Wenger’s

Wenger's is one of Delhi's oldest bakeries and a Connaught Place institution that has been feeding the city for about a century. It began in 1924, when a Swiss couple, the Wengers, set up a catering business supplying British troops. By 1926 they had a tearoom and confectionery at Kashmere Gate in the old city, and in the early 1930s they moved to the newly built Connaught Place, where the shop still stands in A Block of the Inner Circle.

In 1945 the business was sold to its general manager, Brij Mohan Tandon, and it has remained in the Tandon family ever since; the third generation, Aman and Atul Tandon, now run it. That continuity shows in the counters, which still carry many of the recipes that made the shop famous.

The bestsellers are the plum cake, especially in the run-up to Christmas, the buttery shortbread and the lemon tart. The pastry counter also holds sponge cakes, chocolate cookies and a range of cream pastries, while the bread counter offers French-style loaves and the confectionery section stocks Swiss chocolates. On the savoury side, chicken and vegetable patties have been on the menu since the early days and make an easy snack while exploring Connaught Place.

Many customers buy to take away, so think of it as a place to pick up treats rather than settle in for a long coffee. Queues often form outside, particularly at busy times and in the weeks before Christmas, when plum cake is in demand. Going earlier in the day on a weekday is the simplest way to avoid the longest waits.

It suits anyone with a sweet tooth, families buying cakes for a celebration, and visitors who want a taste of Delhi's colonial-era food history. Prices are moderate for the quality, and a box of pastries or a slab of plum cake makes a good gift to take home.

The bakery fits easily into a walk around the colonnades of Connaught Place's Inner Circle. Gurudwara Bangla Sahib and the Indian Coffee House on Baba Kharak Singh Marg are both close by, making a sweet stop here easy to combine with other central sights.