Vegetarian Fine Dining in Bengaluru: What a Full Pan-Indian Vegetarian Menu Actually Contains

Quick answer: Ebony, the Pan-Indian restaurant on the 13th floor of Barton Centre at 84 MG Road, Bengaluru, carries 41 vegetarian items on its Indian menu alone: 14 starters, 11 mains, 2 dals, a vegetarian biryani, 3 rice preparations and 10 breads. Ebony is not a pure vegetarian restaurant, and that is the useful part. It is built for the Bengaluru table where some eat meat and some do not.

TL;DR

• Ebony's Indian vegetarian section runs to 41 items: 14 starters, 11 mains, 2 dals, 1 biryani, 3 rice preparations, 10 breads.
• Under Indian food law, dairy is vegetarian and egg is not. Paneer, ghee, cream and hung curd sit on the vegetarian side of the line.
• Two dishes in a vegetarian starters section contain egg. Both say so on the menu.
• Five of Ebony's thirteen desserts contain no egg. The other eight are marked.
• Malaidar Dal Makhani is cooked for eleven hours, overnight, over coal.
• Vegetable Dhansak is a vegetarian version of a Parsi lentil dish most kitchens only serve with mutton.
• A table at Ebony can order across all three outlets on the floor, including ASEAN On The Edge and The 13th Floor.

What Counts as Vegetarian in an Indian Restaurant, and Where Egg Sits

Indian food regulation draws the line in a specific place, and it is not where every diner assumes. Under the Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020, non-vegetarian food is any article of food containing whole or part of any animal, including birds, insects, fresh water or marine animals, or eggs, or products of any animal origin, while milk, milk products and honey are excluded (FSSAI). Vegetarian food is then defined simply as anything that is not non-vegetarian food.

Two consequences follow. Paneer, ghee, cream, butter and hung curd are vegetarian under Indian law, which is why a Pan-Indian vegetarian menu can be as rich as its meat counterpart. Egg is not, which is why a dish can sit in a vegetarian section and still need a second look.

The symbols beside each dish are not a courtesy either. Clause 9(2) requires food service establishments to show allergen information and the veg or non-veg logo against items on their menu cards or boards (FSSAI). Ebony's menu goes past the minimum with a separate Egg symbol alongside the vegetarian and non-vegetarian marks, so egg dishes are identifiable at a glance rather than by asking.

Fourteen Vegetarian Starters at Ebony, and the Two That Contain Egg

The Indian vegetarian starters section on Ebony's January 2026 menu holds 14 dishes, and the range is wider than paneer. Seven come off the tandoor or tawa: Bhatti Ka Achaari Paneer in pickling spices, Zafrani Paneer Tikka with saffron, Tandoori Mushroom Deedar stuffed with spinach and nuts under a cheesy malai, Tandoori Sushni Kebab, Salonee Broccoli in a hand-ground mustard marinade, Raunaqwali Sabz Ka Seekh, and Paneer Ghee Roast in the Mangalorean style.

The rest are pan-finished or fried. Dahi Ke Kabab is the highest-selling vegetarian starter at Ebony, built on sweet and sour hung curd, cheese and herbs, finished until the outside holds a thin crust around an almost liquid centre. Shahi Khumb Galouti applies the Lucknowi kebab technique to mushroom. Chukander Ke Kebab is a beetroot patty with honey mustard, and Crunchy Masala Lotus Root arrives in Chittoor chutney podi.

Two dishes are worth flagging for a strict vegetarian. Akasaka Mushrooms and Wasabi Mushrooms both appear under vegetarian starters on the Southeast Asian side of the menu, and both are tempura preparations containing egg. The menu says so in the description. Under the FSSAI definition above, that places them outside vegetarian food.

What Is Dal Makhani, and What Eleven Hours Over Coal Does to It

Dal Makhani is a North Indian preparation of whole black lentils and kidney beans, simmered with butter and cream until the lentils break down and the dal thickens without flour or thickener. Texture is the whole dish. A short cook leaves the lentils intact and the liquid thin. A long one collapses them into the fat and gives a gravy that coats the back of a spoon.

Ebony's Malaidar Dal Makhani is cooked for eleven hours, overnight, over coal. Slow coal heat does two things a gas burner does not. It holds a low, even temperature long enough to break the lentil down completely rather than boil it apart, and it lets the dal pick up a faint smoke that sits underneath the cream rather than above it.

It is the dish to order if you want to judge a vegetarian kitchen quickly. Dal Makhani is difficult to fake and easy to rush, and the gap between an eleven-hour dal and a three-hour one shows in the first spoonful.

Vegetable Dhansak: The Parsi Dish Most Menus Only Serve With Meat

Dhansak is a Parsi dish of several types of lentil cooked together in a distinct masala, traditionally with mutton, served with caramelised brown rice and kebabs. It has been on the Ebony menu since the kitchen's early Parsi period, made there for over two decades.

The vegetarian version is uncommon. Most restaurants that carry Dhansak carry it only with mutton, because the meat does structural work in the dish. Ebony's Vegetable Dhansak keeps the lentil base and the Parsi masala and builds around vegetables instead, served with caramelised brown rice and vegetable kebabs. It arrives as a complete plate rather than a gravy needing a bread alongside it. For a vegetarian sitting with people ordering the Mutton Dhansak, it puts the same dish on both sides of the table.

What Is Malai Kofta, and What Goes Into the Surti Version

Malai Kofta is a North Indian dish of soft dumplings, usually paneer, potato or both, in a rich gravy built on cream, cashew or almond. The kofta is fried separately and added late so it holds its shape.

Ebony serves it as Surti Malai Kofta: koftas of cottage cheese and minced vegetables, in a gravy built on roasted almonds rather than cashew, with yellow chilli cutting the richness. That chilli is why the dish does not read as flat, the usual failure of a Malai Kofta made purely for softness.

Ordering a Full Vegetarian Meal at a Mixed Table: A Course-by-Course Sequence

Ebony seats group tables of up to about 30 guests, and the question at most of those tables is how to order once rather than twice. This sequence works.

• Starters. Open with Dahi Ke Kabab, which does the same job for the vegetarian side that a tandoori kebab does for the other. Add Salonee Broccoli or Shahi Khumb Galouti for a second texture. For a larger group, the Guldasta Platter brings assorted vegetarian tikkas from the tandoor in one order.
• Dal and a main. Order Malaidar Dal Makhani for the table regardless of who is eating what. Then pick one paneer main and one vegetable main so the vegetarian side is not two versions of the same thing. Dilliwale Tawa Paneer and Hyderabadi Deewan E Handi cover that split.
• Rice or biryani. Nawabi Tarkari Biryani is the vegetarian biryani, crunchy mixed vegetables in the kitchen's masala with long grain rice, and it serves two. Subz Ka Pulao Khusboowale is lighter, available with paneer, mushrooms or green peas.
• Breads. Ten breads are on the menu, including Malabar Paratha, Stuffed Vegetable Kulcha and Cheese and Achari Naan.
• Dessert. Five of the thirteen desserts contain no egg: Ebony and Ivory, Tob Tim Krob, Gulab Jamun Tart, Mango Cheesecake and the salted caramel ice cream. The other eight are marked.

One thing widens the range further. Guests seated at Ebony can order across all three outlets on the 13th floor of Barton Centre, bringing ASEAN On The Edge and The 13th Floor onto the same bill. That adds Thai Spicy Paneer, Somrad Tofu, Miso Chilli Cauliflower and the vegetable Burmese Khaoswe to a menu already 41 items deep on the Indian side.

To reserve a table at Ebony, call +91 80 4178 3344.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Ebony a pure vegetarian restaurant?

No. Ebony is a Pan-Indian restaurant serving both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food, and has done so on MG Road since 1993. What it offers a vegetarian is depth rather than exclusivity: 41 vegetarian items on the Indian menu, including a full tandoor section. If a pure vegetarian kitchen is the requirement, Ebony is not the answer. If the requirement is that a vegetarian eats as well as everyone else at the table, it is.

Is egg vegetarian in India?

No. The Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020, define non-vegetarian food as any article containing whole or part of any animal, including eggs. Milk and milk products are excluded, so paneer, ghee, cream and curd are vegetarian while egg is not. This is why Indian menus often carry a third symbol for egg alongside the green and brown marks.

What is the best vegetarian dish at Ebony?

Dahi Ke Kabab is the highest-selling vegetarian starter at Ebony, and Dilliwale Tawa Paneer is the strongest vegetarian main. For a first visit, order both, plus Malaidar Dal Makhani, cooked eleven hours overnight over coal. That covers the tandoor, the gravy section and the slow-cooked end of the kitchen in three dishes.

Does Ebony have vegetarian biryani?

Yes. Nawabi Tarkari Biryani is made with crunchy mixed vegetables in the kitchen's own masala with long grain rice, and one order serves two. Ebony also serves Subz Ka Pulao Khusboowale, a seasonal vegetable pulao available with paneer, mushrooms or green peas.

Can vegetarians and non-vegetarians order from the same menu at Ebony?

Yes, and the menu is built for it. The Indian section carries 14 vegetarian starters and 11 vegetarian mains alongside the non-vegetarian equivalents, so both sides of a table order from the same sections rather than one from an afterthought. Guests at Ebony can also order across ASEAN On The Edge and The 13th Floor, widening the vegetarian range into Thai and Southeast Asian dishes.

Plan a Vegetarian Table at Ebony

If some guests are vegetarian and some are not, tell the kitchen before you arrive rather than at the table. Pre-ordering the mains lets the kitchen pace the meal, and flagging strict vegetarian or egg-free requirements in advance is the difference between a menu that works and one negotiated over the first course.

Send the details through the contact form on the Hotel Ivory Tower website: your date, the number of guests, and how many are vegetarian. For a same-day table at Ebony, call +91 80 4178 3344.

Sources

• Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020, compendium version VIII, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, dated 9 September 2025. Clauses 1.2(1)(o) and 1.2(1)(v) for the definitions of non-vegetarian and vegetarian food; clause 5(4)(a) for the egg declaration; clause 9(2) for menu display requirements in food service establishments.
• Ebony food menu, January 2026 edition, for all dish names, descriptions and counts.