Restaurants with the best views of the Taj Mahal: where I took my pics!

Reader Mail: Hello Trisha, thank you for all your blog posts. I went to Taiwan last year and all your content helped me through! Now I am continuing my journey in Asia. My next stop is India. I am in Agra now and I was wondering what restaurants with the best views of the Taj Mahal you can recommend? I hope you can share. Thank you!
โ€“ Ralph Baader, Germany

I donโ€™t know if you do it but every time I travel, I browse the โ€œplacesโ€ feature of Instagram where you can see all photos taken in a particular place. As a content creator, it is very necessary to make a plan of action before visiting a place to maximize time and energy.

However, upon looking at pictures on Instagram, I only see images that are taken from inside the palace. Iโ€™m sure there is a lot of pictures from these rooftop views I am about to share with you but without prior knowledge of the names of the hotels (where they are probably tagged on Instagram), you will have no idea where good photos will be taken.

I discovered these places only when I arrived in Agra so today, in the hopes of you to get amazing photos, I am sharing with you the best restaurants with Taj Mahal view:

Restaurants with Taj Mahal view

Hotel Saniya Palace

Not only that Saniya Palace has the best view of the Taj Mahal but also the ambiance of the restaurant is very good! This rooftop restaurant is surrounded by plants and the interior is better than the other places Iโ€™ve been to.

Food is slightly more expensive (between 150 INR ($2.17 USD) to 300 INR ($4.34 USD). This is compared to the other restaurants in the area, not the whole of Agra.

However, this price deserves the quality of the food you will be receiving. The dishes here are very tasty and have medium portions.

restaurants with taj mahal view

There is also a roofed seating area but the Taj is not that visible. The photo above is taken in the outdoor area but the sun is too strong when I visited โ€“ I donโ€™t really recommend sitting there to have a meal. It was really hot!

This restaurant is best for having breakfast. They have a wider variety of breakfast sets that cost around 200 โ€“ 220 INR ($2.89 โ€“ 3.18 USD). You will get coffee/fresh juice of your choice with these sets. Indian and Continental breakfasts are the best-sellers.

Hotel Saniya Palace is also a hotel but they welcome non-guests to the restaurant.

Sai Palace

I booked a stay in Sai Palace because this was the only place I found onย Booking.comย that has actual photos with the Taj Mahal view.

The rooms are very clean and the people here are super kind! The stay cost us 800 INR ($12 USD approx) per night for aย private room with air-conditioning.

They also have non-AC rooms for 600 INR ($8.86 USD) but please do check the prices as I came here during the low-season (August).

restaurants with taj mahal view
This is the hotel I stayed in. I paid less than $30 USD per night!

We kind of got into trouble here by taking off the drone on their rooftop but everything was sorted out. Apparently,ย flying a drone in Indiaย is illegal most especially in busy places like the Taj Mahal.

This has the farthest view of the Taj among all the restaurants I am recommending in this post but it still looks gorgeous! From Jaipur, I arrived here in the evening and immediately took photos.

The night pics here are gorgeous! Even if you are not staying in their hotel, you are welcome to come to the restaurant to dine.

They are open till late so this is your best midnight snack option. Mind you, the Taj is still visible even in the dark!

Hotel Kamal

I loved Hotel Kamal because the staff are super friendly and will even sit with you during the sunrise! There is one waiter here who will say he takes the best pictures so go ahead and let him do it. Heโ€™s really funny!

This is also the first time I encountered the red Kingfisher beer (for some reasons, I always get the green one) that has 8% alcohol! The beer was a bit pricier (250 INR = $3.62 USD) but I prefer the red over the green.

Our evening here was very fun even if there were fewer people. We got the best seat in the house! There is only one table facing the Taj view but you can have the staff set up additional tables for you.

This rooftop restaurant has a lot of monkeys so be careful with your stuff and food! They also have a low barrier on the terrace where monkeys can easily reach you.

By looking at the pictures of all three, I consider Hotel Kamal as the best restaurant with the Taj Mahal view.

All the restaurants on the list are searchable via Google maps and are very close to each other. If you want really amazing and good Indian food, you need to go to Pinch of Spice in Agra, a slightly expensive restaurant (from 400 INR = $5.79 USD). They donโ€™t have the best view as it is about 8km from the Taj Mahal area but you need to go have dinner here!

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2 Comments

  1. Hi!! Really liked your blog, I was crazy looking for good and real recomendations for rooftop restaurantes with Taj Mahal view, and everywhere else there were confusing opinions, yours is very clear, so it helped us a lot. We went to Kamal hotel restaurant, and everything was perfect, the view, the personal (friendly waiter) and the food, so thank you! Keep enjoying and learning! ?

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