The Michelin Guide lists eight starred Indian restaurants in London, one of them with two stars, and the gap between that end of the category and the high street curry house is now enormous. This is the top of it.
One of them is a hundred years old this year and fighting in court to stay where it is. Start there, because it may not be there much longer.
Veeraswamy, Regent Street
Mezzanine Floor, Victory House, 99 Regent Street, W1B 4RS. Lunch Monday to Friday 12pm to 2.15pm, Saturday and Sunday 12.30pm to 2.30pm. Dinner Monday to Saturday 5.30pm to 10.30pm, Sunday 6pm to 10pm.
Britain’s oldest surviving Indian restaurant, open since 1926 and a hundred years old this year. It holds a Michelin star, it is still trading, still taking bookings and running a centenary nostalgia menu.
It is also fighting for its life. The Crown Estate declined to renew the lease, citing refurbishment of the Grade II listed building it sits in, and a court will decide whether the restaurant can extend under protected tenancy law. A petition has passed eighteen thousand signatures and chefs including Raymond Blanc, Michel Roux Jr and Richard Corrigan have backed it publicly.
The restaurant’s own site carries no notice of closure at all. It is open, it is taking reservations three months out, and the sensible reading is to go this year rather than assume it will always be there.
Booking terms worth knowing before you call: tables of up to eight, bookable three months ahead, and “A minimum spend of £60 per guest applies for dinner service (excluding pre-theatre).” That exclusion is the useful part, and we come back to it below.
The Michelin star Indian restaurants in London
Eight hold a star: Gymkhana, which has two, then Veeraswamy above, Trishna, Benares, Quilon, Ambassadors Clubhouse, Amaya in Belgravia and Jamavar in Mayfair. The six below are the ones worth knowing the detail of.
Gymkhana, Mayfair
The one at the top. Gymkhana took a second Michelin star in 2024, making it the first two star Indian restaurant in London. Book well ahead and expect to be treated as though the booking mattered.
Trishna, Marylebone
15 to 17 Blandford Street, W1U 3DG. Lunch Wednesday to Sunday from 12pm, dinner Monday to Saturday 5pm to 10.15pm and Sunday to 9.45pm. Reservations on 020 7935 5624, and they state plainly that “all our availability is shown online”, which saves the phone call.
Coastal Indian cooking, and their own line is that it “was awarded a Michelin Star in 2012”, which it has held since. The wine list leans toward emerging regions rather than the obvious.
The two, three and four course lunch and early evening menus, the latter running 5pm to 6.15pm, are the cheapest way into a starred Indian kitchen in this part of London.
Benares, Mayfair
Michelin starred under Sameer Taneja, tasting menu and à la carte. Minimum spend of £50 per person.
Three things their own terms make clear that guides never mention. The Gymkhana dress code is smart casual, all chicken and lamb is halal, and children under seven must be seated by 7pm. Note also that its .co.uk address now forwards to a .com one.
Quilon, Westminster
41 Buckingham Gate, SW1E 6AF. Lunch Wednesday to Friday 12pm to 2.30pm, Saturday and Sunday to 3.30pm. Dinner Tuesday to Thursday and Sunday 5.30pm to 10pm, Friday and Saturday to 10.30pm with the bar to 11pm. There is no Monday service at all.
South west coastal India, described by the kitchen as “a modern expression of coastal Indian cuisine”. The quietest room on this page and the one most likely to have a table.
Ambassadors Clubhouse, Mayfair
25 Heddon Street, W1B 4BH. Monday to Thursday 12pm to 2.45pm and 5pm to 10.30pm, Friday 12pm to 2.45pm and 5pm to 11pm, Saturday 12pm to 11pm straight through, Sunday 12pm to 10pm. Lunch runs daily from midday to 3pm at two or three courses from £36, the same price as the pre theatre.
The newest star of the group, North Indian Punjabi cooking, and the room describes itself as “a place of abundance, high spirits and generosity.” It is the least austere of the starred rooms and the easiest to take a group to.
The one without a star that you will enjoy most
Brigadiers, City of London
1 to 5 Bloomberg Arcade, EC4N 8AR. Monday to Wednesday 12pm to 2.45pm and 5pm to 10.30pm, Thursday to Saturday straight through from 12pm to 10.30pm.
Built on “the army mess bars of India, where military regiments go to eat, drink and socialise”, and the cooking is Indian barbecue: tandoors, charcoal grills, rotisseries, wood ovens and smokers. A hundred and forty seats inside and twenty eight on the terrace.
There is beer and cocktails on tap, live sport and games during service. The Beast Feast needs forty eight hours’ notice, so if that is the plan, ring first.
This is the one to book when the evening matters more than the cooking, and the cooking is still very good.
The famous ones without a star
Everything above is the starred end, which is what this page is for. But two names come up constantly on this search and neither holds a star, so it is worth saying where they actually sit.
Dishoom is the one most people mean when they say Indian restaurant in London, and it is genuinely good at what it does, which is Bombay cafe food served fast in a handsome room. It is not trying to be Gymkhana and should not be judged against it. The thing to know is the timing rather than the food: breakfast runs to 11.45am and stops dead, the same finish every day of the week. Our brunch guide has that in context, and Covent Garden and King’s Cross cover the branches in those districts.
Colonel Saab runs two London sites, one in Holborn Town Hall and one on Trafalgar Square, and the two are not interchangeable. The afternoon menu is served at Holborn only. The Trafalgar Square room is the one set up for pre theatre, which is the sensible use of that address: it is a few minutes from most West End curtains. What the shows actually cost covers the other half of that evening.
Holborn Town Hall is worth a look on its own account. Eating in a restored municipal building is a different proposition from eating in a dining room, and it is the reason to pick that branch over the other one if you are choosing between them.
How to eat well here for less
The starred rooms all have a cheaper door and almost nobody uses it.
Pre-theatre and early evening menus are the way in. Ambassadors Clubhouse runs two or three courses from £36, Monday to Thursday between 5pm and 6pm. Trishna’s early evening menu runs 5pm to 6.15pm. Both are the same kitchens at a fraction of the à la carte.
At Veeraswamy the pre-theatre menu is explicitly exempt from the £60 minimum spend. That is stated in their own booking terms and it is the cheapest way to eat in a hundred year old dining room on Regent Street.
Lunch is easier and cheaper everywhere on this page. Quilon and Trishna both serve it, and a weekday lunch table exists at rooms that have nothing at 8pm on a Saturday.
Practical notes
Check for a minimum spend before you book, not after. Veeraswamy is £60 a head at dinner and Benares £50. Neither is unreasonable for the cooking, but both change what a “quick dinner” costs.
Book Gymkhana weeks out. Two stars in a city this size means the diary is the constraint, not the kitchen.
Do not judge the category by the high street. The rooms on this page are doing regional Indian cooking at a standard that has no relationship to a generic curry house menu, and the prices reflect that.
Everything here was taken from the restaurants’ own published information and rechecked on 28 September 2026, with the star counts from the Michelin Guide’s own London listing, except the Veeraswamy lease dispute, which is a matter of public record and still before the court. Confirm hours and terms before travelling.
Halal restaurants in London covers the question this cuisine raises most often, and the five things to ask that a one word label hides.
Indian restaurant near me in London
Most of the rooms on this page are in the West End and the City, so for an Indian restaurant near me the practical rule is the one the page already gives: pre-theatre and early evening menus are the way in, and lunch is easier and cheaper everywhere. Check for a minimum spend before you book, not after, and book Gymkhana weeks out.
Where to go next
The Sri Lankan restaurants cover the neighbouring island, including the one that welcomes walk-ins at Borough Market.
London’s Michelin starred restaurants covers the full list across every cuisine, and the best restaurants in London is the wider field. This year’s openings includes Trèsind in Mayfair, from the group whose Dubai restaurant holds three stars, which is the most serious new arrival in this category in years.
For the rooms that enforce a dress code and what they actually check, see our guide to London dress codes.
Questions we get asked
Does London have Michelin starred Indian restaurants?
Eight of them, by the Guide's own London listing: Gymkhana, which holds two stars, then Veeraswamy, Trishna, Benares, Quilon, Ambassadors Clubhouse, Amaya and Jamavar. The gap between that end of the category and the high street curry house is now enormous, and treating the two as one cuisine is the reason so many visitors eat badly.
When should you book an Indian restaurant in London?
Lunch is the soft spot at the starred rooms, and several run narrow lunch windows: Monday to Friday from 12pm to 2.15pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 12.30pm to 2.30pm at one of them. Those are short services, so a lunch booking is both easier to get and easier to miss.
What is the difference between London's Indian restaurants?
Region, technique and intent rather than heat. The starred kitchens cook regional Indian food with the same precision as any other fine dining room in the city, while the high street model is a largely British invention with its own separate history. Both can be good; they are not the same thing and should not be compared on price.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 42 in the guide.
Last checked 28 September 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
