In this guide
London’s Indian restaurants cover many regional cuisines under one word: game over charcoal in a Mayfair club room, Keralan coconut, curry leaf and appam, Awadhi biryani from Lucknow, smoky fermented Assamese and Naga food, Gujarati thalis at a market stall for a fiver.
This guide starts with the restaurants that won something — the stars and the icons — then arranges the rest by what each kitchen cooks.
💡 The Short Version: Gymkhana holds two Michelin stars and is named by more sources than anything else here — book months out. Trishna is the same idea at half the price and the safest booking on this page. Dishoom or Kricket for a good central meal with no plan. Rasa for Keralan vegetarian cooking. Shree Krishna Vada Pav for a counter meal under £20.
📊 The evidence behind this guide. 22 sources carrying 242 citations across 103 named restaurants. 43 restaurants are named by two or more independent sources; 42 carry a dated award. Built on: the Asian Curry Awards, the Michelin Guide and the Good Food Guide; Time Out, The Infatuation and Eater London; YouTube. Evidence rebuilt 30 August 2026 · How we rank →
Where they are
Best Indian Restaurants in London map
Loading the interactive map…
| If you are near… | Where to eat |
|---|---|
| Mayfair & Green Park | Gymkhana, BiBi, Jamavar, Benares, Tamarind, Kanishka |
| Soho, Piccadilly & Covent Garden | Veeraswamy, Kricket, Hoppers, Darjeeling Express, Dishoom, Kolkati |
| Westminster & St James’s Park | Quilon, The Cinnamon Club |
| Marylebone | Trishna, Jikoni |
| Knightsbridge & Chelsea | Amaya, Kutir, Vatavaran |
| The City & Borough | Brigadiers, Oudh 1722, Horn OK Please, Gujarati Rasoi |
| Bloomsbury & Fitzrovia | Colonel Saab, Shree Krishna Vada Pav |
| Further out | Kokum (East Dulwich), Rasa (Stoke Newington), Babur (Brockley), Empire Empire (Notting Hill), The Tamil Prince (Islington) |
Price guide: £ under £20 a head · ££ £25–£45 · £££ £50–£80 · ££££ £100+.
The most decorated
Every restaurant in this section holds a current Michelin star, a British Indian Good Food Guide London Icon, or both.
Gymkhana, Mayfair
££££ · Mayfair · 3 min from Green Park · book months ahead · Cited by 11 sources · 2 Michelin stars · London Icon 2025
The only Indian kitchen in Britain with two stars, and the most-cited Indian restaurant here: eleven independent sources, including six of the year’s food videos. The room is modelled on the colonial-era gymkhana clubs, with ceiling fans and dark wood. The kitchen leans on game and grilling, and the wild boar biryani is the order.
Book as far ahead as the window allows, which means months rather than weeks.
Gymkhana’s biryani.
▶ In the videos: TOPJAW visits from 14:15.
4 minutes from Benares.
Trishna, Marylebone
£££ · Marylebone · 8 min from Bond Street · book weeks ahead · Cited by 9 sources · 1 Michelin star
Soft-shell crab at Trishna.
Michelin-starred cooking from India’s south-west coast — the Konkan and Kerala coastline rather than the Punjabi repertoire of British Indian food.
Seafood. The hariyali bream is the signature — whole fish in a green herb marinade — and the butter pepper garlic crab is the other standing order. Coastal spicing: coconut, curry leaf, tamarind, and far less cream than a curry house.
£££ and it books weeks ahead. The set lunch costs a fraction of dinner and comes from the same kitchen.
Jamavar, Mayfair
££££ · Mayfair · 8 min from Bond Street · book weeks ahead · Cited by 9 sources · 1 Michelin star · London Icon 2025
The dining room at Jamavar.
Named for the handwoven Kashmiri shawl, and cooking across the whole subcontinent rather than one region.
The menu moves from Kashmiri to Keralan: rogan josh, coastal seafood, and a biryani sealed under pastry and opened at the table.
££££ and it books weeks ahead. Mount Street, within walking distance of Amaya and Benares.
Veeraswamy, Piccadilly
££££ · Piccadilly · 4 min from Piccadilly Circus · book weeks ahead · Cited by 8 sources · 1 Michelin star · London Icon 2025
Open since 1926 and the oldest surviving Indian restaurant in Britain, above Regent Street.
The dum biryani is the signature: rice and meat sealed under a pastry lid and steamed, cracked open at the table. Around it, dishes from across India in a room of chandeliers and colour.
££££ and it books weeks ahead. The entrance is easy to miss — it is on Swallow Street, up a lift.
Veeraswamy’s dining room.
⚠️ Check the rules before you book. Veeraswamy runs a smart-casual dress code, age guidance for evening service, and a minimum spend at dinner outside the pre-theatre menu.
Benares, Mayfair
££££ · Mayfair · 4 min from Green Park · book weeks ahead · Cited by 5 sources · 1 Michelin star · London Icon 2025
The dining room at Benares.
Named Best Fine Dining Restaurant in London at the Asian Curry Awards, on Berkeley Square for two decades.
British produce through Indian technique, a tasting menu that changes seasonally, and a bar.
££££ and it books weeks ahead. Up a flight of stairs off Berkeley Square.
Amaya, Knightsbridge
££££ · Knightsbridge · 6 min from Knightsbridge · Cited by 4 sources · 1 Michelin star
The dining room at Amaya, looking towards the grill.
An open kitchen of tawa, sigri and tandoor in Belgravia, with a Michelin star for grilling rather than saucing.
Three cooking methods, all visible from the tables: the tawa griddle, the sigri charcoal grill and the tandoor clay oven. Order the tandoori lamb chops and the griddled scallops; there is barely a curry on the menu.
££££ and it books weeks ahead. Ask for a table facing the kitchen.
Quilon, Westminster
££££ · Westminster · 5 min from St. James’s Park · book weeks ahead · Cited by 4 sources · 1 Michelin star · London Icon 2025
The dining room at Quilon.
Kerala and the Malabar coast: appam, coconut, curry leaf, and seafood treated as the main event. Quilon has held its star since 2008. Order the Mangalorean chicken.
It sits inside the St James’ Court hotel, a short walk from Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey.
9 minutes from The Cinnamon Club.
Book: Reserve a table
The Cinnamon Club, Westminster
££££ · Westminster · 7 min from St. James’s Park · Cited by 3 sources · London Icon 2025
Inside the Grade II listed old Westminster Library, with the bookshelves and gallery still in place, close enough to Parliament that it fills with MPs and lobbyists whenever the House is sitting.
Vivek Singh’s cooking applies Indian technique to British produce: game, venison and grouse in season, with a wine list built to match. It also serves breakfast.
££££, closed Sunday, and it books weeks ahead. Great Smith Street, two minutes from Westminster Abbey.
The Cinnamon Club’s plate.
Ambassadors Clubhouse, Mayfair
£££ · Mayfair · Cited by 3 sources · 1 Michelin star, new for 2026
Grilled meats at Ambassadors Clubhouse.
A Mayfair room built around the food of undivided Punjab — the region split between India and Pakistan in 1947 — from the JKS group, and styled as a 1920s Bombay gentlemen’s club.
Punjabi and north Indian cooking: tandoori meats, rich gravies, breads off the grill, and a butter chicken. Two floors and a bar with a cocktail list.
Book weeks ahead. Heddon Street, and louder than the Mayfair rooms around it.
Also strongly backed
No star, but named by many sources.
Brigadiers, City of London
£££ · City of London · 1 min from Cannon Street · Cited by 8 sources · British Indian Good Food Guide 2025
Lamb chops at Brigadiers.
Modelled on an Indian army mess bar: several large rooms, barbecue over coals, a serious whisky list and live sport on the screens. It is loud, which makes it right for a group of six or more and wrong for a quiet conversation. Order the tandoori lamb chops first. TOPJAW’s best-curry list, voted by 200 chefs and industry figures they interviewed, put it top.
▶ In the videos: TOPJAW opens here, and so does Harrison Webb.
Book: Reserve a table
BiBi, Mayfair
££££ · Mayfair · 6 min from Bond Street · book weeks ahead · Cited by 7 sources
The counter at BiBi, facing the grill.
Chet Sharma’s room. The menu works through regional Indian dishes with fine-dining technique and British produce, and the drinks list was built alongside the food.
It is small and the seating is scheduled, so settle allergies, deposits and timings when you book.
▶ In the videos: TOPJAW visits from 7:20.
7 minutes from Jamavar.
Book: Reserve a table
Dishoom, Covent Garden
££ · Covent Garden · 3 min from Covent Garden · Cited by 7 sources · British Indian Good Food Guide 2025
The Irani cafés of old Bombay recreated as an all-day room. Covent Garden was the first, in 2010.
The bacon naan roll — smoked streaky bacon, cream cheese and chilli-tomato jam in fresh naan — is the breakfast order. At dinner, the black daal, cooked for twenty-four hours, and the chicken ruby.
Any party size can book before 6pm; after 6pm bookings are for groups of six or more only.
Dishoom’s dinner order.
💡 Getting a table: most tables are held for walk-ins at every hour, so an empty booking page is not a full restaurant. Breakfast and lunch barely queue.
Darjeeling Express, Soho
£££ · Soho · 3 min from Piccadilly Circus · book weeks ahead · Cited by 5 sources · British Indian Good Food Guide 2025
A thali at Darjeeling Express.
Asma Khan’s kitchen, staffed entirely by women — most of whom had never cooked professionally before she hired them — cooking the food of Calcutta and the royal Mughlai tradition she grew up in.
The Calcutta biryani is the dish: rice with meat and a whole potato, which Bengali biryani has and other regional versions do not. Around it, Bengali fish, puchka and home cooking.
£££, closed Sunday, and it books weeks ahead. 36–40 Rupert Street, Soho.
Kricket, Soho
££ · Soho · 1 min from Piccadilly Circus · Cited by 5 sources · British Indian Good Food Guide 2025
Started in a Brixton shipping container and grew into several sites, doing Indian cooking as small plates rather than curries.
The Keralan fried chicken with curry leaf mayonnaise is the signature. Beside it, bhel puri, samphire pakoras and a smoked haddock kedgeree, ordered four or five at a time across the table.
££, and the counter seats are walk-in. Soho is the busiest site; Brixton and White City are easier. Book for a table.
Kricket’s small plates.
Oudh 1722, Borough
££££ · Borough · 5 min from Borough · book weeks ahead · Cited by 4 sources
A dish at Oudh 1722.
Two-Michelin-star chef Aktar Islam cooking the Awadhi food of Lucknow — biryanis and kebabs — across three floors of a Victorian townhouse near London Bridge.
Awadhi cooking is slow and perfumed rather than hot: dum biryani sealed and steamed, galouti kebab, a very soft minced-lamb kebab, and breads off the tandoor.
££££, closed Monday, and it books weeks ahead. The ground floor is the bar; the dining rooms are above it.
Kutir, Chelsea
£££ · Chelsea · 6 min from Sloane Square · Cited by 4 sources · British Indian Good Food Guide 2025
A table of dishes at Kutir.
A Chelsea townhouse done as an Indian hunting lodge, with a menu built around game and the outdoors; a kutir is a cottage or hut.
Game — venison, partridge and grouse in season — cooked with Indian spicing. Rohit Ghai holds a Michelin star elsewhere. Tasting menus alongside the à la carte.
£££ and it books ahead. Lincoln Street, off the King’s Road.
The Tamil Prince, Islington
££ · Islington · Cited by 4 sources
The Tamil Crown’s Sunday roast — see the Sunday roast guide.
A Victorian pub with a Tamil kitchen in it. Prince Durairaj cooks the food of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka in an Islington pub with the carpet and the bar intact.
The Chettinad chicken and the lamb kari dosa are the orders, with heat that is not moderated, and breads and sambals alongside. The Sunday roast comes with masala gravy.
££, and it books weeks ahead — it is small. Sibling to The Tamil Crown, also in Islington; two separate pubs, not two names for one.
By region
Grouped by what the kitchen cooks.
South Indian and Keralan
Rasa, Stoke Newington
£ · Stoke Newington · book days ahead · Cited by 2 sources · British Indian Good Food Guide 2025
The same coast as Quilon at under £20 a head. An entirely vegetarian Keralan kitchen behind a pink shopfront on Stoke Newington Church Street, built on coconut, curry leaf and mustard seed rather than cream and tomato.
Rasa, Stoke Newington. Photo: Ewan-M, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Hoppers, Soho
£££ · Soho · Cited by 4 sources · British Indian Good Food Guide 2025
A table at Hoppers.
Sri Lankan and Tamil cooking built around the hopper — a fermented rice-and-coconut pancake cooked in a bowl-shaped pan — with fast service and confident heat. Karan Gokani’s kitchen.
Kokum, East Dulwich
£££ · East Dulwich · 13 min from East Dulwich · Cited by 3 sources
A table of dishes at Kokum.
Named for the sour coastal fruit used along India’s western shore, and the menu follows it: Goan and Konkani seafood, tamarind and coconut, very little cream.
Book: Reserve a table
North-eastern and Himalayan
Kanishka, Mayfair
£££ · Mayfair · 4 min from Oxford Circus · Cited by 3 sources · British Indian Good Food Guide 2025
The dining room at Kanishka.
Atul Kochhar cooking the north-eastern states — Assam, Nagaland, Sikkim. The flavours run smokier and more fermented than a curry.
7 minutes from Benares.
Book: Reserve a table
Vatavaran, Knightsbridge
£££ · Knightsbridge · Cited by 2 sources
The bar and dining room at Vatavaran.
Cooking from the Himalayan foothills. Named by both the Good Food Guide and Time Out.
Mughlai, Punjabi and the modern rooms
Empire Empire, Notting Hill
£££ · Notting Hill · 8 min from Westbourne Park · Cited by 3 sources
Modelled on the Bombay dining rooms of the 1970s, from the group behind Gymkhana and Trishna: velvet, brass and mirrored panels. The food is north Indian and unfussy.
▶ In the videos: Harrison Webb visits from 18:15.
Book: Reserve a table
Empire Empire’s dining room. Photo: Brokentaco, CC BY 2.0.
Colonel Saab, Bloomsbury
£££ · Bloomsbury · Cited by 4 sources · Newcomer of the Year (London), Asian Curry Awards
The dining room at Colonel Saab, in the old Holborn Town Hall.
The old Holborn Town Hall, filled with the owner’s family collection of Indian antiques: carved doors, brass, textiles. Took Newcomer of the Year at the Asian Curry Awards.
Tamarind, Mayfair
££££ · Mayfair · 5 min from Green Park · book weeks ahead · Cited by 2 sources · British Indian Good Food Guide 2025
One of the first two Indian restaurants anywhere in the world to win a Michelin star — it and Zaika were awarded jointly in 2001. Still a Mayfair basement doing tandoor cooking.
6 minutes from Benares.
Book: Reserve a table
Tamarind, Mayfair. Photo: Ewan-M, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Babur, Brockley
£££ · Brockley · Cited by 3 sources · British Indian Good Food Guide 2025
Raan, a slow-roasted leg of lamb, at Babur.
A south-east London restaurant open for thirty years, in the Good Food Guide as well as the British Indian Good Food Guide top 100.
Jikoni, Marylebone
£££ · Marylebone · 8 min from Bond Street · book weeks ahead
Jikoni on Blandford Street.
Ravinder Bhogal cooks across her Kenyan, Indian and British background without picking one.
1 minute from Trishna.
Book: Reserve a table
Cheap and quick
Everything here comes in under £20 a head, and apart from Rasa none of it takes a booking.
- Shree Krishna Vada Pav, Fitzrovia — vada pav, a spiced potato fritter in a soft bun with chutneys, from a counter. Cited by 3 sources
- Rasa, Stoke Newington — Keralan vegetarian. Cited by 2 sources
- Horn OK Please, Borough Market — an all-vegetarian stall whose samosa chaat is built in front of you: the samosas crushed under hot chickpea curry, then yoghurt, then tamarind. Eat it standing up; it does not survive being carried.
- Gujarati Rasoi, Borough Market — mother-and-son Gujarati cooking a few steps away: thalis, bhajia and dhal, gently sweet where Horn OK Please is sharp.
- Kolkati, Seven Dials Market — kati rolls the Kolkata way: paratha cooked with egg through it, wrapped around spiced chicken or paneer with pickled onion and lime.
The Gujarati Rasoi stall at Borough Market.
Curry house or dining room
A 1970s Tooting curry house and a Mayfair tasting menu both get called “the best Indian in London”, and they are not the same trip.
Dining rooms are everything in the two sections above: booked weeks out, £50 and up, tasting menus and sommeliers. Curry houses are the neighbourhood institutions — often decades old, family-run, walk-in, and where most Londoners actually eat.
🌶️ A note on what “Indian” means here. London’s best-known curry streets are largely not Indian. Brick Lane’s kitchens are Bangladeshi; Whitechapel’s are Pakistani; Tooting runs to Peshawari and Punjabi Lahori grilling. Those are their own traditions, not sub-types of Indian cooking, and this guide keeps them separate.
That is a labelling decision, not a quality one. You will find those kitchens in the Pakistani restaurants guide instead.
Also named, briefly
Named by the sources but not written up above.
| Restaurant | Area | Price | Cited by | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gunpowder | Spitalfields | ££ | 3 sources | Sharing plates |
| The Tamil Crown | Islington | ££ | 2 sources | A Tamil kitchen inside a Victorian pub. Sibling to The Tamil Prince |
| Tamila | Clapham | ££ | 2 sources | Tamil home cooking, picked up by both the Good Food Guide and Time Out |
| Bombay Bustle | Mayfair | £££ | 2 sources | Bombay tiffin-culture cooking from the Jamavar group |
| Pahli Hill | Fitzrovia | £££ | 2 sources | Bombay small plates, with a basement bar that runs later than the dining room |
| Kahani | Chelsea | £££ | 2 sources | Peter Joseph’s kitchen, in the BIGFG top 100 |
| Heritage | Dulwich | £££ | 2 sources | Modern Indian |
| Shiuli | Twickenham | £££ | 2 sources | Contemporary Indian from a two-Michelin-star chef, well outside the centre |
| Masala Zone | Piccadilly | ££ | 2 sources | Thalis and street-food plates, from the Amaya group |
| Fatt Pundit | Covent Garden | ££ | 2 sources | Kolkata’s Indian-Chinese Hakka cooking; the rest of London’s Indo-Chinese kitchens are in our fusion guide |
| Thecha | — | ££ | 2 sources | Maharashtrian cooking named for the chilli-and-garlic relish |
| Udaya Kerala | East Ham | ££ | 2 sources | Appam, coastal fish and coconut |
| Hyderabadi Spice | East Ham | ££ | 2 sources | Hyderabadi biryani |
| Madhu’s | Southall | ££ | 2 sources | Kenyan-Punjabi cooking |
| Shankeys | Homerton | ££ | 2 sources | Named by both The Infatuation and Time Out |
| Asher’s Africana | Wembley | ££ | 2 sources | East African Indian cooking |
See all Indian restaurants → · See all Pakistani restaurants →
Booking and dietary essentials
- Book months ahead for Gymkhana. Weeks ahead for BiBi, Veeraswamy, Jamavar, Benares, Tamarind, Quilon, Oudh 1722, Darjeeling Express and Jikoni.
- You cannot book at all at Shree Krishna Vada Pav or any of the market stalls.
- Dishoom takes any party size before 6pm, and groups of six or more after it. It holds most tables for walk-ins regardless.
- Fully vegetarian: Rasa, Shree Krishna Vada Pav and Horn OK Please. Everywhere else here has a substantial marked vegetarian menu.
- Halal preparation varies by branch and by dish even within one restaurant. Confirm directly with the venue.
- Service charge of 12.5% is discretionary and standard on London restaurant bills.
Watch the restaurant tours
Continue planning your London trip
- 🔀 The Best Fusion Restaurants in London — Indo-Chinese Hakka cooking, from Fatt Pundit in Soho to the suburban kitchens
- 🥥 The Best Sri Lankan Restaurants in London — a separate tradition: hoppers, kottu and lamprais, not a tandoor
- 🍽️ Eat in London: Restaurants, Food Markets & Quick Food Hub
- 🍕 The Best Pizza in London
- 🏛️ Best Areas to Visit in London: Neighbourhood Guide
- 🎭 Covent Garden Area Guide
- 🍜 Soho Area Guide
- 🏙️ City of London Area Guide
- ⏱️ Three Days in London Itinerary
Common questions
What is the best Indian restaurant in London?
Gymkhana, on the evidence. It holds two Michelin stars — the only Indian kitchen in Britain that does — it is a British Indian Good Food Guide London Icon, and eleven independent sources name it, more than any other Indian restaurant in the city. Trishna is the easier answer for most people: one star, half the price, and named by nine sources.
How far ahead should I book?
Gymkhana takes months. BiBi, Veeraswamy, Jamavar, Benares, Tamarind, Quilon, Oudh 1722, Darjeeling Express and Jikoni all want weeks. Dishoom takes any party size before 6pm but only groups of six or more after that, and Shree Krishna Vada Pav and every market stall here are walk-in only.
Where do I eat Indian food in London cheaply?
Shree Krishna Vada Pav in Fitzrovia and Rasa in Stoke Newington both come in under £20 a head, as do the Borough Market and Seven Dials stalls. All are walk-in.
Is Brick Lane still worth visiting for a curry?
For the street and its history, yes. For the food, the consensus among London food writers has moved east to Whitechapel and out to Southall, Tooting and East Ham. Note that Brick Lane's kitchens are largely Bangladeshi and Whitechapel's are Pakistani — both are their own traditions rather than sub-types of Indian cooking.
Which Indian restaurants in London are fully vegetarian?
Rasa in Stoke Newington, Shree Krishna Vada Pav and Horn OK Please at Borough Market are entirely vegetarian. Every other restaurant on this page has a substantial marked vegetarian menu — Indian cooking is the one cuisine in London where that is reliably true.
