Delicious food with meticulous service and a very solicitous host quick to offer extra touches. We were lucky to be there on a quiet night, but were served like visiting royalty. read more

We were looking for good Indian food on our 4 night stay in London in October 2024. This place did not disappoint. It was open late (we got there about 9pm). The service was very good. And the food was delicious. The ambiance was meh...typical Indian restaurant non-ambiance...quiet...not memorable. But the food and service were great. read more

We were looking for Indian food for dinner. This restaurant come up not too far from the Tower of London. Since we cannot pronoun the food, we allowed the owner to choose for us. IT WAS THE BEST MEAL OF OUR TRIP. Service was great and we paid $150 for four people. read more

Great food the 48 hour lamb with chick peas was absolutely delicious and this is easily among the best meals we have has in Europe. The prawns were also fabulous as well as the staff. read more

The Empress - Prawn and Lamb - Indian Near Me - London, XGL

The food is just passable, nothing amazing or outstanding about their food. For appetizers, I got the Chicken Chaat, which didn't really have the chaat masala I was hoping for. It's masala is basically tomatoes and onions; a combination that is just tasty by itself! Chicken was well cooked though and adding lemon definitely did the magic for this dish to be a bit tasty. For main course, I ordered the Murgh Rajshahi. If you are not a fan of mango pickle, do not order this. In my opinion, mango pickle is an acquired taste and you either like it or just don't! The description claims that the dish has a smoky flavor; thee was no smoky flavor what so ever! Ordered a garlic naan and the combination definitely hits the spot if you are very hungry! Service wise, absolutely no complaints. Attentive and quick servers and service! read more

The Empress - Murgh Rajshahi with Garlic Naan - Indian Near Me - London, XGL

Best. Indian. Food. EVER! Do not miss out on the incredible food and outstanding service. You won't be dissappointed!

Were visiting town and needed a hearty and flavorful takaway for the family - ordered the classics (Chicken Tikka Masala, Paneer, Butter Chicken) and it did not disappoint. Friendly staff, fast service, good food. read more

A bartender next door at the brown bear told me about this restaurant and it was by far the best restaurant with the most flavor i have gone to in london. i'm from houston texas and I know my Indian food but i gotta leave it here when i say 100% best Indian food i have ever had. If you haven't gone then ur missing out. It's a little hole in the wall for sure but you gotta try it. Staff was super friendly and broke down the menu with us to find out exactly what we wanted. Garlic naan was super good. read more

Just terrific food and service. My father and I went here for dinner. We loved everything. It's a small place and not fancy. Please support this type of place if you want to encourage small independent restaurants that do it well. Otherwise you'll end up with global chains feeding you cardboard. read more

Pretty much the only restaurant open when we landed in London around 11pm. Service and ambiance was nice. Something about their British accent .... They're is free wifi. Not sure about parking bc we walked there. I ordered sag ponder, garlic naan (just okay), rice, and BF ordered some lamb dish called khala lamb Bhuna. The sag poneer was the best I've ever had, and I go to Indian buffet almost every week! The lamb dish was good too! I got a Diet Coke, but there was no ice and no straw, which was weird. BF really liked the Cobra beer, which looked like urine to me. Service fee was not included, so we tipped 10%, which I guess is high in London. Overall, a good place but would not go out of my way to eat here again. read more

What a hidden gem! The food was absolutely amazing, great atmosphere, very kind staff, and quite affordable. An extremely impressive menu, and if you like spicy they can surely take care of you. Sad I'm leaving tomorrow because I'd go here every week if I lived in London! read more

Not knock-your-socks off, but good. The food was brought out a little cold for my taste and they forgot a few of our dishes, but the service is very friendly. This location is also less than five minutes from the Wombat Hostel, if you don't feel like walking all the way to Brick Lane for Indian. read more

We had to get an Uber to come here because it was a Sunday night and everywhere else was closed. When we got there we realized they were closing up yet on their website they were supposed to be open for another hour. I notice this is common in London where they close up earlier than what they advertise which is really stupid. But anyways, they did offer seat us but they obviously wanted to go home so we decided to get takeout. After sitting down they were very friendly and had good conversation with us so I'll give them that. To eat I got the Rajshahi but a vegetarian version with a side of white rice and my niece got the butternut chicken with a side of white rice. I enjoyed my meal and the green sauce it came with but my niece on the other hand found her meal pretty tasteless--her chicken was white and even looked tasteless! If I were to visit London again I probably wouldn't go out of my way to come back here again. read more

Left the place crying with joy, and also from the heat! I love spicy food and it is rare that a meal is spicy enough to curl my toes, but the Biyani Chicken Murgha did the trick. Thankfully the mango lassi came in pints. Important to know before going that this is BENGALI food, so some dishes may be a little different from what you may have had (especially for Americans accustomed to consistently ordering "chicken tikka masala," which can be a bit of a catchall term outside of the US). Ask questions, and read the description. Staff were all very friendly and welcoming, although the service was a bit slow (caveat: we were there late in the evening). Would seek this place out if I found myself in London again. read more

This restaurant's menu dictates 3 levels of heat, however, id translate these as medium, hot and insane! The complimentary starter of poppadum's should have been a warning as along with the standard 3 condiments (very tasty) they included a 4th condiment the waiter presents with a "warning".... I'd describe this as pleasantly challenging! Oblivious i proceeded to order one of the dishes the menu depicts with 3 chillies called "North Indian Garlic Chilli". This was so hot that a few seconds into my first mouthful i developed the hiccups which lasted the entire meal ... even after pulling out a small saucer full of fresh chillies. Anyway I've waited till after my second visit so i could taste more of the food and I'm a fan. Lamb Rajshahi and Chicken Tikka Masala are quality! The restaurant has been at full capacity both times and its obviously a local favourite. Some of the younger waiters look a little grumpy but the owner always walks around the place making sure your happy. read more

My regular Friday night take away. THE friendliest staff around combined with solid no nonsense cooking and decent prices make for better than anything you will get on Brick lane. And the Tandoori prawns are to die for. read more

The restaurant added hidden charges to our bill and had several ridiculous policies. First, they don't let you order smaller vegetarian curries by themselves, only alongside a main course, even though we were still about to spend £12 or so. We weren't happy with this so we settled our bill and decided to leave, and then we discovered they'd added a hidden charge - we ordered two poppadoms and they had charged us for two chutneys despite a) only providing one and b) never havIng told us that you have to order the chutneys alongside the poppadoms, and our never having asked for them. This meant we were paying £4 for two tiny poppadoms and chutney we barely used and didn't want. After we complained about this, some blowhard manager on a power trip belittled, screamed at us, and told us to leave, despite our trying to discuss it calmly with him and his staff. This is the worst service and perhaps the most blatantly deceitful restaurant I've ever been to. Avoid at all costs, I feel sorry for the staff members who have to deal with a manager who throws temper tantrums like that and has zero professionality. read more

Solid Indian food. Nothing mind-blowing, but everything was tasty and high-quality. We started with papadam and chutney. The papadam was big and we had 5 chutneys to choose from, each offered in great portion. The chutneys were good enough that, when the waiter went to take them away before serving the meal, I asked him to leave them! From there I had chicken in coconut, my fiance had something with spicy chickpeas, our friend a third dish, and we all shared a side of sog paneer. The sog paneed was less creamy than I'm used to, but very pleasant in its straightforward spinachness. My chicken dish had double cream in it, and I regrettably felt the heaviness of that the rest of the day. But it tasted delicious while eating it! We also each got a naan--the guys got lamb naan and I got coconut naan. The naan was pretty stand-out. This feels like a fancy restaurant. A bit stingy on the tap water. You'll have to ask multiple times for refills. read more

The worst place to order!!! No respect!!!! Ordered food and delivery guy lied about the delivery. Never received it even though I had to wait for it! Wow read more

After moving to our current area in east London and trying several the local takeaways (that offered delivery service, of course), The Empress is easily our household's official curry takeaway. And you know how important this is to establish once you move somewhere new. It's not as great as our former favourite in north London, unfortunately, but we've been very happy with The Empress. Still, I think this is more between 3.5-4 stars rather than a solid 4 stars. Our go-tos are the madras dishes, but when we're feeling brave the vindaloo has an amazing kick. The portions are generous and the flavours are good, which is a combination that was hard to find from other restaurants. I loved the channa masala and also the vegetarian shepherd's pie - definitely ones to try! The naans are a bit small and unimpressive, but I guess in the grand scheme of things, I can't stop ordering from them just because of the naan. So if you're in the E1 area, feeling lazy, wanting some comfort Indian food, give a ring to The Empress! Their delivery guys are very nice, too, so that's a great bonus. =) read more

Small little place with a lot of servers..but it was really good food. Family owned restaurant.

Overall I have had positive experiences at The Empress--the service is consistently very good, the variety of food is appealing, and the "core" Indian dishes are available to order as well as less mainstream ones. My absolute favorite item on the menu here is the Peshwari Nan which is stuffed with crushed almonds and sweetened. If I wouldn't look crazy doing it, I would order only this Nan as a take away midday snack--its that delicious! My disappoints with this restaurant: (1) the food is always verrrrrry oily. I've gone several times, ordered different dishes, and it's always been so oil-heavy that I feel a bit gross after wards. Even the rice is oily. I think only the Tandoori dishes aren't too bad. (2) Also, about 75% of the menu is meat & seafood, so there aren't a whole lot of vegetarian options to choose from. (3) There are either no or very few dinner dishes that come w/rice. Perhaps this is standard practice at Indian restaurants in London (I haven't been to enough here to know), but at nearly £3 a pop for rice, it's hard to stomach the price. I wish there were some entree options that came with rice instead of everything being a la carte. Finally, the restaurant has a website with their menu which Yelp hasn't listed: http://www.theempress.co.uk read more

The Empress - Indian Near Me - London, XGL

I'm sure this must be a lovely place to go to for dinner, but unfortunately I went for lunch. And my lord, was that ever depressing. Underused staff lurked around the place like bored flies. My boss's korma was almost inedibly sweet. I enjoyed my chicken mekhani (strips marinated in yoghurt and then in a bit of korma sauce) but would have liked more of the yoghurt and less of the korma. Good value, but the food wasn't great. I know korma etc is essentially baby food for adults, but can we at least keep our teeth for pudding? A very underwhelming lunch. read more

Very good, excellent service, and a little bit off of the beaten path so you won't necessarily need a reservation in advance. Have good dishes in all ranges of spice. Chef's Selection menu items are delicious and authentic. read more

Quite good takeaway food, friendly service and professional staff. Eating in is a bit stuffy, well suited to business lunches read more

The Empress is a very friendly Indian restaurant, if you are looking for a good food, friendly staff and reasonably priced, it would be worth going here. I went for a birthday meal, the food and drink were superb and chatting to the owner was also very funny and insightful talking about their specials which some of us ordered. They even gave the birthday boy a delicacy he was trying out. Chilli vodka. If you like your spices and he still has some, it might be worth asking for. They also take Tastecard, but you have book over the phone and at least 2 hours before you booking. read more

A friend and I were visiting London for a few days and decided to have dinner here on our first night. The decor is fancy and the waiters are nice. There is a free portion of yummy dipping sauces and bread served while you wait for your food to come out. We ordered coconut rice and chicken tika masala, and it was SO GOOD. So good in fact, that we went back two days later for the exact same meal. It was so good. This place is a hidden gem with good prices. They even gave us a bunch of extra chocolate after the meal when we were chatting to them about our travels. Make a trip over to this restaurant, it is worth it! read more

Great service and delicious food. We had a number of dishes and they were all great. Only problem was the Nan was only so so.m, but that did not detract from the meal overall. read more

We are from California and we love Indian food. We stumbled across this beautiful location and were surprised on how elegant the ambience was. We've had a lot of Indian food from a lot of different places all over the world and this was by far was the BEST that we have ever had. Service was great, staff was friendly. Highly recommended. read more

Great Indian food!!! Came across this little gem, and every dish we ordered were delicious.

Great food and Amazing Service!! Great Prices!! London is a must for yummy Indian cuisine and you will not be disappointed here! read more

This restaurant is a bit out-of-the-way which is good for customers as it's not over-crowded. Not so much for the owners though. I ordered samosas for an entree. These were a bit of a disappointment as they were pretty bland and similar to what you could buy from the deep freeze of a supermarket. That is the reason for only giving the restaurant four stars. The main course was an entirely different matter. I ordered the green curry. This was delicious. The chicken was tender and the whole meal was flavoursome with subtle herbs and spices and was not overburdened with chilli. I shall certainly return here before I go back home to Melbourne. read more

Not only was the service amazing (a hot, scented towel after the meal!?) but the food was incredible. I had the special chicken tikka masala and my boyfriend had the lamb biriyani and garlic nan bread. Our plates were completely cleared, an accomplishment considering the serving sizes are generous. We also ordered a bottle of great Pinot noir. The meal was incredible the service was attentive and gracious and the atmosphere was just lovely. Will definitely be coming back our next trip to London! read more

The Empress - Indian Near Me - London, XGL

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The Empress Indian restaurant has pleasant decor, a relaxed atmosphere and the staff are both friendly and efficient. The place was completely full when we went, so it was lucky we had reserved a table I ordered a nazkat starter and lamb Rajshahi for the main course. The food was cooked to perfection, the portions were very generous. All my guests were very pleased with their meals. read more

Having spent an evening at Wilton's we popped in as we were passing, it was busy but they could seat us straightaway. The staff gave a good first impression looking after us. One of our party can't eat gluten and they managed this very well making sure that all the food was checked, some places still do not cater for people with allergies. The food was very tasty and well presented. We only had main courses, so can only comment on these, the lamb dishes were perfectly flavoured and spicy. The chicken balti I'm am told was excellent. The decor and ambience adds the evening and happy to recommend this curry house, no need to go to Brick Lane. I would recommend they make the rice portions a bit larger, that's all read more

Service was great. Food was not what I expected it to be. I came in expecting a traditional Indian meal with the normal flavors you would expect when eating Indian. Unfortunately, after ordering the Butter Chicken and the Chicken Tikka Masala, I was very disappointed. The food was very bland and discolored. I have never seen Butter Chicken and Chicken Tikka Masala with an extremely yellow tint instead of an orange color. Both dishes were also sweetened which is very untraditional. Don't go in expecting a traditional meal. Again, the service was very good(some of the best I've had in Europe) but very disappointed with the quality of the food. 2 stars purely because of the food. read more

A truely hidden gem of an Indian Restaurant hidden away from the overbearing hustle of Brick lane! We had an absolutely fantastic time here - the food was superb and we really enjoyed the restaurant (which although appearing small an pokey to start with, was actually cosy and comfortable). I took my father here when he was visiting London in order for him to try out an Indian restaurant (you don't get many of these down in Somerset), and didn't fancy running the gauntlet that is Brick Lane. This was within walking distance of Algate East, but located in a quiet area, not full of drunken revellers! Exactly what I wanted! As a lover of Indian restaurants I was pleasantly surprised by the sheer volume of dishes I hadn't heard of, and that they rather than assigned a chilli rating to each dish, allowed you to choose what strength of spice you were looking for perfect for those who like milder dishes, but want to branch out from having to have Chicken Korma, but also great for those loving spice! We had a three course meal, with a few beers each, and this came in at under £100 for the 4 of us so a complete bargain. In fact we had so much food I had to request a take-away box. A firm and definitely favourite in my book of places that need to be visited! read more

Great food, very clean, and welcoming staff - great service too, very attentive waiters. The food got the job done and was very tasty, and everyone in our group enjoyed their food as well. And be careful of their chili vodka shots - they have "hot" and "very hot" versions. read more

Unfamiliar with the nuances of Indian food, our waiter helped us select our entrees and we were not disappointed. A great value.

The best local Indian, the food is yummy and the service is fantastic. They even give after eights with the bill :)