Best Indian restaurant experience in London

Believe any Dishoom staff would share but know you’ll find that at the venerable Veeraswamy. 3minute walk from Piccadilly Circus tube station or 10 minute walk from Oxford Circus. Dined there 5 years ago. Food and service were excellent. Pricey but my attitude is that’s what credit cards are for.

We've always found the staff at Dishoom helpful when asking about dishes. For example: we are chicken tikka masala fans which isn't on their menu so the suggestion was to pivot to Ruby Chicken which was a great recommendation.

We were recently on an Eating Europe food tour of Brick Lane, Shoreditch & Spitalfield (fantastic, by the way!). One of our stops was the well known Aladin curry house- wow! We sampled several curries, all excellent.

Pretty much every neighbourhood in London will have a decent Indian restaurant so you could try using Google maps to find one near you.

If you’re not sure what to get, the typical order at a British Indian restaurant is:
Poppadoms and pickle tray snack
Starter- onion bhaji or chicken tikka or lamb kebab etc etc.
Main- Curry of meat or veg. This needs sides of rice and bread. Choose your favourite. Curries are usually listed in categories from mild to very hot.
Sides - daal (lentils) and a veg dish like saag aloo (potato and spinach) or paneer (soft cheese).
Pint of Cobra or Kingfisher beer.

Obviously this is a ton of food so pick and choose as you see fit. It’s acceptable to share all parts of the order, eg order 1 meat curry, 1 rice, 1 naan bread and a couple of sides between 2 people.

I agree with Claudia. All of the Dishoom locations are excellent. And Veeraswamy is the gold standard of Indian restaurants in London.
https://www.veeraswamy.com/
Michelin starred & expensive, but worth it.

Helen from Bristol has given you great menu suggestions.
I will add that we order Chicken Tikka Masala whenever possible. A substitution at a restaurant that doesn't have it:
Butter Chicken, Chilli Chicken, or Ruby Chicken. Curry Chicken can be pretty hot/spicy. Chicken Korma cooked with coconut is very good, too, for those who want a milder dish.
Tandoori Chicken is basted with a tomato and yogurt sauce and cooked in a tandoori oven. It tastes a bit like our American BBQ chicken cooked on the grill.

As Helen said, you will need to order a main dish plus side of rice (one would possibly serve two people) and a vegetable. We like Saag Paneer (creamed spinach with cheese). Naan is your bread, ordered separately; it doesn't come with the meal. I think you would have more than enough with the items I've named.
Helen is right...the menu she gave included appetizers and might be too much food for 2 people.

There are several Indian restaurants in Greenwich we have enjoyed.
The best might be Hullabaloo, near Greenwich Market and Greenwich Park. (10 Greenwich Church St.)
Pathiri is a family-run small Indian restaurant offering delicious food. (119 Trafalgar Rd.)
Ghurka Inn (17 Colomb St.) is excellent.

A short boat ride away (Uber/Thames Clipper boats) from Greenwich to Canary Wharf brings you to another area with good Indian restaurants. This way, you don't have to go all the way back to central London if you don't want to.
Kricket Canary Wharf.
Chai Ki, Canary Wharf.
Canary Wharf is an interesting area to explore.

Here's another vote for Dishoom. Their restaurants are excellent and you can't go wrong there. The servers are a huge help and will guide you through their menu if you need them to. They have a number of locations throughout London—maybe 5-6?

Chicken tikka masala is a mainstay of the British Indian restaurant. The dish was invented in Britain in the early days of curry houses. Chicken tikka is traditionally a dry dish of grilled meat. The sauce was added by popular demand.

I feel that you need to decide whether you want to experience excellent Indian food and really get into the tastes and history…

Or whether you want the typical British experience at an Indian restaurant.

Helen has described very well the traditional British visit to a curry house, which has rounded off many a night down the pub with groups of friends. You can eat this way at any of a gazillion places around the country, and it’s always fun and tasty and relatively economical.

On the other hand, Dishoom will give you a very specific experience that’s a little different, which a lot of British people love because it’s not the traditional Indian restaurant we were all brought up on.

I wonder if Thali is the way forward? Perhaps the nearest I can think of to a “tasting menu.” A good option would be the smallish chain Masala Zone, which offers really tasty thali choices, where you get a selection of dishes and sides all arranged on a tray. I’ve had some very good meals there.

I love the suggestion above for the East End food tour! Dishoom has a great and universal reputation, and I’m sure that would be a lovely dinner experience. But I’m an advocate for getting over to Brick Lane. It’s a cool scene, and being “hawked” into various restaurants is considered part of the whole vibe. I think experiencing that through a guide would be tremendous, and Eating Europe is always solid. Plus, I’m sure the street art and history will feature prominently, and can be reason enough to head over there.

We had an exceptionally great dining experience at Kahani, in the upscale area between Belgravia and Chelsea. It’s not in Greenwich, but would be worth the effort to go there. We were, indeed, educated by the patient waitstaff, and menu options are extensive. The chef is Indian-born, and was awarded a Michelin star at his previous restaurant. Kahani doesn’t yet have a Michelin star, and it’s not a pretentious place, but the atmosphere is heightened, and the food was all fantastic. They do have a fancy, special room for a small group, which we got to see, but our table in the main room was wonderful.

Whilst I haven't been to Brick Lane for some time, a few years ago when my son lived round the corner it was very much a tourist trap of very average restaurants. There are much better choices nearby such as the admirable Tayyabs.

I know nothing of this site but it might help -https://www.londoncurryblog.com/#google_vignette. they have a leaderboard of 97 restaurants reviewed over the last few years. I note that there is one on Brick Lane and it didn't get a great review.

I’ve just seen a Trip Report on TripAdvisor and the US couple in question had a really enjoyable meal at Kricket (small Indian chain in London).

They said they’d had bad experiences with Indian food before, but this time they asked the waiter to explain the food and help them order, and they say they were really pleased with it all.

I have not been to Kricket myself so it’s not a personal recommendation, but it does sound like the kind of thing you might be looking for?

https://kricket.co.uk/

Several great choices. I will research and see when we will be in what area of London. Happy Eating!

As someone who doesn't particularly care for Indian food, I have to say that I love Dishoom. It's quite different from the usual neighborhood curry joint. The depth and breadth of flavors they present are wonderful.