The bread list
Bread is ordered per piece and shared. The main division is simple: leavened white flour cooked in a tandoor, or unleavened wholewheat cooked on a griddle.
From the tandoor
| Naan | White flour, leavened, soft and chewy. The restaurant bread — most Indian homes don't have a tandoor, so this is rarer at home than menus suggest |
| Garlic naan | The most-ordered item in Indian restaurants outside South Asia, by some distance |
| Tandoori roti | Wholewheat, tandoor-baked. Firmer and less rich than naan, and a better partner for a heavy gravy |
| Kulcha | Leavened, often stuffed — potato, onion, paneer. Amritsari kulcha is a dish in its own right |
From the griddle (tawa)
| Roti / chapati / phulka | Unleavened wholewheat, thin, plain. This is the everyday bread of most of northern India |
| Paratha | Layered and fried in ghee or oil; often stuffed. Rich — one is usually enough |
| Rumali roti | "Handkerchief bread" — enormous, tissue-thin, folded on the plate |
Fried, and puffed
| Puri | Small, deep-fried, puffs into a sphere. Often served at breakfast with potato |
| Bhatura | The large fermented one served with chole. A meal, not a side |
Rich, creamy gravy → tandoori roti or plain naan, which won't compete with it. Dry or grilled dishes → naan or kulcha. Dal → roti. Chole → bhatura, and nothing else. If you want one bread for a mixed table, plain naan offends nobody.
Dosa, idli, appam and uttapam are fermented rice-and-lentil batters, not wheat, and they're mains rather than sides — see the tiffin room.
Restaurants differ enormously — by region, by owner and by country. This describes what is common enough to expect, not a rule every kitchen follows.
See also: tandoor · desi breakfasts · tiffin room: how a south indian restaurant works
Common questions
What is the difference between naan and roti?
Naan is made with white flour, leavened with yeast or yoghurt, and baked stuck to the wall of a tandoor, so it is soft, chewy and slightly puffed. Roti or chapati is unleavened wholewheat, cooked on a flat griddle, and is thinner, plainer and what most Indian households actually eat every day.
How many Indian breads should I order per person?
Between one and two pieces per person, ordered in rounds rather than all at once. Breads are best within a few minutes of leaving the oven and go leathery quickly, so a second round ordered mid-meal is better than a large pile at the start.
Last updated: 2026-08-12
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