Warning: what we’re about to tell you is guaranteed to get your stomach rumbling. That’s because the capital’s best curry houses – restaurants serving the finest Hawker-style Malaysian classics, elevated home-style Filipino cooking and South Asian delicacies – have been revealed by a new list (see, we did try to tell you).
Out to celebrate the nation’s best Ruby Murrays is the Asian Catering Federation, which intends to highlight ‘the very best Asian cuisine nationwide’ by compiling an annual list of the UK’s top 100 curry restaurants.
Curry houses in the Big Smoke took up more than a fifth of the list, which was selected by public vote and recommended by the Asian Catering Federation’s expert panel.
It’ll come as no surprise that plenty of Time Out faves made the ranking, including Indian barbecue restaurant Brigadiers. Taking cues from colonial army messes in India but with a slick modern twist, the restaurant brings a bold energy to Bloomberg Arcade. It’s known for its smoky butter chicken wings, achari beef ribs which melt off the bone, goat belly vindaloo samosas and a tray of seven different poppadums.
Modern Indian restaurant Kutir also featured. The first solo project from Rohit Ghai, one-time exec chef of JKS restaurants (Trishna, Gymkhana, Hoppers), Bombay Bustle and Jamavar, serves a regularly rotating seasonal menu of dishes which represent the vast diversity of Indian cuisine.
Michelin-starred Quilon, which has been serving up specialties from India’s south-west coast since 1999, ranked among the best. Its signatures include the Gressingham duck roast, a riff on Chinese duck pancakes that substitutes the latter for steamed, stretchy parathi. Drooling yet? Us too.
The full list of London locations in the UK’s Top 100 Curry Restaurants 2026
In alphabetical order, these were all the restaurants in the capital that made the cut.
- Babur, Brockley
- Benares, Mayfair
- Brigadiers, Bank
- Colonel Saab, High Holborn
- Dawat, Tooting
- Gymkhana, Mayfair
- Hakkasan, Mayfair
- Kahani, Chelsea
- Kasa & Kin, Soho
- Kutir, Chelsea
- Laksamania, Soho
- Med Salleh, Bayswater
- Mint Leaf, Bank
- Namaaste, Highgate
- Namaaste Kitchen, Camden
- Namak Restaurant, South Woodford
- Panas Gurkha by Sujan Katuwal, Blackheath
- Quilon, Westminster
- Royal Nawaab, Perivale
- Spice Village, Tooting
- Yaatra, Westminster
Check out the nationwide ranking at the Asian Catering Federation’s website here.
Did you see that India’s biggest snack brand is opening its first British restaurant in London?
Plus: London’s best gastropub has been crowned by OpenTable.
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