We all know that there’s not just one homogenous ‘Indian food’. As a vast country of many regions, its subcontinent extends to surrounding countries like Sri Lanka and Nepal, resulting in a colourful and diverse mosaic of flavours, dishes and cooking styles.
Traditionally, North Indian food has been the most popular on our shores. But as our fervour for heat, adventure, and layers of spice has grown, so has the diversity of our restaurant culture.
Amongst the rich offerings here are the crispy, stuffed dosas and coconut-rich seafood dishes of the South, traditional Gujarati vegetarian thalis, Kashmiri stone-cold classics like rogan josh, crispy, colourful and creative dishes from all over India.
Updated for 2024, here are some of the best Indian restaurants in the North West. Read on for inspiration on where to eat next.
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Book Now Manchester City Centre
Zouk
Zouk specialises in ‘apna’ – home-style cooking shot through with colour and heat from the spices and herbs. In recent years it has incorporated elements of global street food to its menu (Lahori wagyu sliders for example) but the main focus is still the authentic Indian and Pakistani cooking that made Zouk a success.
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Cheadle
Aamchi Mumbai
Idli and dosas are as ubiquitous as chicken korma nowadays but Cheadle’s Indian street food restaurant Aamchi Mumbai still stands out from the crowd.
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Manchester City Centre
Asha’s
Modern Indian restaurants come with their own USPs such as street food, home cooking and regionally-specific cuisine. Asha’s, near the library end of Peter Street, has decided to go high-end with proper posh Rogan Josh nosh.
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Rochdale
Bombay Brew
Bombay Brew brings together beer and Indian street food. Bundobust may be the kings of this combo but unlike its rival, Bombay Brew doesn’t just stick to vegetarian food with its IPAs. Instead, you’ll find everything from lamb lollypops to octopus masala.
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Greater Manchester
Bundobust Brewery
A real Northern success story, the second location for Bundobust in Manchester and the fourth in the family of northern-based restaurants (Manchester Piccadilly, Leeds and Liverpool have come before), the Bundobust Brewery is a welcome addition to Oxford Street at the southern part of the city.
With a menu that mirrors its sister restaurants, the food is a reliable selection of Indian-style vegetarian small plates. Expect to find crisp okra fries dusted with black salt and mango powder and the iconic vada pav – a deep-fried mashed potato ball in a bun, with red and green chutneys.
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Rusholme
Chit ‘N’ Chaat
Chit ‘N’ Chaat is one of Rusholme’s best-loved restaurants for Indian Street food and entrees. This small-yet-cosy eatery is the perfect place for catching up with friends as you share traditional and modern South Asian dishes.
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Manchester City Centre
Delhi House Cafe | Corn Exchange
This slick 2020 addition to the Corn Exchange is determined to do something different to other contemporary Indian restaurants. And it largely succeeds, bringing flair and originality to the well-worn territory of street food and small plates.
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Manchester City Centre
Dishoom
Dishoom is a legend in its own lunchtime and that’s exactly how it likes things. It’s not enough to serve up top-notch Indian dishes in grand surroundings; there’s a story behind the menu too. But when the food is this good it doesn’t need to hide behind tall tales.
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Manchester City Centre
EastZEast Manchester
Located on Blackfriars Street with views of the River Irwell, EastZEast is known for its authentic Punjabi dishes and glamorous, fine-dining setting.
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Hale
GupShup
GupShup serves food from across India in a setting of laid-back luxury; this is Hale, after all. The menu is relatively small for an Indian restaurant, but it focuses on serving up a taste of the whole country, from the Himalayan Foothills to the Great Trunk Road, and getting the flavours spot on. Quality not quantity. In amongst mentions of Rajasthan and Lucknow, you’ll find Delchester noted as the origin of an excellent tikka pie. It’s a great cross-cultural dish and guaranteed to raise a smile.
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Book Now Ropewalks
Indian Tiffin Room Liverpool
Indian Tiffin Room, the successful North West independent, has brought its authentic street food flavours to Liverpool.
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Manchester City Centre
Indian Tiffin Room Manchester
Known to its friends as ITR, the second of the three bright Indian Tiffin Room restaurants specialises in thalis (a kind of mini buffet) and south Indian tiffin dishes, putting colour on a plate with its street food inspired by the bustling stalls of different parts of India.
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Ashton-under-Lyne
Lily’s Indian Vegetarian Cuisine
Lily’s Indian Vegetarian Cuisine is an unassuming restaurant in Ashton-under-Lyne that happens to serve some of the best South Indian food in the UK.
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Chorlton
The Little Yeti
The Little Yeti is one of the newest dining spots on Barlow Moor Rd, but from the well-oiled team behind Didsbury veterans Gurkha Grill. It’s an establishment of the ‘limited menu but executed very well’ variety, which is more common in Asia than over here, where ‘all things to all people’ is perhaps too often attempted.
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Ropewalks
Mowgli Street Food Liverpool Bold Street
If you don’t know who Nisha Katona is, you’re not watching enough Celebrity MasterChef, but, to recap, she’s the founder of Mowgli, born in 2014 right here in Bold Street – now the flagship branch of the Indian restaurant chain of 17 restaurants nationwide and rising.
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Rusholme
Mughli
Mughli is the contemporary, social media embracing, second generation Curry Mile restaurant that paved the way for the likes of Indian Tiffin Room, Amma’s Canteen and Dishoom.
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Book Now Didsbury
Namaste Nepal
Namaste Nepal on West Didsbury’s Burton Road is a relaxed Nepalese spot that is the definition of a much-loved neighbourhood restaurant.
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Bradford
Prashad
Prashad is a Gordon Ramsay-rated thrill for anyone craving Gujarati vegetarian food. Since starring on Ramsay’s Best Restaurant show, the team have made the most of the exposure. Expansion, relocation and even a Sunday Times top 40 rated cookbook followed.
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Business District (Liverpool)
Spice City
At this city centre favourite on Stanley Street you’ll find colourful, vibrant dishes that mix authenticity with a sense of fun.
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Northern Quarter
This & That Cafe
Everyone’s heard of NQ backstreet gaff This & That, even if they’ve not actually found it (it’s up the ginnel by Trof’s empty barrels) – renowned for its daily changing “rice and three” meal deal and winning vegan and vegetarian choices, it’s been an institution since 1984.
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Old Swan
Yukti The Art Kitchen
The first of two Yuktis, the Old Swan restaurant opened to much fanfare in 2014 and it’s still pulling in the punters with its authentic dishes from India and beyond – Sri Lanka and Nepal included – including tandoori staples, biriyani favourites and popular thali trays.