Last Updated on October 18, 2026

Our Guide to the best of the best in Indian food in London

Indian food has been part of London’s food story for generations. From the early curry houses of Brick Lane, Soho and the West End to the regional and contemporary Indian restaurants that fill the city today, Indian cooking is now firmly woven into London’s dining culture.

Classic Balti style dishes in an Indian restaurant — Photo by Perspective Studio on Unsplash

What is Indian food?

It sounds like a straightforward question, but Indian food is far from a single cuisine. To understand the breadth of Indian food, it helps somewhat to picture the scale and geography of India itself. It is a vast country, stretching from the snow-covered Himalayas in the north to tropical coastlines in the south. Between them are deserts, tea plantations, fertile plains, forests and long coastlines, as well as 28 states and eight union territories. These different climates, landscapes, local crops and centuries of history, invasions and migrations from other nations including Britain, Portugal and Southeast Asia to name a few, all shape what people cook and eat.

Indian food is therefore not one cuisine, but a wondrous collection of regional food – and it is fantastic to see London’s restaurants increasingly reflect this diversity!

Classic Indian dishes to try

If you’re exploring Indian food for the first time, try a place where the menu has a lot of variety to tempt your taste buds. Here are a few classic dishes to look out for.

For starters or small bites, look out for samosas – crisp pastry parcels filled with spiced potato, vegetables, or meat; pakoras or bhajiyas are battered and fried, using an array of vegetables from the classic onion to beetroot, corn, spinach, and paneer now finding their way into the mix. Look out for all the different chaat offerings. This great genre of Indian street-food snacks combines crisp and creamy textures and tangy, spicy, sweet flavours of mint, tamarind and chilli.

For mains or larger sharing plates, biryani is a great option. It’s a fragrant rice dish layered with meat, fish, vegetables or eggs. The city offers up so many variations you’ll find it easy to soon have a favourite. Tandoori cooking provides smoky delights from chicken and lamb to breads such as naan.

And then there is, of course, ‘curry’ – perhaps one of the least useful words in the British-Indian food vocabulary. It has become a hopelessly broad umbrella term for literally hundreds of dishes – balti, bhuna, dhansak, dopiaza, jalfrezi, korma, madras, pasanda, pathia, rogan josh, saag, tikka masala, vindaloo, etc. But dig a little deeper, and you’ll find a world beyond these ubiquitous, often toned-down versions: Try Punjabi butter chicken, Kashmiri rogan josh, Goan xacuti, or Gujarati undhiyu.

And then there are the breads, which are far more than something to simply mop up a sauce. They vary widely in texture and how they’re served. Soft, chewy naan is cooked in a tandoor and is ideal with rich, saucy dishes. Roti or chapati are thinner, everyday breads, usually made with wholewheat flour and cooked on a hot griddle and drizzled with ghee. They’re lovely to scoop up vegetable dishes and lighter curries.

Paratha are flaky and layered flatbreads made in a similar way to buttery puff pastry. They are sometimes stuffed with potato or other fillings and thus finger-lickingly satisfying alongside yoghurt for dipping and a selection of achars, pickles. Puri puffs up when fried and is often served with sweetened mango pulp, while bhatura is a larger, pillowy fried bread traditionally paired with chickpeas. Finally, don’t forget to try soft, bowl-shaped appam, which has lacy edges and a tender centre that soaks up coconut-rich stews beautifully.

Typical plate of food in an Indian restaurant

There are regional Indian restaurants aplenty now in London

Starting in the north, Punjabi cooking is known for hearty dishes such as chole bhature, chickpeas simmered in a rich, spicy masala and served with puffy fried bread and sliced onions. Also look out for tandoori kebabs, smoky tandoori chicken, and tender lamb chops. For especially comforting dishes, try sarson da saag, mustard greens traditionally served with makki di roti, a flatbread made from cornmeal, or dal makhani, a slow-cooked, buttery dish of black lentils or rajma made with kidney beans. You may also find kadhi pakora, a tangy yoghurt-and-gram-flour curry with fritters.

Further north, Kashmiri cooking brings fragrant, warming flavours: rogan josh is a slow-cooked lamb curry, haak is gently spiced greens, and wazwan is a celebratory feast of multiple meat dishes.

In restaurants serving food from the north-east or Himalayan region, look out for momos: steamed or fried dumplings filled with vegetables or meat, often served with a punchy chilli sauce. They’re a popular snack in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, as well as across neighbouring Nepal and Tibet.

In Bengali restaurants, mustard, poppy seeds and subtle spices feature in dishes such as macher jhol, a light fish curry often served with rice. In neighbouring Odisha, you may find dalma, a comforting preparation of lentils and vegetables, alongside seafood and rice dishes shaped by the region’s long coastline.

In the West of India, you’ll find Gujarati food and my absolute favourites – dhokla or dhokra. These are steamed savoury cakes made from fermented gram or rice batter, served with vibrant green chutneys or a drizzle of sticky sugar syrup. Gujarati cooking often balances sweet, sour, salty and spicy flavours, and many dishes are vegetarian. Try a classic Gujarati thali, a selection of seasonal vegetable dishes served together on a large platter with chapati, puri, rice and pickles.

Across the border in Maharashtra, Mumbai favourites such as vada pav, a spiced potato fritter in a soft roll, and misal pav, a fiery sprouted-bean curry served with soft bread rolls, bring a taste of the region’s lively street-food culture. Rajasthan offers a very different style of western Indian cooking. Try a classic dal baati churma, a combination of lentil curry, baked wheat balls and sweetened crushed wheat.

Down in the south of India, rice, lentils, coconut and tamarind feature prominently, so in a South Indian restaurant, look for idli, steamed fermented rice-and-lentil cakes, and uttapam, a thicker pancake topped with vegetables. You will undoubtedly find dosas, thin crisp pancakes made from fermented rice and lentil batter, traditionally served with soupy tomato rasam, veg-spiked dals called sambar and a trio of chutneys.

Restaurants specialising in Keralan cooking often feature coconut, seafood and the distinctive flavours of the Malabar coast. Try meen moilee, a mild fish curry simmered in coconut milk. Goan cooking reflects the region’s Portuguese influence. Vinegar and spice blends bring distinctive depth to many dishes. Look out for xacuti, a richly spiced curry often made with chicken or lamb, or prawn balchao, a hot, tangy dish with a pickled quality, usually served with rice.

A typical south indian restaurant meal — Photo by Saktheeswaran Govindarajan on Unsplash

London Unattached team favourites

As someone who grew up eating mainly Gujarati food, I’m particularly interested in Indian restaurants that have a clear sense of the food they are cooking, whether that means faithfully representing a particular region or bringing classic Indian flavours together in a modern way. It helps me to learn and grow with my taste buds and travel across India at my leisure right here in London.

The list below isn’t intended to be a definitive ranking of any kind. It’s a personal selection from the London Unattached team of our favourite Indian restaurants in London, from established names that have played a part in the city’s restaurant history to newer places that are helping to broaden our understanding of Indian food.

Whether you’re looking for a celebratory meal, a regional speciality, a brilliant thali or simply a very good curry, these are the Indian restaurants in London we think are worth seeking out.