ChoprasIndian Restaurant

Arun Chopra opened Chopras Indian Restaurant on Leyweg in Den Haag in 2023 with a single ambition: serve Indian food exactly as it is meant to be. The spices are sourced directly from India and ground fresh every morning in our kitchen - not from a bag, not from a supplier's blend. The tandoor is fired up hours before the first guest arrives. The recipes come from kitchens in Delhi, Mumbai and Rajasthan, carried across without modification.

Every dish here is the real thing - not adapted, not simplified, not dialled back for a European palate. The butter chicken is built the same way it is in Delhi: tandoor-cooked chicken first, then a slow tomato and cream sauce with spices that were whole yesterday and ground this morning. The pani puri arrives the way it does on a Mumbai street corner - ice-cold filling, crispy shell, one explosive bite that you will immediately want to repeat.

Den Haag has a long relationship with South Asian food - the largest Hindustani community in the Netherlands lives here, and they know the difference between a shortcut and the real thing. Chopras is built for that audience and for anyone who wants to eat the way it actually tastes in India. We are not trying to appeal to everyone. We are trying to cook well. Come hungry.

The tandoor we use reaches around 400 degrees C. That temperature is not adjustable - it is what gives naan its char on the edges and chicken tikka its smoky crust. You cannot fake that in a conventional oven and we would not try. Every morning before service, the tandoor is lit. Every evening after service, it is cleaned. That discipline is the difference between a restaurant and a kitchen that happens to serve food.

We are on Leyweg. Not in the centre, not in a tourist corridor. We chose Leyweg deliberately - it is where Den Haag actually lives. Come find us.