GelatoSpots

Research edition

India

Delhi

Mumbai has the kulfi that travelled. Delhi has the kulfi that never left Chawri Bazar. Which is the stronger case?

Delhi's frozen-dessert tradition did not travel outward the way Mumbai's kulfi brands did — it stayed in the lanes it was born in. Kuremal Mohan Lal Kulfi Wale has hand-stuffed real fruit with kulfi in Chawri Bazar's Sitaram Bazar since 1906, four generations deep, still at the same lane address. Two more institutions carry Partition itself as a founding fact, not a marketing story: Roshan Di Kulfi in Karol Bagh, begun by a 19-year-old Lahore refugee walking milk tins four kilometres on foot in 1947, and Giani Di Hatti in Fatehpuri, founded in 1956 by a refugee sweet-maker from Lyallpur whose rabri-falooda recipe is still, per the family's own account, made unchanged. Layered onto that is a living street tradition — hand-churned, unbranded, sold from clay pots by third-generation kulfiwalas in Kinari Bazaar and near Red Fort — that Mumbai's institutionalised kulfi shops don't have an equivalent of. And Delhi's newest layer, Carpigiani-trained gelato at Firenze in Defence Colony, put an 'Old Delhi Fruit Cream' flavour on its own menu, a direct nod back to the fruit-stuffed kulfi tradition across town.

Last checked 2026-08-22

The selected spots

4 selected

  1. 01
    Slices of pistachio kulfi on a wooden dish beside dark red fruit kulfi arranged on a black plateFrom Kuremal Mohan Lal Kulfi Wale

    Kuremal Mohan Lal Kulfi Wale

    kulfi · Anil Sharma, fourth-generation owner (per Hindi ScoopWhoop profile, 2022)

    The clearest documented single-lineage kulfi specialist in Old Delhi, with a named founder, a four-generation chain of custody, and a technique — fruit-stuffed kulfi — that is specific, described in production detail, and distinct from anything in Mumbai's published kulfi records.

  2. 02

    Roshan Di Kulfi

    kulfi · Ishan Soni, third-generation owner (grandson of founder), interviewed on the record

    One of two Delhi kulfi institutions here whose founding is explicitly and independently sourced as a Partition-migration story, with a named third-generation owner quoted directly about production philosophy — the strongest counterpart on record.

  3. 03
    A black and white archive photograph of the shopfront, its Urdu signboard above men working behind an open counterFrom Giani's

    Giani's Ice Cream (Giani Di Hatti)

    ice cream · Founded by Giani Gurcharan Singh; grandson Taranjeet, third-generation owner, interviewed on the record; company directors named on own site as Anandpreet Singh, Amarpreet Singh, Gurpreet Singh and Kawarpreet Singh

    A second, independently corroborated Partition-founding story with a named third-generation owner on the record — but its identity has shifted from a single Old Delhi dessert shop to a national chain, which is the tension an editor needs to weigh before publishing.

  4. 04

    Firenze Gelateria & Caffè

    gelato · Parth Gupta, founder — also behind Cicchetti Italiano and Bloom Cafe and Bakery, trained at a seven-day Carpigiani University masterclass in Bologna

    The best-sourced modern gelato counterpoint here: a named founder with a specific, checkable training credential, visible on-site production, and named ingredient provenance — the strongest evidence in this cohort that Delhi's newest layer is being made seriously rather than franchised in.

Research notes

City boundary

The National Capital Territory of Delhi, Old and New. Gurugram and Noida are separate cities in separate states.