– written by Leo, Managing Director for Veeve UK & France

I did the maths on this recently and slightly alarmed myself.

Fifteen years in London. More than 500 different Indian restaurants. I’ve never kept a spreadsheet, but I’ve always kept count.

The useful side effect is a shortlist. Not one scraped off review sites. Places I’ve been to, gone back to, and would happily book tonight.

The other half of my life is Veeve, where we handpick homes across the city. So I spend my days thinking about neighbourhoods and my evenings eating in them. It seemed daft not to put the two together.

Here are ten I’d send anyone to, each have somewhere of ours nearby. Some hold Michelin stars. One is a railway carriage in Putney. All ten are worth the journey.

1. Tokri, Acton

7 Park Parade, W3

Tokri is the one I pull out when someone tells me they’ve “done” London Indian food. It sits on a slightly unglamorous stretch near Acton Town, it’s a fraction of West End prices, and the cooking is sharper than places charging four times as much. The samosa chaat is my benchmark dish, the one I order everywhere to judge a kitchen, and Tokri’s is among the best in the city. Get the lamb chops too, and the karahi, and the garlic cauliflower. Book ahead, because West London has worked this out.

2. Indian Zing, Ravenscourt Park

236 King Street, W6

Manoj Vasaikar has been cooking on this stretch of King Street for the better part of two decades, and Indian Zing has that quality good neighbourhood restaurants have where the room feels like it belongs to the regulars. The Fish Kerwari is the dish people come back for. The Rogan Josh is worth the trip on its own. It’s more expensive than a standard high-street curry house and considerably better than one.

3. Dishoom Permit Room, Portobello

186 Portobello Road, W11

Full disclosure: we have a partnership with Dishoom, so you’d expect a glowing write-up. In fairness, I was eating there long before there was a business reason to, and I’d be sending people to the Portobello Permit Room regardless. It’s the smaller, more relaxed sibling format, and it suits Portobello Road. Breakfast from 8am is the underrated move. The bacon naan roll and a chai, then straight into the market.

Stay nearby: Alba Place III

4. Gymkhana, Mayfair

43 Albemarle Street, W15

Possibly the best restaurant in London, and after 500-odd restaurants I don’t say that lightly. Two Michelin stars since 2024, the first Indian restaurant in the city to hold them. The room does the colonial-era members’ club thing without tipping into pastiche: green doors, dark timber, a basement in Kashmiri chilli red. Order the kid goat methi keema. Then order the tandoori lamb chops. Dinner reservations are genuinely hard to get, so if you’re flexible, lunch is easier and no less good.

Stay nearby: Mews and Majesty in Mayfair

5. Ambassadors Clubhouse, Heddon Street

25 Heddon Street, W1B

The newest of the JKS restaurants on this list and a Michelin star holder since 2026. The cooking draws on undivided Punjab, and the room is unapologetically opulent: soft lighting, dark wood, the feeling that something is being celebrated. Chilli cheese pakoda, the butter chicken chops, a biryani. It’s the place I book when there are six of us and a reason.

6. Trishna, Marylebone

15 - 17 Blandford Street, W1U

Trishna has held a Michelin star since 2012 and has never made a fuss about it. The cooking is coastal southwest Indian, and the Dorset brown crab with coconut oil, pepper, garlic and curry leaf is the dish that made its name. Bright, precise food in a calm room on a quiet Marylebone street. The set lunch is one of the best value propositions in central London.

7. Cinnamon Bazaar, Covent Garden

28 Maiden Lane, WC2E

Vivek Singh’s most playful restaurant, and the one I’d take someone to before a show. It sits on a side street just off the Covent Garden crush, which makes it feel like a discovery even though it’s been packed for years. The chaat is the point here. If you time it right, the unlimited chaat and chai sitting is an hour very well spent. Duck nilgiri korma if you want something more substantial.

And if you’re out west: there’s a second Cinnamon Bazaar on Kew Road in Richmond, and it’s every bit as good. It does an indulgent Indian-spiced afternoon tea, and there’s outside seating when the sun makes an appearance. Pair it with Richmond on Canvas, a two-bedroom on a quiet residential corner with gabled windows and a patio, minutes from Richmond Green and the station. Roses in Richmond is the garden-flat alternative, close to Kew Gardens. Both put you within a short walk of the restaurant, and within reach of Richmond Park, which is the best argument for staying out here in the first place.

8. Brigadiers, the City

1-5 Bloomberg Arcade, EC4N

Barbecue, bar snacks, and sport on the screens, all done properly. Brigadiers takes the Indian army mess hall as its reference point and runs with it. The bun kebabs and the butter chicken wings are the order, and the goat shoulder if there are enough of you. It’s a seven-minute walk from St Paul’s and it does something the City badly needs, which is stay genuinely fun after 7pm. Closed Sundays.

9. The Tamil Prince, Barnsbury

115 Hemingford Road, N1

A pub. A proper one, with Guinness and a garden and people spilling onto the pavement, that happens to serve some of the best South Indian food in the city. The dosa is superb, the okra fries are non-negotiable, and the lamb chops with Kerala spicing are the reason I keep going back. There’s a real skill in cooking this well in a room this unfussy.

10. Chook Chook, Putney

137 Lower Richmond Road, SW15

The room is built to look like an Indian railway dining carriage, long and narrow and warm, and the conceit could easily have been gimmicky. It isn’t. The tandoori chicken is the standout, the lamb chops are excellent, and the whole thing costs a fraction of what the equivalent would in Mayfair. It’s the neighbourhood restaurant I’d want if I lived in Putney, which is the highest compliment I can pay it.

Stay nearby: The Thameside Townhouse

A few things I’ve learned booking these

Gymkhana, Trishna and Ambassadors Clubhouse need weeks of notice. Brigadiers and Cinnamon Bazaar you can usually manage with a week. Tokri, Indian Zing, The Tamil Prince and Chook Chook reward a phone call and a bit of flexibility on timing. Lunch is almost always easier to get than dinner, and at the Michelin-starred places the set lunch is where the value sits.

If you’re staying with us and want to know which of these is genuinely walkable from your front door, ask your greeter on arrival. Our team live in these neighbourhoods, and between us we’ve eaten in most of them.

And if you think I’ve missed one, I’d genuinely like to know. Fifteen years in and I’m still finding new places every month, so there’s always room on the list.