The Tradition of North Indian Cuisine
Ancient techniques, real ingredients, a cuisine that tells a continent
Indian Cuisine
Indian cuisine does not exist. Or rather, it exists in the same way Italian cuisine does: as a geographic label encompassing distinct traditions. For millennia, India has been a crossroads of contrasting climates, different faiths and trade routes that carried pepper, cardamom and cinnamon all the way to Mediterranean ports. Every regional cuisine is a world of its own.
For thirty years, Shiva has brought Milan the cuisine of northern India, rooted in Punjab: flavours shaped by an ancient oven, spices that warm without burning, and bread torn fresh by hand. A menu built on skill and time, with the tandoor at its heart and a vegetarian offering every bit as compelling as the rest. This is where it begins. The cuisine truly comes alive in the dining room.
The Tandoor
The tandoor is a cylindrical clay oven that reaches temperatures close to 480 degrees. Meats, threaded onto skewers and lowered inside, seal in minutes: a dry outer crust, an interior that stays soft and juicy. Bread is pressed against the walls: it bakes in seconds, swells, and reaches the table with its blisters still warm.
The tandoor and mastery of its techniques are at the heart of Shiva’s cooking. It is where Punjabi cuisine expresses itself at its best.
Spices & Aromas of the North
Each spice has its moment: toasted, ground, infused. They do not mask flavours; they enhance them. Here are the stars of our kitchen.
Cardamom
It arrives before the first bite, with a floral, resinous perfume that prepares the palate. Then it withdraws, leaving room for the other spices.
Cumin
It is what you sense beneath everything else: earthy, warm, faintly smoky. The note that gives sauces their structure and holds the dish together.
Turmeric
It gives curries their yellow colour, but its work is subtler: an earthy, slightly bitter note that binds the other spices and adds body without drawing attention to itself.
Coriander
The open window in a closed dish. Citrusy and clean, it lightens the density of the sauces and balances the richer plates.
Garam Masala
Not a spice but a balance: every kitchen has its own blend. Ours goes in at the end of cooking, when the spices melt together and the aroma rises. It is the dish's signature.
What to Order if It's Your First Time
Indian cuisine can seem vast and mysterious. Here is a guide to getting started: five dishes that showcase the best of northern Indian cuisine.
The bread of the Punjab, baked against the walls of the tandoor: it reaches the table puffed, fragrant, still warm. From plain to stuffed — garlic, butter, melting cheese. Tearing it by hand to scoop up the sauce is part of the meal.
A selection showcasing everything the tandoor can do: marinated meats cooked on skewers, tikka, vegetables, paneer, fish and prawns. The same dry crust and soft interior that only the direct heat of clay can produce.
The dish that introduced Punjabi cooking to the world. A dense, velvety sauce of tomato, butter and sweet spices that wraps the chicken without smothering it. Less spicy than you expect, more complex than it looks.
One of the oldest dishes in Indian cuisine: lentils slow-cooked with spices, ginger and garlic. We serve it two ways — tadka, dry and aromatic; makhani, rich and velvety on a base of butter and tomato.
Paneer is a firm fresh cheese: it does not melt, it absorbs flavour without losing its texture. Here it meets a spiced, velvety spinach sauce — the contrast between deep green and white is already a promise.
Vegetarian India
Indian cuisine has one of the richest and most varied vegetarian traditions in the world, shaped over centuries by climate, religion and philosophy. At Shiva, that richness takes shape in a vegetarian menu spanning techniques, ingredients and flavours: from pulses and vegetables to fresh cheeses and tandoor cooking.
Pulse dishes range from daal and its many variations to chickpea chole masala—humble dishes that have become essential classics. Paneer finds perhaps its most elegant expression in the spinach sauce of palak paneer. There is Punjabi bartha, where aubergines roasted over the flame bring a smoky complexity that needs nothing else. And then vegetables and paneer from the tandoor: a lightly charred surface, a soft interior, a scent of clay and embers that arrives with the plate.
Bring Shiva's tradition to your table
Discover it on the Navigli or order your favourite dishes to enjoy at home.