The best Indian restaurants in the North West

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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

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.

Indian Tiffin Room, the successful North West independent, has brought its authentic street food flavours to Liverpool.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.