St James's, Indian - Restaurant Guide

“A perennial winner and rightly so” – JKS Restaurants’ flagship opened in 2013 and delivers a “terrific” experience with Sid Ahuja’s “exciting and stunning looking” Indian dishes helping to mark out this colonial-style Mayfair subcontinental as one of the most commented-on destinations in our annual diners’ poll. In their February 2024 awards, however, Michelin arguably did the place a disservice by doubling its rating, leaving a significant minority of diners of the view that “it’s great… but it’s not two star”; or worse, that “they’ve now gone overboard with the prices” leaving an “overhyped” and “really undwhelming” impression as a result. (New cocktail lounge and private room on the first floor, called ‘42’.) Top Menu Tips – “sensational Kid Goat Methi Keema, and the Aloo Chat with tamarind is to die for!”

Now in its 99th year, London’s oldest Indian has (under its most recent owner, the MW Eat Group) maintained “consistently high standards”, providing “superior, delicate flavoursome curries in a series of colourful, beautifully presented dishes”, matched with thoughtfully updated decor, overlooking Regent Street from the first floor. Whether or not it sees its 100th birthday is in the hands of landlords, The Crown Estate, who seem blind to its cultural significance, and more interested in terminating its lease and redeveloping the building of which it is part. Sign the petition to save it on the Veeraswamy website!

Celebrating its 35th anniversary in 2025, this “top-of-the-class” flagship of the MW Eats chain continues to thrive under the ownership of Ranjit & Namita Mathrani and Namita’s sister, Camellia Panjabi. Originally founded in SW3, the business moved to this large, “opulent” central site in St James’s in 2015: “a great space with wonderful decor that gives it character” but which also combines being “upmarket with a good vibe”. Having helped lead the vanguard of London’s ‘nouvelle Indian’ cuisine from the 1990s onwards, the cooking here remains “exceptional, complex and balanced” and the performance all-round is impressive: “everything you would expect of a top-notch Indian restaurant and set of restauranteurs”.

“A gorgeous, sumptuous room with food to match” – classic Punjabi dishes with a Kenyan twist are a slightly offbeat discovery at this Piccadilly hotel restaurant from the Anand dynasty, founded almost a century ago in Nairobi. “The setting is delightful, all ornate with chandeliers but it doesn’t feel too swanky or over the top”. And appropriately for the West End hotel setting, they offer an afternoon ‘High Chai’ where tandoori salmon sandwiches and murgh tikka wraps are followed by very British scones, clotted cream and strawberry preserve. Top Menu Tip – “sea bass is prepared table side for that extra bit of theatre”.

“Interesting and unusual Indian food” – “not heavy curries at all, but a less familiar range of dishes, with very well-judged spicing and a huge range of delicate flavours” – again inspires rave reports for this superb Brit-run chain (founded by Will Bowlby & Rik Campbell), which also has a brilliant service ethos: “cheerful and obliging throughout and very prompt”. In 2025, they opened their latest 80-cover outpost in Shoreditch, which also introduced a debut breakfast menu alongside an all-day 50-cover Kafé and bar concept (serving street-food snacks). And coming soon – a launch in Covent Garden’s Neal’s Yard is planned. Top Menu Tips – “date and pistachio kuicha is particularly good; excellently light panipuri with tomato rasam”.

The “large, two-storey” outpost of a brand from India’s Massive Restaurants group on Haymarket is worth knowing about if you’re fighting hunger in the heart of the West End; and offers “a good selection of food including a great variety of small plates” at a quality level that can surprise for such a touristy location. Wallet-friendly lunch and pre-theatre set meals add to its appeal.

“Love this place!” – “fantastic, authentic Indian food is cooked by an all-female team” at this former supper club in Carnaby’s Kingly Court, from “the very impressive Asma Khan” – TV chef, writer and activist as chef-advocate for the UN Food Program and co-leader of a global campaign for gender equality in the kitchen (among her many talents). “The wonderful ethos alongside the amazing fare makes the experience even better” – and the staff are “fabulous”. Top Tips – “lunch is better than the thali-style dinner”; “the biryani evening is wonderful, and highly recommended”.

“You’ll almost always find a queue of people waiting for a table and a palpable energy of excitement in the room” when you visit these “vibrant” and “exotic”-feeling Indian favourites, which “whisk you to Bombay and back”. Cousins Shamil & Kavi Thakrar started in Covent Garden in 2010 and their growing group has become the most commented-on business in our annual diners’ poll, complete with seven London branches, three outside town; their ‘Permit Rooms’ spinoff brand, and turnover of over £100m. The interior design, a homage to Mumbai’s Irani cafés, absolutely slaps – “wherever you sit it’s quirky” and even though the busy scene can become “a bit of a zoo”, it’s all so upbeat that “you leave feeling good about your meal and yourself!”. Dishes are “bursting with flavour” and served by “efficient” waiting staff “who know their stuff”. The menu is “deliciously different”, although so many Londoners have now sampled it that once-arcane items like the “legendary black dahl (so rich and filling!)” are now part of London’s culinary canon. And what better way to start a new day than with an “unbeatable bacon and egg naan roll” – a high watermark of dining out invention of the last 50 years that’s core to their “game-changing breakfasts” (“you will never want an English bacon roll again”!).

“It’s always uplifting to be in the Bustle!”, say fans of this “high-quality, fun Indian restaurant close to Oxford Circus” – the bubbly younger sibling of Jamavar from Samyukta Nair. “Prices are not so daunting as others have become in Mayfair” (note the “excellent value Express Lunch/Early Dinner”), and there’s “fast and professional service in the spacious and well-designed dining room”, which some find “noisy and unconducive to conversation”. Top Menu Tips – “love the prawn starter and the lamb curry with soft bao buns”.

“Tamarind never disappoints”, with the “consistently fabulous food” that made it one of the earliest of the new wave of modern upscale Indians in London when it opened 30 years ago (and the first to bag a star from the French tyre men six years later). It remains “a real find for quality Indian food among its plutocratic competitors in Mayfair” – with “an innovative and wide selection of wonderful dishes, always getting the balance between spice and flavour just right”. Top Tip – “very reasonably priced lunch set menu”.

“Truly delicious modern twists on Indian classic dishes” with “some very different tastes” has helped inspire a very loyal fan club for star-chef, Atul Kochhar’s Mayfair fixture: a mirrored, smart venue opened in 2019 a little way off Regent’s Street overseen by head chef Ashok Kumar. “We recently tried other nearby top-end Indian restaurants. No, Kanishka is the best and we always drift back!”. Top Tip – excellent value set menu.

2024 Review: In the heart of Theatreland, this Indian street-food operation is focused on dishes served with ‘hankies’ – hand-spun roti folded around the dish – and still receives good marks (if from a limited number of reports). There used to be offshoots in Marble Arch and Paddington, but both have closed over the last couple of years.

“Inventive and fancy Indian food a fair few notches above your standard curry house” is found at this Soho spinoff from the smart Mayfair namesake; (“have eaten here a handful of times this year and the dishes each time have been good”).

“An exceptional Indian restaurant” – nothing but rave reviews this year for Samyukta & Dinesh Nair’s grand subcontinental in Mayfair, whose “high levels” of attention to detail won it all-round excellent ratings this year. The interior is inspired by the Viceroy’s House in New Delhi and the high-quality cuisine is the work of chef Surender Mohan.

The “excellent”, “very flavourful” dishes at this duo in Soho and Covent Garden provide an “interesting and novel” answer to the question: “what is Indian food?” – showcasing, as they do, the distinctive Indo-Chinese cuisine developed by Hakka Chinese immigrants in Kolkata.

2025 Review: “A favourite curry house for many years” – this stalwart Soho venue opened in 1988 and is a well-preserved time capsule of what the curry experience looked like when nobody dreamt of an Indian restaurant ever winning a Michelin star. “Everything is always high-quality and really tasty and the price is super-competitive for the area; and the staff are lovely too”.

“You can’t get into Gymkhana now it’s got so many awards” but fans say this big (140 covers inside, plus 40-seat outside terrace) new sibling just off Regent Street from the all-conquering JKS restaurant group “is a good alternative”: with its Punjabi-inspired menu delivering “superb” flavours, and its “lovely” and “interesting” decor, themed around the party mansions of North India. Reports are mixed though (“I thought it was comparable to Brigadiers, my fellow diner definitely did not”) and a fair few reports consider it “very expensive for what you actually get”. Top Menu Tip – “great chops”.

“One of the most iconic interiors in London” – the historic, late-Victorian Criterion restaurant in Piccadilly Circus (built in 1873) – makes the latest addition to the Masala Zone group (opened in 2023) “a new gem in the collection”, whose “opulence really suits an Indian destination”: it’s “worth going just to see the old Criterion, and thankfully the wonderful original decor has been retained”. With “great food and attentive but unobtrusive service” typical of the classy MW Eats group, “all Masala Zone restaurants are excellent”, offering good-value street-food or home- style thalis in four venues. The Covent Garden branch opposite the ROH stage door is tipped for pre- or post-opera dining.

If you’re looking for a “good pitstop in the West End”, this trio (also with an offshoot in Hammersmith) offers “tasty vegan and veggie Indian food” at “very reasonable prices” – nothing fancy, but “good basic cooking” of “South Indian staples”. Pickier diners can feel that some sauces are “rather watery”, or that the filling food can come “with no stand-out flavours”. Practically all agree, however, that “a great Masala Dosa and beer makes a very affordable meal in Central London”. Top Tip – “good choice to take a crowd: they’re not fazed by large tables”.