New year new you. But not so new that you can't order a massive Indian feast every now and again. What's the point of even living in London, otherwise? As you know, all of the capital’s excellent Indian restaurants and curry houses have closed for the moment, but lots of the best ones are continuing to send out banging tandoori grills and rich sour pathias to those lockdown souls in need. Want to elevate your dinner from meh-thi to tand-awesome? Here are some of your best options.
PLEASE NOTE: Restaurant opening times and delivery/takeaway options are liable to alter at short (or no) notice. While we try and stay up to date, always check venues’ sites and social channels.
Also, check out our list of best restaurants doing home delivery and takeaways in London.
This popular Indian restaurant has been thrilling locals with its creative cooking since 1985. It’s shut up shop for now, but continues to offer delivery on two tiers. You can either order from its regular takeaway menu, or go posh with dishes from its outstanding restaurant menu.
Find both here.
If you live in Mayfair but inexplicably don’t have your own personal curry chef, avail yourself of the services of Berkeley Square’s fine-dining Benares. The poshed-up curry house is now doing delivery of its fantastic food, and for every meal you order, it is donating one to an NHS frontline worker. Good on ’em. I’ll have a phall, please. No, really.
Order details here.
Brigadiers is reopening its kitchen to deliver Indian barbecue classics to the hungry masses. Okay, not the masses. The select few. Still, if you want a well-posh curry, you could do a LOT worse. Its delivery menu features the return of the Brigadiers original BBQ butter chicken wings and the Brigadiers mixed grill, while fresh Indian Mangoes, currently in season, will be available for dessert.
Areas covered include Covent Garden, Clerkenwell, Hoxton, The City, Shoreditch, Whitechapel and Bethnal Green, from May 15 via Deliveroo.
The Cinnamon Club has reimagined itself as a takeaway, with many of the restaurant’s signature dishes on the menu: Rajasthani soola spiced paneer tikka, Old Delhi-style butter chicken and Hyderabad spiced lamb biryani. You can also get dessert in the form of Shrikhand cheesecake with tamarind glazed seasonal berries.
Order direct from www.cinnamonclub.com
This very well-liked spot in Epsom was opened by two ex-Gymkhana chefs in 2016. It has since won tons of awards and the affections of anyone lucky enough to live within its delivery radius. It's famous for, among other things, its relatively concise menu, so you won't be there for ages debating the merits of two nearly identical dishes. Orders can be placed directly on their website.
This west London favourite takes its name from Punjabi roadside eateries and serves fabulous chaats, along with more substantial dishes like ‘highway chicken’ with a bread basket. The spicy lamb keema, served with lightly toasted pav rolls to spoon it into, is a must-order. It’s keeping on truckin’ with deliveries and takeaways.
Order a delivery via Uber Eats here.
Dishoom is back in business doing deliveries from its branches in King’s Cross, Shoreditch and Kensington. They promise many of the café favourites, including street-food staple vada pau, chilli chicken and keema pau, plus hearty fodder like biryanis, chicken ruby, mattar paneer and Dishoom’s legendary house black daal. Plus, there are drinks, including the Thums Up, Limca and Pallonji’s Raspberry Soda. Everything will be available for delivery via Deliveroo from 11.30am to 10.30pm. As in the restaurants, Dishoom is donating a charity meal with every order.
Dishoom to Your Door is available via Deliveroo now.
Gunpowder has a new menu designed for sharing at home, including crispy pork ribs with tamarind sauce, organic tandoor baby chicken and fried Karwari soft shell crab. It’s also adapted some of its most popular dishes for takeaway. Maa’s Kashmiri lamb chops have been transformed into a more carry-out-friendly spiced curry and there are new weekly specials using cuts from the restaurant’s local meat supplier. There’s also dessert in the form of Gunpowder’s Old Monk rum pudding with custard, plus booze and stuff.
Gunpowder’s new menu is available Thu-Fri, 4pm-8pm and Sat-Sun, noon-6pm. Collection from Gunpowder Spitalfields. Delivery through Slerp and Deliveroo.
The Michelin-starred Gymkhana is doing delivery for the first time, serving its tandoori masala lamb chops, butter chicken masala and wild muntjac biryani. There’s also a bespoke feast menu for two.
Delivery radius is within eight miles and orders can be placed here.
The posh westside curry merchant has created a temporary new home in Westbourne Terrace, serving up popular dishes such as bhindi bhel (crispy rice puffs with okra, sweet chutney, and fresh coriander), lamb chops marinated in Kashmiri chillies and griddled seabass with chilli and garlic. It’s also recruited chef Gareth Drew (Nobu, Gilgamesh), so you can also try an array of pan-Asian delights such as beef rendang, Thai green curry and Pandan grilled salmon.
For every order received, Hankies will donate a meal to support the NHS and other front-line workers in the local area.
Order via Deliveroo.
Hoppers has extended its delivery radius to cover new locations across Islington, Camden, King’s Cross, Shoreditch, Hoxton and Whitechapel – with an eight mile radius for orders made with 24-hour’s notice and three mile radius on same-day delivery. The menu features some of the Sri Lankan restaurant’s most celebrated dishes, including its bone marrow varuval with roti, devilled chilli paneer, mutton kothu roti and a selection of seasonal karis.
Order via Deliveroo and Slerp.
This awesome family-run Sri Lankan place is all set up for delivery and click & collect via Slerp. Some of its most celebrated dishes are available: fish cutlets, monkfish curry, jaggery beef and jackfruit curry. It’s a total joy.
Southall in West London has a reputation for stunning Indian food, so much so that it's often referred to as Little India. Among its many restaurants Madhu's might be the best. Opened by two teenage brothers 40 years ago, its earned a reputation for authentic but modern Punjabi food and very snappy interior decor. You can try the former with their Madhu's At Home service. They deliver up to 10 miles from the restaurant.
A Tooting institution, Mirch Masala is one of a swathe of curry houses in the area and a recommendation of London Mayor Sadiq Khan, no less. The sizzling karahi pots are normally recommended, but as it’s collection and delivery only right now, you have to ask: how well do they travel?
Order via its website.
The home-delivery brand from JKS Restaurants (Hoppers, Brigadiers) is reopening its locations and adding a new Crouch End kitchen. Motu’s menu includes the likes of samosas, lamb seekh kebabs, saag gosht, and biryanis, as well as Ramadan specials nihari, haleem, chapli kebabs and chargah chicken wings.
Motu Indian Kitchen Battersea Delivery covers Wandsworth, Clapham, Balham, Fulham and Chelsea (launches May 14)
Motu Indian Kitchen Canary Wharf Delivery covers Poplar, Bromley by Bow, Isle of Dogs, Canning Town and Limehouse (launches May 14)
Motu Indian Kitchen Swiss Cottage Delivery covers St John’s Wood, Camden, Belsize Park, Kilburn and Hampstead (launches May 18)
Motu Indian Kitchen Whitechapel Delivery covers Bethnal Green, Mile End, Spitalfields, Wapping and Limehouse (launches May 21)
Motu Indian Kitchen Islington Delivery covers Highbury, Barnsbury, Holloway, Caledonian Road and King’s Cross (launches May 26)
Motu Indian Kitchen Crouch End Delivery covers Harringay, Stroud Green, Archway, Alexandra Palace, Muswell Hill, Wood Green and Highgate, (launches June 2)
All available via Deliveroo
Nayaab has been a local Fulham favourite since 1981. A participant in the original Indian food revolution, it’s been serving high-quality, gourmet Indian dishes for years, leading the way for the sophisticated tandoori restaurants now populating high streets everywhere. It’s doing takeaways and deliveries to selected postcodes during lockdown.
Details on its site.
The menu at Hammersmith's Sagar bigs-up the Udupi cooking of Karnataka, from where the chefs originate. It's all veggie, so if you're craving the supple flesh of lamb or something, look elsewhere. Still interested? In that case we recommend the masala uthappam and all teh bhajis and samosas.
Order on Uber Eat.
In the decade since it opened, mini-chain Shree Krishna Vada Pav has found fame across the capital for its renditions of Mumbai street food. Vada pav, the dish from which it takes its name, is a must-order: a soft bread roll stuffed with a crisp deep-fried potato dumpling. There are Sichuan-spiced and cheesy versions too, plus a stupendous samosa-stuffed pav. The spring onion-sprinkled Indo-Chinese chilli paneer is great too.
Part of a cracking mini-chain of Indian takeaways that started life in Hornsey and has other branches in Wanstead, West Hampstead and Totteridge. It is currently doing home delivery via its website.
This family-run Indian restaurant has been in Bermondsey since 1978, with third-generation family members now at the helm. A fair few curries have been cooked over the years here, then. The traditional charcoal-fired tandoor has been in situ since those early days, and still plays an important part on much of the menu.
The Michelin-starred Trishna is now doing delivery from its Marylebone HQ with a menu inspired by the south-west coast of India. Choose from favourites such as hariyali bream, chicken pepper fry and seafood biryani. There are also feast menus if you’re pushing the boat (right) out.
Delivery to Marylebone, Mayfair, Paddington, St John’s Wood, Fitzrovia and Euston from May 22.
South Indian cuisine of the highest order, courtesy of these East Ham legends. Don't sleep on the sea food, particularly the squid curry and prawn dishes. Keralan cooking done very, very right.
Available on Uber Eats or their website.
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