Punjab
1970s
Where the recipes were written
Gurdial Singh cooks in a family home in Punjab. The spice blends used at New Delhi today come from the same ratios he taught his sons — measured by hand, never written down.
Baljits
Heritage
Three generations. One unbroken table.
India → Oslo → Tjuvholmen → International recognition. The Singh family hospitality story, told across four eras.
ERA 01 · 1970s
India
The first kitchen
ERA 02 · 1982 — 2000s
Oslo
Crossing to Norway
Oslo
1982
The family arrives in Norway
Gurdial Singh moves the family to Oslo and begins working in hospitality — Indian cooking served to a city that had barely seen it.
Oslo · St. Olavs gate
1985
New Delhi opens
The original New Delhi opens in central Oslo. One of the city's first Indian fine-dining rooms, and the foundation everything else is built on.
Oslo
2000s
Handover to the next generation
Baljit Singh Padda — Gurdial's son — takes over operations. He grew up inside the restaurant; the transition is less a handover than a continuation.
ERA 03 · 2018 — 2024
Tjuvholmen
The waterfront years
Schweigaards gate · Grønland
2010s
Holy Cow — the streetfood chapter
Holy Cow brings Indian streetfood into Oslo's casual dining scene — a fast, affordable and urban concept near Teaterplassen. Aftenposten reviews it as «hipt, godt og rimelig» and places it in the renewal of Grønland: simpler menu, more small dishes, a more modern drink selection. A casual, streetfood-driven expression of Indian dining in the Singh family's wider Oslo story.
Tjuvholmen
2018
New Delhi moves to the wharf
The flagship reopens facing the fjord — a glass-fronted dining room, a neon bar and a terrace built for summer. The same year, Baljit creates Listen to Baljit, later passed on to new ownership.
Frogner
2021
Masala Politics opens
Regional Indian cooking and a serious wine list. Critics call it the room that redrew Indian Oslo.
Oslo
2024
Barish joins the group
A third room added to the portfolio — quieter, more intimate, built around monsoon-season cooking from across the subcontinent.
ERA 04 · 2025 —
International Recognition
Recognised by India
New Delhi · ICCR
2025
Annapurna Certificate
On 9 April 2025, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations presents Baljit with the Annapurna Certificate in New Delhi — the first Norwegian restaurant to receive the honour, awarded for promoting Indian culinary culture abroad.