest. Small Tibetan family kitchens below Chowrasta and on Gandhi Road and Laden La Road do them well, and in Gangtok the lanes around Lal Bazaar and off MG Marg are full of them.
Thukpa is the noodle soup that keeps the hills warm, round noodles in a broth with vegetables, egg or meat, for ₹100–180 a bowl. Its cousin thenthuk has flat, hand-torn noodle pieces and is thicker and more filling, our choice on a wet afternoon. In summer, look for laphing, a cold, spicy mung-bean noodle sold from street carts, a Tibetan snack that has become a student favourite in both towns.
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Gangtok: Lal Bazaar and MG Marg
Gangtok's food walk starts at Lal Bazaar, the old market now housed in the Kanchenjunga Shopping Complex, a short walk down from MG Marg. The ground floors and lanes around it are where Sikkim shops: bundles of fern shoots and nettles, dried gundruk, kinema, bamboo shoots, the small, round and very hot dalle khursani chilli, and blocks of soft and hard chhurpi from village dairies. It is the best place in the state to see what people actually cook.
Back up on MG Marg, the pedestrian promenade with no vehicles, no smoking and no littering, is the evening walk for half of Gangtok. The Roll House, just off the promenade, is known for egg and chicken rolls at small prices, and the Tibetan kitchens on the side lanes serve momos, thukpa and shaphaley, a fried bread stuffed with spiced meat and cabbage. Sikkim was declared a fully organic farming state in 2016, and the vegetables in the market show it, small and full of flavour.
Chhurpi, gundruk and kinema
The fermented and dried foods are what make hill cooking different from anything on the plains. Hard chhurpi is cheese made from yak or cow milk, pressed, cut into small cubes and dried until it is as hard as stone. It is meant to be held in the mouth and softened slowly for an hour or more, not bitten; people chew it on long jeep rides. Soft chhurpi is a fresh cheese used in pickles and curries, often with tomato and chilli.
Gundruk is leafy greens, usually mustard or radish leaves, fermented and sun-dried; it goes into a sour, warming soup that families eat with rice. Kinema is fermented soybean, sticky and strong-smelling, cooked as a curry. Neither is common on restaurant menus. The surest way to taste them is to ask your homestay host, or to look for small thali places near the markets that cook home-style food.
- Hard chhurpi: suck it slowly, and do not try it if you have weak teeth or crowns.
- Gundruk soup: sour and salty, best on a cold evening with rice.
- Kinema curry: strong smell, nutty taste, ask for it at Nepali homes and thali kitchens.
- Dalle khursani pickle: a fingertip on the side of your plate is enough.
What it all costs
Food is the easiest part of a hill budget to control. A shoestring day of eating in either town, market breakfast, momos at lunch and a thali dinner, costs about ₹450–700. Add a café breakfast or a sit-down dinner and it rises to ₹800–1,200. Prices here are indicative for ordinary local places in 2025–26; restaurants on the Mall, Chowrasta and MG Marg charge more.
| Dish or drink | Indicative price | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| Sel roti, one piece | ₹20–40 | Morning market stalls |
| Aloo dum, plate | ₹40–80 | Market stalls, snack counters |
| Momos, plate of 8–10 | ₹80–150 | Tibetan kitchens in both towns |
| Thukpa or thenthuk, bowl | ₹100–180 | Tibetan kitchens |
| Shaphaley, one or two pieces | ₹50–120 | Tibetan snack counters |
| Veg or non-veg thali | ₹150–250 | Near Chowk Bazaar and Lal Bazaar |
| Hard chhurpi, small packet | ₹50–150 | Market shops |
| Stall tea | ₹15–30 | Everywhere |
| Pot of Darjeeling tea | ₹40–150 | Tea rooms on the Mall |
Eating well, and what to carry home
A few habits help. Make lunch your main meal, when kitchens are freshest. Eat at the busy counters, not the empty ones. Drink filtered or bottled water and ask for tea rather than juice at street stalls. Vegetarians eat well everywhere, with cheese and cabbage momos, vegetable thukpa, dal-bhat and aloo dum on every menu.
Drinks have their own traditions. Tongba, warm millet beer sipped through a bamboo straw from a wooden or bamboo vessel topped up with hot water, is a Limbu and Lepcha drink still served in some village homes and small restaurants. Butter tea, salty and rich, is found in Tibetan kitchens and monasteries, and is a taste most people either love or politely decline.
For the journey home, buy sealed Darjeeling tea with the Tea Board's Darjeeling logo from a proper shop, hard chhurpi in packets, a jar of dalle khursani pickle if you like heat, and dried gundruk in Lal Bazaar. Pack the pickle well. If your trip coincides with Tihar in Darjeeling or Losoong in Sikkim, say yes to every plate of sel roti and festival food you are offered; it is the best eating of the year.
festivalLosoong and the Kagyed dances in Gangtok
guideWest Sikkim Food: Churpi, Gundruk, Tongba and MoreQuestions people ask
Good to know
How much does a plate of momos cost in Darjeeling?
In ordinary market kitchens and Tibetan family restaurants, a plate of eight to ten momos costs about ₹80–150 in 2025–26, depending on the filling. Pork and beef are often a little dearer than vegetable or chicken. Cafés on the Mall and Chowrasta charge more. Prices are similar in Gangtok, where the lanes around Lal Bazaar and MG Marg have many momo counters.
What is chhurpi and how do you eat it?
Chhurpi is a cheese made from yak or cow milk. Hard chhurpi is pressed, cut into cubes and dried until very hard; you hold a piece in your mouth and let it soften slowly for an hour or more rather than biting it. Soft chhurpi is fresh and used in pickles and curries. A small packet of the hard kind costs ₹50–150.
Where can I eat sel roti in Darjeeling?
Look for morning stalls in and around Chowk Bazaar, below the Mall, from about 7 am, where sel roti is fried fresh and sold for about ₹20–40 a piece, often with aloo dum and tea. It is also the main festival food during Tihar in October or November, when families fry large batches and share them with visitors.
What food should I try in Gangtok?
Try momos and thukpa in the Tibetan kitchens off MG Marg, shaphaley, a fried bread stuffed with meat, and a thali with gundruk soup or kinema curry. Walk through Lal Bazaar to see fern shoots, chhurpi and the hot dalle khursani chilli. Egg rolls from the small roll shops near MG Marg are a cheap evening snack.
Is street food safe to eat in the hills?
Generally yes, if you choose sensibly. Eat at busy counters where food is cooked fresh in front of you, such as momo steamers at lunchtime, and avoid food that has sat out. Drink filtered or bottled water, and prefer hot tea to cold juices at stalls. Carry a basic stomach remedy, as you would anywhere when travelling.
