Khan Market is consistently rated among the world's most expensive retail streets per square foot, a concentrated strip of boutiques, bookshops, cafés, and restaurants that serves as the social hub of South Delhi's professional class. The market was originally built in the 1950s to serve Partition refugees from the North-West Frontier Province (Khan being an Afghan/Pashtun designation), and it has evolved into an upscale enclave beloved by the city's diplomats, journalists, and intellectuals.
The bookshop scene is excellent — Bahrisons Booksellers and The Full Circle Bookstore are among the best independent bookshops in India. The café and restaurant strip includes everything from old-school restaurants to modern farm-to-table cooking. It is expensive by Indian standards but the quality is uniformly high and the people-watching superb.