Great Indian Restaurant in London

I love Dishoom restaurants, and I've been to several in both Edinburgh and London. They serve some fantastic Indian food. You can go there for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, although they only take reservations for breakfast and lunch. Dinner, you would have to wait in line, but depending on when you go, it shouldn't be too long a wait. They have a number of locations in London.

Another Dishoom recommendation. I always enjoy a meal there when in London.

I gree with Dishoom. They do take reservations until about 5:45 or 6 pm. So the Covent Garden location is good for a pre theater dinner. But, book a table. Last spring it was nearly an hour wait for those without reservations at 5:30. Both food and service at Dishoom was much better than my experience at The India on Canon Street.

I've not been to Colonel Saab, but we recently looked at going there and the reviews weren't great.

Dishoom is very good, as mentioned above. They have a few locations around London.

If you are interested in going to the East End, there are three well known curry houses in Whitechapel- Tayyab's, Needoo's, and Lahori Kebab House. The latter two were started by people who used to work at Tayyab's, which is the most famous of the three. They are all BYOB if you like a beer with your curry.

Of course all those listed above are northern Indian food- if you like southern Indian there are lots of other options (some recent popular ones include the Tamil Prince and the Tamil Crown), including heading to East Ham for dosas or going to one of the many thali places.

If you also like food from neighbouring countries, for Nepalese I like Great Nepalese, and for Sri Lankan you can head down to Tooting or in central London try Hopper's, which has a similar feel to Dishoom (also a chain), which I also like.

I really like Great Nepalese, where I have dined a number of times. Much better food than at the couple of Indian restaurants I've been to in London. Nepalese cuisine is similar to Indian, but has somewhat different spices.

I haven't been there in a while, but I've always been happy with the meals at the Indian YMCA. Not as smart as the restaurants mentioned, but the meals and prices usually been good value.
www.indianymca.co.uk/restaurant

There's also the Indian restaurants on Drummond Street (a bit north of Euston). Lots of changes round there, not sure of current options.

There is a huge variety of curry in London.
I can’t comment on Colonel Saab specifically but if you are looking at curry that is more fine dining I can recommend Cinnamon Club and Gymkhana. An Asian friend of mine had a special anniversary meal at Gymkhana and said the food was excellent. Neither of these options are cheap. You could also look at Veeraswamy which is the UK’s oldest Indian restaurant.

For a more modern take on curry look at Dishoom, Roti Chai, Masala Zone and Kricket.
Dishoom has a slightly more unusual menu being based on old Bombay/Persian cafes. Their black dhal is famously good. Roti Chai is modern street food apparently. I prefer the ground floor to the posher restaurant down stairs. Masala Zone does good value thali. Kricket is modern South Indian food and their Keralan fried chicken is delicious.

Drummond Street ( by Euston Station) and Brick Lane ( near Liverpool Street) are famous areas for curry with long histories. I think Drummond Street is better for vegetarian food, Brick Lane is good later in the evening for a relaxed meal. Tayyab’s lamb chops are famous.

If you look further a field you will find very authentic ‘Indian’ food in the suburbs where different communities live. Tooting is recommended above. Southall, Wembley and Harrow all have large and very well established Asian communities in north and west London. I’m not so up on similar areas in south and east London

For something different look at Desi Pubs which have become a bit of a ‘thing’ in recent years.

Has anyone been to Gunpowder? I remember that being quite well regarded a few years ago.

Gunpowder is very good! Actually I meant to recommend that one so thanks for the reminder.

Indian YMCA as mentioned is great as well- I used to work nearby and would go for lunch frequently. I'm not sure if they're open for dinner? Unfortunately they're not as inexpensive as they used to be.

Wembley as mentioned is a great place to go for Indian food- in particular Ealing Road between Wembley Central and Alperton tube stations- you really feel like you are in India! Also a great place to shop for kurtas, saris, etc. A lot of the people living in that area are from India by way of East Africa, which is why you get restaurants with names like Asher's Africana, which is food from the Indian diaspora living in Kenya, Uganda, etc.

Going off topic slightly- I tried Guyanese food for the first time recently at Tooting Market. That is quite interesting as Guyana also has a large population of Indian heritage so the food is a mixture of curry plus what you would find other places in the Caribbean (like jerk chicken). There as a Mauritian restaurant in that market as well which also has quite a lot of Indian influence. I suppose the main point is that there really is quite a wide variety of Indian food to be found in London.

When I visited London in January, I looked specifically for Bengali style teatime snacks (unhealthy fried food and sweets, mmm it takes me back to my childhood) but did not find exactly what I was seeking. I guess next time I need to invite myself over to a Bengali family's home for tea! But I did have some great meals at Masala Zone, which offers a "high chai" afternoon tea service; Chaurangi; and Darjeeling Express. I also enjoyed Dishoom's Permit Room in Cambridge. I would return to all of these places.

Wow! So many fantastic suggestions! Thank you all. Sounds like it might be nice to wander around some of the areas mentioned. I think we’ll have a hard time narrowing the list to just one restaurant….i will definitely keep these suggestions for our next visit too. Thanks again everyone.

NYC Librarian I don’t know if they are Bengali but the Ambala Indian sweet shop chain is across London and they have a branch right by Euston Station on Drummond Street.

Thanks, Emma! I see from Ambala Sweets' web site that they stock "Nimak Para" (what I would call nimki), one of my guilty pleasures. I will browse one of their shops next time I visit London.

Linda, if this reply isn’t too late, we did have a very good meal at a Colonel Saab back in December, the one a couple of blocks behind (east) of St. Martin in the Fields church. The curries were delicious, and you could order them as hot/spicy (or not) as you wanted. As a bonus, it was a large enough space that tables weren’t absolutely shoehorned into the place, so our table wasn’t practically on top of the next closest table. Compared to lots of restaurants in London, it was nice having a bit of “elbow room.” That also made it less noisy than lots of restaurants in Central London, so that you can hear your table companion(s). And the price was reasonable, too.

This same pre-Christmas trip, we discovered another great Indian restaurant, one with a Michelin recommendation (but not a Michelin Star), with the added bonus of being close to our B&B. It’s Pahli Hill Bandra Bhai, at 79-81 Mortimer St in the Fitzrovia neighborhood.

From a prior London trip, we ate at another excellent, Michelin-recommended restaurant, Kahani, whose 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 had outstanding food.

dishoom is honestly amazing and their house black daal is seriously next level comfort food
waiting in the dinner queue is not even that bad since they usually hand out free chai while you wait
it is so cool that you got to check out their spots in both edinburgh and london

I'm not sure why so many people like Dishoom. We went to one in London and found it not to our liking. For one thing, it's very crowded and feels like a factory. The service left something to be desired and I've had better Indian food.

I'm not sure why so many people like Dishoom.

I'm not sure, either, as I don't as a rule particularly care for Indian food but love Dishoom. I guess it's probably not typical of the genre.

I'm not sure why so many people like Dishoom.

I think they offer an "experience", with decor, the fusion style / novelty dishes (breakfast bacon naan?), rather than it being about just food. It clicked with a lot of people and they've capitalised on it really well, building the brand and expanding the business. I've never been, just going on what I read etc, but it's not really in the same category as your local in Southall, or even Gymkhana. It's something different.

I've just spotted this was published in Time Out London last week.
https://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/londons-best-indian-restaurants

Everyone has their own opinions but I will come to the 'defence' of Dishoom.
Yes they offer an 'experience' but the food is, in my experience good, and i have eaten ALOT of curry. It isn't pretending to serve food like a traditional 'Indian' restaurant. It is a feature of London Indian restaurants that they are increasingly focusing on particular regions and types of food.
Maybe the bacon naan is a gimmick, but it's a delicious one, and one that I regularly recreate at home! If I was more of a cook I would also attempt to recreate the black dal but i'm too lazy!

Regarding Dishoom, I agree it's an "experience" (and one I have been seeing repeated at other chains like Hoppers). Something to note is the original Dishoom (the one in Covent Garden) was recreating a very specific experience, which was Irani cafes in Mumbai. These are cafes owned and operated by the Iranian Zoroastrian diaspora that first came to India in the 19th century. This is why they feel different to some of the other more traditional curry houses we are accustomed to in London.

Cat, that's very interesting. That's the Dishoom I went to when I was in London, and I really enjoyed it there. My two grandkids just loved it. I agree it is somewhat about the experience, but the food is really good.

Personally, I get tired of going to the same old Indian restaurants after a while and seeing the same old menu items, so finding an Indian restaurant that's a bit different is a real treat.

Dishoom Covent Garden! You wouldn’t believe the line, for hours! Make a reservation as soon as possible.

I’d like to add that be careful with the time, if you’re not accustomed to the 1-24 hours times. I’m usually on it, but I must have been tired making a reservation for Dishoom. I chose 17:30, thinking it was 7:30 pm. Checked my reservation that morning and realized it was 5:30. No big deal, date of arrival. Then I found out you can only make reservations for under 6 people earlier than 6:00. Anyway, I sure was lucky realizing my mistake. It was wonderful just walking in, place was packed with about 50 people in line. Beautiful venue, absolutely delicious food.

Dishoom Covent Garden - a correction to Lulu's post. Only parties of 6 or more can make reservations AFTER 6 pm. Any size party, even solo diners, can book a table prior to 6 pm. However, they do limit number of tables that can be reserved.

The Dishoom Covent Garden location nearly always has a long queue in the evenings. I’ve had much better luck at their Carnaby and Kensington locations.

I'm not sure why so many people like Dishoom.

Likewise. My wife and I had lunch at Dishoom's Permit Room in Oxford recently, my first time and I was excited to try the food having read so much praise about it however I was a bit underwhelmed. The food was nice enough but it wasn't anything special. My lamb curry was comparable to something I could make at home however I really liked the Aloo Tikki Chaat. I left having regretted not opting for the nearby Nepalese instead.