Eat · 16 May 2026
The best biryani in London.
Four critic-anchored picks plus two Under-the-Radar. Brigadiers’ dum biryani sealed under a pastry lid leads on the critics. Hyderabad to London in Forest Gate is the dedicated specialist worth the schlep.
Pick One · City EC4N · Anglo-Indian / Bombay BBQ
Brigadiers
4.5★ (3,065) · 32m drive · 43m transit · ~£60–80pp w/ drinks
“The biryani in pie crust is the best Indian dish in town.” — Hardens
AboutJKS Restaurants’ City outpost (same group as Trishna, Gymkhana, Hoppers, Ambassadors Clubhouse), inspired by the army mess clubs of pre-partition India. Several rooms inside Bloomberg Arcade — main dining room, a separate bar (Blighters), the Tap Room, plus a pool room — red leather banquettes, dark wood, brass detail, sports screens. Menu spans grills, kebabs, rotisserie meats and a dedicated biryani section; the dum-style biryanis sealed under a pastry crust are the headline, with the beef shin and bone marrow version most famous. Hardens overall 5/5; Michelin Guide listed (no star).
ReviewsHardens calls Brigadiers a “City institution” whose cooking is “awesome” and notes that, among partisans, “the biryani in pie crust is the best Indian dish in town”, also flagging the “dum beef shin and bone marrow biryani” as a “must try”. The Infatuation singles out the beef shin and bone marrow biryani as something you’ll “easily get through”. One genuine flag worth knowing: Picky Glutton’s 2018 review titled “the fire is fizzling out” found service inconsistent and described his biryani as missing the pastry seal — though Hardens’ more recent 5/5 score and continued Top Menu Tip endorsement suggest the kitchen has held up since. Prices on the higher side (Hardens: “Prices however continue to temper enthusiasm”). Room leans City-boy / loud when sport is on.
OrderBeef shin & bone marrow dum biryani · tandoori lamb chops · butter chicken wings (from the Chhota Chatpata menu).
Maps ·
Hardens ·
Michelin ·
Infatuation ·
Website
Pick Two · Islington N1 · Pub-restaurant, South-Indian-leaning
The Tamil Prince
4.5★ (2,241) · 18m drive · 41m transit · £40–55pp
“Firing out a menu of a similar standard to the likes of Gymkhana. In short, the Tamil Prince is just plain great.” — Grace Dent, Guardian
AboutRenovated Islington pub from chef Prince Durairaj and Glen Leeson (also behind Roti King’s cult success). Tamil Nadu–inspired sharing plates that “occasionally venture north” (Michelin Guide), served in a stripped-back proper-pub room with bar seating up front. Closest of the lot to Highgate. Hardens overall 4/5; Michelin Guide listed; Good Food Guide reviewed. Notoriously hard to book — ~28 days ahead — though bar seats can sometimes be walked into.
ReviewsGrace Dent (Guardian) compared the kitchen’s output to Gymkhana’s, calling it “just plain great”. Jimi Famurewa (Evening Standard) gave it 4/5. Marina O’Loughlin reckoned “Indian spice turns this north London pub into a local hero”. The Infatuation reviewed it favourably; Good Food Guide and Michelin Guide both list it. Biryani is on the menu but isn’t the headline — lamb chops, chicken 65, Chettinad lamb curry and channa bhatura get the bulk of the named praise. No critic decline notes.
OrderSunday biryani (when on) · Chettinad lamb curry · chicken 65 · bone marrow & guinea fowl keema nan.
Maps ·
Hardens ·
Michelin ·
Good Food Guide ·
Website
Pick Three · Marylebone W1U · Coastal South Indian, Michelin 1★
Trishna
4.5★ (1,921) · 27m drive · 59m transit · £65–90pp
“Absolutely flawless… exceptional and memorable… consistently superb.” — Hardens
AboutThe original JKS Restaurants venture, opened by Karam and Sunaina Sethi in 2008 in a quiet side street off Blandford Street. Inspired by the Mumbai namesake; focused on India’s south-west coast (Cochin, Kerala, Mangalore), with serious attention to seafood — Dorset brown crab and Hariyali bream from the tandoor are the dishes most often singled out. Bijou U-shaped 60-cover room, freshly refurbished early 2025. Hardens overall 4/5; Michelin 1 star (awarded 2012, retained); Good Food Guide reviewed.
ReviewsHardens: “absolutely flawless… exceptional and memorable… consistently superb”; among Top Menu Tips they specifically call out “mushroom biryani is a standout” and “don’t leave without trying the lamb chops”. Michelin Guide retains it at “1-Star: High quality cooking”. The Good Food Guide highlights “assertive flavours” and the “sheer variety of spicing”. Caveat: biryani isn’t Trishna’s centre of gravity — the food press orbits the seafood, and a 2020 Salty Plums review explicitly noted “we’ve had a couple of better biryanis recently” while still calling the meal “very nice”. Some Hardens prose picks up a quieter minority undertone that “the food has gone downhill since its glittering heyday” — worth registering.
OrderMushroom biryani · lamb biryani · Dorset brown crab · Hariyali bream from the tandoor · duck keema naan.
Maps ·
Hardens ·
Michelin ·
Good Food Guide ·
Website
Pick Four · Fitzrovia W1W · Pan-Indian, Michelin Bib
Pahli Hill Bandra Bhai
4.5★ (891) · 25m drive · 40m transit · £45–60pp à la carte
“A shining example of the capital’s excellent South Asian cuisine and the brilliant value it offers.” — Michelin Guide
AboutNamed after a Mumbai suburb, on the old Gaylord site on Mortimer Street. Ground-floor dining room (open kitchen, mid-century furnishings, leather banquettes); basement cocktail bar Bandra Bhai themed as a 1970s smuggler’s den. Backed by New Delhi’s Azure Hospitality. Hardens overall 3/5; Michelin Bib Gourmand (awarded Feb 2022, retained); Good Food Guide reviewed. Tasting menus £125. Chef change flag: founding chef Avinash Shashidhara (ex-River Café, ex-Hibiscus) departed in 2024.
ReviewsThe Michelin Guide’s Bib Gourmand Inspector praises traditional regional respect — Coorg pork shoulder with kachampuli vinegar, Cornish lamb for the biryani, Scottish langoustine for the shorba — concluding “you’ll leave feeling good about life”. Hardens calls it a “hidden gem in Fitzrovia” with “very tasty spicing and good tandoori action”, though upfront that “the starters and small plates are stars of the show” — biryani isn’t the headline. The Good Food Guide is strongly positive on the cooking’s “skill, precision and subtlety”. Decline note: Hardens flagged the Shashidhara departure but reported it “doesn’t yet seem to have presented a problem” — worth a check on the kitchen’s form before going.
OrderCornish lamb biryani · papadi chaat · Pahli Hill spicy beef seekh kebab · the flaky flatbread.
Maps ·
Hardens ·
Michelin ·
Good Food Guide ·
Website
Under the Radar A · Mayfair W1S · Modern Indian
Manthan
4.7★ (1,094) · 29m drive · 50m transit · £35–55pp
“A little gem tucked away in a side street of Mayfair, with some top Indian flavours.” — Hardens
AboutChef Rohit Ghai’s second restaurant with business partner Abhishake Sangwan (after Chelsea’s Kutir, 2018); Ghai won his Michelin star at Jamavar before going independent. Small, tightly curated menu inspired by his childhood in Madhya Pradesh and the markets of Delhi and Lucknow — sleek peacock-blue Maddox Street townhouse, central bar, intimate room. Hardens overall 3/5; not currently in the Michelin Guide. The Express Lunch Thali at £22–24 is widely flagged as a steal. UTR rather than main list because Hardens 3/5 is the only firm critic anchor — the chef pedigree carries the rest.
ReviewsHardens: “a little gem tucked away in a side street of Mayfair, with some top Indian flavours”, with “best ever lamb chops” among Top Menu Tips, and the Express Lunch Thali singled out as “stunning value”. Same entry notes a minority feel that some results “lack punch” or “aren’t quite at the top levels of food from the subcontinent in London” — fair to weight. Hyderabadi-style lamb biryani is featured on the menu rather than treated as a signature, so this is more “very good Indian where the biryani holds up” than “biryani destination”.
OrderHyderabadi lamb biryani · tandoori lamb chops · Express Lunch Thali (£22–24) for value.
Maps ·
Hardens ·
Website
Under the Radar B · Forest Gate E7 · Biryani specialist
Hyderabad to London
4.8★ (1,719) · 44m drive · 50m transit · £20–30pp
“Low-cooked biryanis, rich curries, and bold spices that tell stories centuries old.” — the restaurant’s own pitch, per Feed the Lion
AboutDedicated Hyderabadi place that opened on Woodgrange Road, Forest Gate, on 17 October 2025 — about seven months old at the time of writing. Fully halal; low-cooked dum biryanis, Mandi rice meat platters, bold-spice curries are the explicit focus. Casual / takeaway-friendly. UTR (not main list) because there are no established critic anchors yet — too new — but the evidence stack (4.8★ across 1,719 reviews in seven months, plus editorial coverage in Feed the Lion) is strong enough to surface, and this is the only place on the whole shortlist where biryani is the actual reason the restaurant exists.
ReviewsFeed the Lion ran the launch coverage; no major named-newspaper critic, Michelin, Hardens or Good Food Guide review yet. Treat as a recon visit rather than a sure thing, but the volume and pace of positive Google reviews from what appears to be a Hyderabadi diaspora user base is unusually high for a place this new.
OrderHyderabadi dum biryani (lamb or chicken) · Hayrilali lamb · Chatpata chicken (favourites of the Halal Hunt review).
Maps ·
Feed the Lion ·
Website
Why I cut others
Dishoom — house biryani genuinely famous, but eight London sites and tourist queues put it on the wrong side of the chain/touristy line.
Gymkhana — Michelin 2-star, the muntjac biryani is the gold standard for the genre, but Google sits at 4.4★ and fails the 4.5★ hard filter.
Veeraswamy — UK’s oldest Indian restaurant (1926), Michelin 1-star, signature Hyderabad biriani preserved from the original menu, but 4.3★ on Google fails the filter.
Madhu’s Southall — Michelin Guide listed Punjabi institution, but 4.4★ Google fails the filter.
Tayyabs / Lahore Kebab House — Whitechapel institutions, both famous for biryani, but 3.9★ and 4.0★ respectively. And neither is biryani-led — the lamb chops at Tayyabs and karahi at LKH are the real headlines.
Kricket Shoreditch — 4.9★ on Google, JKS-adjacent, excellent restaurant overall, but The Infatuation explicitly described the biryanis as “bland” and multiple secondary reviews say “skip the biryani”. Wrong place for this brief.
Colonel Saab (High Holborn) — Hyderabadi chicken biryani has a glowing dedicated-blog review (Feed the Lion 5/5, called it “probably the best chicken biryani we’ve EVER reviewed”), but the Evening Standard’s David Ellis wrote it off as a “Curry Catastrophe” and ET Food Voyage found the food “needed much refining”. Too mixed at critic level.
Empire Empire (Notting Hill) — Gunpowder group’s biryani-focused 70s-themed offshoot. Michelin Guide listed and Andy Hayler scored the chicken biryani 14/20, but several reviewers found the food “easily forgettable”. Worth watching.
