Powered by Confidentials.com Search Subscribe
Search Subscribe
Guide

Our favourite Indian restaurants in the North-West

6 months ago

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 2023, here are some of the best Indian restaurants in the region. Read on for inspiration on where to eat next.

Do you think your (or someone else’s) business deserves a mention in our Guides? Let us know on Twitter: @cnfguides

  • Inside Amma's Canteen, the much-praised Indian restaurant on the edge of Chorlton
    Chorlton

    Amma’s Canteen

    Restaurant - Indian subcontinent

    Passionate Keralan-Indian-Brit fusion. A great place to eat can make the back end of nowhere worth visiting – and (largely) Keralan restaurant Amma’s Canteen, on the outskirts of Chorlton, feels like a destination.

    More details
  • Asha's Indian Restaurant, Manchester
    Manchester City Centre

    Asha’s

    Restaurant - Indian subcontinent

    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.

    More details
  • Indoor seating at Bombay Brew Indian Restaurant Rochdale
    Rochdale

    Bombay Brew

    Restaurant - Indian subcontinent

    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.

    More details
  • Greater Manchester

    Bundobust Brewery

    Restaurant - Indian subcontinent

    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.

    More details
  • Chaat at Chit N Chaat
    Rusholme

    Chit ‘N’ Chaat

    Restaurant - Indian subcontinent

    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. 

    More details
  • Book Now Manchester City Centre

    Delhi House Cafe | Corn Exchange

    Restaurant - Indian subcontinent

    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.

    More details
  • The famous black dahl at Dishoom Manchester
    Spinningfields

    Dishoom

    Restaurant - Indian subcontinent

    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.

    And the food is this good.

    The menu is bursting with small plates arriving at the table as and when, plus biriyani, curry and grilled gubbins as well as all sorts of sides and sundries. If you’re part of a big group (or obscenely greedy) it’s possible and even preferable to order something from each section.

    More details
  • A dish at EastZEast Manchester
    Book Now Manchester City Centre

    EastZEast Manchester

    Restaurant - Indian subcontinent

    Located on Blackfriars Street with views of the River Irwell, EastZEast is known for its authentic Punjabi dishes and glamorous, fine-dining setting.

    More details
  • Indian Tiffin Room restaurant manchester
    Book Now Manchester City Centre

    Indian Tiffin Room Manchester

    Restaurant - Indian subcontinent

    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.

    More details
  • One of the dishes served at Lily's Indian Vegetarian Cuisine in Ashton-under-Lyne.
    Book Now Ashton-under-Lyne

    Lily’s Indian Vegetarian Cuisine

    Restaurant - Indian subcontinent

    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.

    More details
  • Nepalese dumplings, momos, as served at The Little Yeti restaurant in Chorlton
    Book Now Chorlton

    The Little Yeti

    Restaurant - Indian subcontinent

    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.

    More details
  • Book Now Ropewalks

    Mowgli Street Food Liverpool Bold Street

    Restaurant - Indian subcontinent

    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.

    More details
  • A table laden with dishes from Mughli - one of the first Indian restaurants in Manchester to embrace street food.
    Rusholme

    Mughli

    Restaurant - Indian subcontinent

    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.

    More details
  • The entrance to Prashad restaurant in Bradford, which is known for its vegetarian Indian food
    Book Now Leeds

    Prashad

    Bars

    Prashad is a Gordon Ramsey-rated thrill for anyone craving Gujarati vegetarian food. Since starring on Ramsey’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.

    More details
  • Dining at Scene Indian Kitchen Manchester
    Spinningfields

    Scene

    Restaurant - Indian subcontinent

    Scene was one of the first of the new wave of Indian restaurants that left the flock wallpaper and the dodgy neon behind to offer street food and authentic cooking. It’s still got it. Inside, it’s cool and contemporary but still casual, outside there’s a large terrace. The cocktail menu has been thought about carefully and the menu is full of the sort of real Indian food we’ve come to expect from our curry houses.

    More details
  • Sigiriya logo
    Hale

    Sigiriya

    Restaurant - Indian subcontinent

    Vibrant colours and flavours – these are the trademarks of Sri Lankan restaurant Sigiriya, with its signature curries, traditionally prepared “rustic mains”, speciality baidun vegetable dishes and roadside rice, which hails from Colombo, the country’s largest city and former capital.

    More details
  • One of the dishes at Spice City, an Indian restaurant in Liverpool
    Business District (Liverpool)

    Spice City

    Restaurant - Indian subcontinent

    At this city centre favourite on Stanley Street you’ll find colourful, vibrant dishes that mix authenticity with a sense of fun.

    More details
  • Rice with a range of chutneys at Tharavadu, the popular Indian restaurant in Leeds city centre.
    Book Now Leeds

    Tharavadu

    Restaurant - Indian subcontinent

    Tharavadu, an unassuming Keralan restaurant, has charmed everyone from celebrities (Andrew Lincoln, Sanju Samson) to the inspectors of the Michelin, Hardens and Good Food Guides.

    More details
  • Old Swan

    Yukti The Art Kitchen

    Restaurant - Indian subcontinent

    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.

    More details
  • Lamb Laziz at Zouk, Manchester
    Manchester City Centre

    Zouk

    Restaurant - Indian subcontinent

    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 (prawn and pomegranate tacos, and butter chicken bao for example) but the main focus is still the authentic Indian and Pakistani cooking that made Zouk a success.

    More details
Close
Close splash advert