The World’s Best North Indian Food

Wood-panelled walls and colonial-club bones set the scene at this Mayfair Indian restaurant, which holds two Michelin stars and quietly redrew what a posh Indian night out in London could look like. The ground floor suits a long lunch; the basement, with its low lighting and DJ-softened hum, has a way of turning early suppers into late ones, table-turning policies notwithstanding. The food is the argument for staying.

1. Michelin Guide 2 Stars
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Terracotta walls, gold detailing, and a DJ booth downstairs set the tone at this Punjabi restaurant on Heddon Street, from the team behind Gymkhana. The menu moves between dhaba-style roadside cooking and the ceremony of royal North Indian dining, with clay pot curries and oversized biryanis built for groups feeling celebratory. The cocktail list leans tequila-heavy and the room leans loud. It holds a Michelin star, which the dance floor makes pleasingly difficult to take too seriously.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. National Restaurant Awards 2026 · #94 · The National Restaurant Awards

Two tandoor ovens do most of the talking at this Michelin-starred Punjabi restaurant on Wyndham Street, turning out goat seekh kebab and lamb chops that make a strong case for skipping the curry entirely, though the butter chicken, listed here as Mughal Room Makhani, tends to change minds. The colonial-era room is hung with bold contemporary art, a contrast that feels less like a design statement and more like an honest summary of the cooking itself.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. South China Morning Post 2026 · 100 Top Tables
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Aktar Islam, the chef behind Birmingham's two-Michelin-starred Opheem, chose a quietly off-pitch spot near Borough Market for his London debut, which says something about his confidence. Oudh 1722 is an upscale Indian restaurant spread across three floors of a Victorian building, dedicated entirely to Awadhi cuisine, the slow-cooked, court-refined tradition of Lucknow. Dum cooking, sealed and unhurried, anchors the menu. The National Restaurant Awards named it One to Watch for 2026.

1. National Restaurant Awards 2026 · One to Watch · The National Restaurant Awards

1. The New York Times 2026 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
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1. Lekker 500 2026 · Lekker 500

Kiran Verma describes her fine dining restaurant as "Indian hospitality with French sophistication and American informality," which sounds like a manifesto until the papadum nachos arrive and you realize she means it. The kitchen draws from the slow-cooked Awadhi traditions of Northern India, folding them into a contemporary menu that includes an afternoon tea service. Verma was a James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef: Texas in 2023.

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1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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Concrete floors and high ceilings give this family-run Northern Indian restaurant an unexpectedly loft-like feel, which pairs oddly well with the warm, sharing-style plates arriving at the table. The Michelin Guide has it listed, and the room fills with people ordering more dishes than they planned. Curries run across fish, chicken, and lamb, and the chili lamb masala earns its regulars. Come with a group and a flexible sense of how full you thought you were going to get.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Gastronomic Salt Lake City $$ · My favorite restaurants in Salt Lake City

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

A jukebox and a photo booth set the mood at this Notting Hill neighbourhood Indian, which leans into a loose disco theme without making you feel like you've wandered into a theme park. The team behind Gunpowder focuses here on Punjab and Northwest India, running through biryanis, kebabs, and a butter chicken that regulars treat as non-negotiable. The Michelin Guide has given it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

No cutlery is provided, which either sounds like a gimmick or, once the tandoor-cooked lamb arrives, feels like the only reasonable approach. This dining room inside ITC Maurya has been around forever, its stone walls and log-top tables unchanged, its menu barely touched. The open kitchen lets you watch skewers loaded with northwest Indian specialities rotate over the fire. A Discovery on The 50 list.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

The slow-roasted biryani arrives sealed inside a dough-lidded pot, which the server cracks tableside in a cloud of steam, a ritual that's been the same since before most restaurants you love were born. Dum Pukht is a grand, formal Indian dining room inside the ITC Maurya, all deep purples, gilded trim, and a live piano, serving the ancient dum-cooking tradition of the Awadhi royal kitchens. Dress accordingly and settle in.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Double-height ceilings, hand-carved screens, and glittering silver table settings make this the kind of fine dining room where you sit up a little straighter on arrival. Jamavar at The Leela Palace serves India's Northern Royal Kitchen tradition, from tandoor-cooked kebabs to spiced soups, in surroundings that treat hospitality as a near-sacred obligation. The 50 Discovery list has taken notice.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. AAA Three Diamonds

Linen-draped tables and walls hung with colorful fabric signal that this is a sit-down Northern Indian restaurant on Roncesvalles, not a quick takeout stop. The kitchen runs on Mughlai tradition, and the menu reads like someone's grandmother's repertoire done with real care. Roncy locals fill the room on weeknights, which probably says enough. The Michelin Guide has it on their list.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Samosas fried to a proper crisp, with that classic potato-and-pea filling, are a good early sign at this Punjabi restaurant in La Puente. The kitchen leans into north Indian cooking, which means the heat stays measured and the flavors do the work instead. The room is warm in the way that matters, with staff who pay attention. The tandoori dinner is a reasonable way to commit to the whole thing.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The glass-walled kitchen is the first thing you notice, with one cook slapping bread against the inside of a tandoor, another lowering long skewers into the fire, and a third stirring something deeply fragrant. It sets the tone for the rest of the meal at this North Indian restaurant inside The Zone, an open-air complex of pavilions in Riyadh. The room mixes industrial bones with traditional paintings, and the spicing is careful enough to let the produce speak.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Around 40 types of chai brew in bubbling pots inside this tiny, caravan-like shop on Pennant Hills Road, and the cardamom-and-clove perfume hits you before you reach the door. The menu draws on the owner's Kenyan upbringing, where cooks pushed the spice levels harder than tradition usually allows. Many blends are named after people he knows, and each one is said to reflect its namesake's personality, which is either charming or a little terrifying depending on your namesake.

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The bhature here are fried twice, landing somewhere between pillow and cracker in a way that shouldn't work but does. This is an old-school street-food counter in a bustling market, packed with locals working through plates of chhole bhature, the thick spiced chickpea stew that Delhi takes as a point of civic pride. Order with onions and green chiles on the side, add a lemon soda, and you have the full picture.

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A sunny cafe inside the National Crafts Museum, Cafe Lota takes pan-Indian cooking seriously enough to champion the dishes that usually get crowded out by the familiar northern canon. Ragi breads, Gujarati dal dhokli, palak patta chaat, and a sour aam panna sit alongside excellent iced coffee, all in a shaded courtyard that fills with museum-goers who seem in no hurry to leave.

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Pandara Road has been feeding Delhi families since partition refugees set up dhabas here, and Gulati is the one that stuck around longest and loudest. The ornate Punjabi dining room pulls multigenerational tables for butter chicken, dal makhani, and the dahi kebab, a fried cutlet that somehow hides a pocket of creamy yogurt inside a crisp shell. The menu has barely moved in decades, which is the whole point. Garlic naan is non-negotiable.

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A chaat stall in a residential pocket of Mayur Vihar that locals have been lining up at for years. The aloo chaat is the reason to come: potato fried crisp in ghee, hit with a green coriander-mint chutney and a sweet tamarind one, then brightened with fresh lemon and grated radish. The exact spice blend is a house secret, which is another way of saying no one else's tastes quite like this.

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in New Delhi, India

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in New Delhi, India

Amritsari naan is a meal in itself, not a scoop for something else, and this no-frills naan house near Rajouri Garden Metro has built its following around that single idea. The kitchen stuffs house-made paneer into the dough, fires it in a tandoor, and sends it out with butter and pickled onions. Order the lassi, thick and sweet with pistachios on top. West Delhi's Punjabi diaspora has known this for years; everyone else is catching up.

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Named for the roadside pit stops where Indian truck drivers fuel up on cheap, filling food, this casual Punjabi restaurant in Tempe takes the concept seriously: long menu, affordable prices, homemade breads, and tandoori meats that smell like someone's actually cooking back there. The thali is the move if you want the full picture, chai and dessert included. Street snacks, deep-fried things, and curry round out a menu that rewards indecision.

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1. Vancouver Magazine 2025 · Silver Medal · Restaurant Awards: Best Chain
2. Vancouver Magazine 2026 · Bronze Medal · Restaurant Awards: Best Chain
3. Vancouver Magazine 2024 · Honourable Mention · Restaurant Awards: Best Indian

A banana-leaf-wrapped fish fillet steamed with chutney is the kind of dish that tells you this old-school Indian restaurant takes its regional cooking seriously. North Indian classics anchor the menu, from chicken tikka masala to saag paneer, but Goan fish curry and chicken Ceylon give regulars a reason to wander off the familiar path. A daily lunch buffet draws the Richmond Avenue crowd in reliably.

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