No kormas here; the adventurous menu, which includes pan-fried black bream in coriander-flavoured yoghurt curry, has earned it a kindly paragraph in the Michelin Guide and two victories at the British curry awards. The chefs search for regional recipes to experiment with and their restraint with ghee allows you to feast without fear for your cholesterol levels. Decor is minimalist chic.
Average cost £24. 3-4 Dakota Buildings, James Street, St Paul’s Square, Birmingham B3 1SD; 0121 212 3664, 0121 247 8570; lasangroup.com/restaurant Photograph: PR company handout
It reckons itself the nation’s first Indian Mediterranean restaurant: one person can have Dover sole while the other has rara gosht Punjabi (chunks of lamb with mince and liver with grilled chillis and spices). It’s an unusual experience, being set in a listed manor house. Not only can you watch your meal being concocted in the open kitchen and on screens round the restaurant, you can also make your own naan bread in the tandoor oven.
Average cost £15 Court Colman Manor, Pen-y-Fai, Bridgend CF31 4NG; 0165 672 0212; court-colman-manor.com/restaurant Photograph: PR company handout
Traditionalists will find it reassuringly flock–wallpapered, but tastefully, airily so. The effect is more gentleman’s club in colonial India with grand piano, grandfather clock, muslin drapes and well behaved foliage. The menu is similarly conservative but with a few adventures such as duck jalfrezi – all subtly cooked with fresh ingredients. if you have a tighter budget try the £14.95 five-course menu.
Average cost £20. 168 Kells Lane, Lowfell, Gateshead NE9 5HY; 0191 482 6494; thelastdaysoftheraj.co.uk Photograph: PR company handout
This is where you mark life’s milestones and briefly forget the mortgage. Anthony Hopkins chose it for his 60th-birthday celebrations. The old colonial-style setting has lately given way to more formal opulence with thick pile carpets and swollen chandeliers, or you can indulge in the glass roofed, marble-floored conservatory. The chef has collected culinary traditions then updated them to please metropolitan palates. Paperwali Machchi, a fish fillet wrapped in parchment is a speciality, along with the the Bombay Tiffin, a mix of Bori, Parsi, Maharashtrian and Goan cuisine.
Average cost per head £40. Courtfield Rd, London SW7 4QH; 020 7370 4040; bombaybrasserielondon.com Photograph: PR company handout
This is almost a real passage to -India. The restaurant is squeezed with -surprising elegance into a former signal box and a railway carriage. The menu includes the usual staples as well as adaptations of less familiar traditions. Murgh amchur – chicken with mangoes and luari mangsho – and lamb cooked with fresh spices and spring onions are house specialities.
Average cost £42. The Old Station, Archbold Terrace, -Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 1BD; 0191 2816397; valleyrestaurants.co.uk Photograph: guardian.co.uk
A subterranean realm of spices nicknamed the Aladdin’s Cave and chosen as restaurant of the year by Les Routiers. “Yum!” says Brooke Shields in the celebrity-soaked visitors’ book. Behind the conservative Bath stone exterior is a warren of nine stone-walled caverns, each one themed to reflect an aspect of India. Here, deep under Bath’s pavements you can take a tastebud tour of Tandoori, Mughlai and Bengali cuisine including spicy salmon steak. Average cost £20. 4 Argyle Street, Bath BA2 4BA; 01225 466833; rajpoot.com Photograph: PR company handout
A canteen experience – bright, noisy, swift and crowded. The secret is basic Punjabi food cooked fresh with no pandering to weedy western tastebuds. This is where Pakistani families bring homesick visiting relatives. The brief menu is neither refined nor adventurous but the cooking is reliably good. If you haven’t reserved a table you may queue down the street, but turnover is rapid. It began as a cafe but now serves evening meals in the brightly coloured dining room.
Average cost £15. 83-89, Fieldgate St, London E1 1JU; 020 7247 6400, 020 7247 9543 Average costs include two courses without drink Photograph: PR
Study the Chef’s Experiments section of the menu and you’ll find rarities such as burnt green curry and haddock kebab. This adventurousness melds Asian cuisine with Scottish traditions – tandooried Scottish king scallops are one result. The British curry award judges decreed it one of the top 10 Indian diners in Britain. The restaurant is long, narrow and funky with bare brick walls and tiled floors; it can get noisy and crowded at peak times.
Average cost £28. 476 Union Street, Aberdeen AB10 1TS; 0122 463 3328; cinnamon-aberdeen.com Photograph: Tim Allen/Tim Allen
Near neighbour Heston Blumenthal reckons this the best Indian restaurant in the country, and star gazers might enjoy seeing Ulrika Jonsson or Jordan as much as their sikandri lamb, marinaded for 48 hours. Outside, it’s an English flower-draped cottage but inside lurks the Indian subcontinent. The chef is interested in the subtleties of spices and textures. Fish and seafood are a staple so you can feast without cholesterol overload.
Average cost £20 High Street, Cookham, Berkshire SL6 9SF; 01628 520085; maliks.co.uk Photograph: PR company handout
The Michelin Guide is a fan, and it is the UK’s first Indian restaurant to join the elite gastronomic club Chaîne des Rôtisseurs. The menu roams through Bangladeshi and Moghul traditions, resulting in xenuk lahari – mussels marinaded in garlic, spices and lime juice – or lamb slow-cooked with chickpeas, barley, crushed wheat, lentils and spices. All the ingredients are organic, and the decor classy simplicity.
Average cost £30; Sunday lunch £14.95. 211 Fir Tree Road, Epsom Downs, Surrey KT17 3LB; 01737 371 371/064; lerajrestaurant.co.uk Photograph: PR company handout
