Best Indian food in Raleigh

Raleigh's Indian food has gotten deeper in the last five years, but it is still thinner than Cary and Morrisville, where most of the Triangle's South Indian, vegetarian-only and biryani specialists sit. Inside the city the strength is at the top, with Tamasha Modern Indian at North Hills the only Indian restaurant in the area in the MICHELIN Guide American South 2025, and in a wave of openings since 2022 that includes Jalwa Indian Bistro and Soul Flavorscape of India.

For Wake Forest readers the north and northwest side of the city is the short drive: Falls of Neuse, Six Forks, Millbrook, Strickland and Glenwood Avenue account for half the list. Hillsborough Street near NC State has two more, and Glenwood South, Brier Creek, Triangle Town Center and Raleigh Iron Works each have one.

Twelve restaurants follow, in alphabetical order. Some are dinner-only rooms that take reservations; others run a lunch buffet. Read the caveats about Monday hours and unpublished opening dates before you drive.

How we chose

Every entry is inside Raleigh city limits and had a dated sign of being open in September 2026, most often a review or order from that month. Facts come from each restaurant's own site; awards appear only when they are named and dated, and self-reported ones are labeled that way. Cary and Morrisville hold most of the Triangle's South Indian and vegetarian-only kitchens, and they were excluded on geography, as were Durham's Barsa and Wake Forest's own Lazeez. Cheeni Indian Food Emporium, INDY Week's 2024 Wake County winner, has closed. Sweets counters and food-court outlets were left out. Entries run alphabetically, not ranked. Hours and prices were last checked in September 2026; call before driving for anything an entry says is unconfirmed.

Anjappar Indian Chettinad Restaurant

This is the Raleigh branch of a five-location chain that traces its name to Chennai, sitting on Pleasant Valley Road at Glenwood Avenue; the better-known Triangle Anjappar is in Cary. The food is Chettinad, from Tamil Nadu, and the whole menu is South Indian-led: dosa and idli, sambar idly, Chettinad curries, dum biryani, a baby goat varutha kari, plus an Indo-Chinese Chicken Majestic. Per its delivery menu, chicken Chettinad masala is $22.45 and lamb dum biryani $20.89. No opening year for the Raleigh store is published.

Why we chose them

• The only Chettinad specialist with a verified address inside Raleigh city limits; the Cary Anjappar is at 101 Ledgestone Way.
• Part of a small regional chain with five stores, in Cary, Durham, Raleigh, Pineville and Bellevue, Washington, per its own site.
• Open seven days with an afternoon break, closing between lunch and the 5 p.m. dinner service, per its site.
• No dated 2026 review or article turned up; its own site lists Raleigh as a current location with hours, so call ahead.
• A food-court outlet, PandyaNad Indian by Anjappar, is listed at Crabtree Valley Mall on Uber Eats.

Address: Raleigh — 4112 Pleasant Valley Rd.

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Azitra

Brier Creek's upscale Indian room has been in the same shopping-center space since 2005, which makes it the longest-running restaurant of its kind in the city. The kitchen draws on Punjab, Kerala and Rajasthan, with the tandoor at the center: butter chicken built from pulled tandoori chicken in a honey, tomato and fenugreek sauce, a Koyla Kabab, goat chops rogan josh in the Kashmir style, and a tandoori surf and turf of lamb chops and lobster tail. Menu prices are not published online; Tripadvisor diners put dinner for two near $100.

Why we chose them

• Opened in 2005 and marked its 20th anniversary with a post on its own site dated September 22, 2025.
• Its own site lists a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence every year since 2005 and a Best Of Award of Excellence for 2024.
• Its about page also lists Midtown magazine Best Indian 2025 and an N&O Best Indian 2024 that we could not confirm.
• Open seven days, with dinner running until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, per its site.
• The owner told a third-party halal directory that everything except beef is zabiha halal; the restaurant's own site does not say so.

Address: Raleigh — 8411 Brier Creek Pkwy., Ste. 101

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Bazil Indian Cuisine

A mother-and-son restaurant on Glenwood Avenue in Northwest Raleigh, founded in 2022 by Arti and Abhi Kumar, with Arti Kumar as chef. The menu leans harder into seafood than most Indian kitchens, with Awadhi spiced octopus at $17 and charred coconut sea bass at $35, and a lobster crab malai tadka at $36. The North Indian core is still there: chicken biryani at $19, boneless tandoori chicken tikka at $21, grass-fed lamb chops in a rosemary marinade at $27. A vegetarian thali, three curries of your choosing, is $18.

Why we chose them

• Its menu page says its meat dishes are halal-certified, the only entry on this list to state that on its own site.
• Its press page lists a Wake Living Maggy Awards 2026 Best Indian win and a Midtown Magazine Diamond Award, Silver, for 2026.
• The same press page claims an N&O Best Indian 2024 award that we could not find on the N&O site.
• Eater Carolinas included it in a 2023 roundup of 18 standout Indian restaurants, per its press page.
• Open seven days with a mid-afternoon break, lunch to 2:30 p.m. weekdays and 3 p.m. weekends, dinner from 5.

Address: Raleigh — 6602 Glenwood Ave., Ste. 1

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Bombay Curry

Far North Raleigh's entry is a strip-center restaurant on Strickland Road near Leesville that opened in April 2022, according to a longtime Tripadvisor regular; the site itself says only that the kitchen has over ten years of experience. The cooking is North Indian curries and tandoor, with a few Indo-Chinese plates. Chicken biryani is $16.99, the house special biryani of lamb, chicken and shrimp $18.99, tandoori salmon $19.99, and gobi Manchurian $9.99. Vegetarian items are marked on the menu, and delivery runs through DoorDash and Grubhub.

Why we chose them

• Runner-up, Best Indian Restaurant, INDY Week Best of the Triangle 2025, Wake County.
• Open seven days, until 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and from noon on Sunday, per its site.
• Listed as woman- or minority-owned by visitraleigh.com.

Address: Raleigh — 13220 Strickland Rd., Ste. 167

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Botiwalla by Chai Pani

Indian street food with a counter, at Raleigh Iron Works off Atlantic Avenue east of downtown. The concept comes from Meherwan Irani's Chai Pani Restaurant Group in Asheville and borrows from colonial-era Irani cafés and late-night charcoal street grills: kebab rolls, chaat, skewers, rice bowls and Mumbai's vada pav. Per its delivery menu, a chicken tikka roll is $13.79, aloo tikki chaat $10.99 and a paneer tikka skewer $11.49. There is no dosa or biryani on the menu, and the Raleigh opening date is not published.

Why we chose them

• Its parent group's Asheville flagship, Chai Pani, won the James Beard Foundation award for Outstanding Restaurant in 2022.
• Counter service with no reservations, per its own site.
• The only Indian street-food grill inside the city that we could verify.
• Uber Eats lists hours of 11 a.m. to 8:45 p.m., while the site's own widget showed a 9 p.m. close.
• Owned by a regional group based in Asheville, with a Washington, D.C. Botiwalla listed as coming soon.

Address: Raleigh — 2221 Iron Works Dr., Ste. 120, at Raleigh Iron Works

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The Farmers Indian Restaurant

Northeast Raleigh's only entry sits at Triangle Town Center off Capital Boulevard, and its stated concept is unusual: a North Indian dhaba, the roadside eating house, cooked with North Carolina farm produce. The dosa menu is what sets it apart inside the city, with plain dosa at $12.95, set dosa $13.95, masala dosa $14.95 and Mysore masala dosa $15.95. Biryanis run from vegetable at $18.95 to a house F.I.R. biryani at $29.95, and the site advertises a large vegan section. No owner is named and no opening year is published.

Why we chose them

• Runs an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet Friday through Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; the price is not published.
• Closed Monday, with weekday hours from 11 a.m. and weekend hours from 11:30 a.m., per its site.
• One of only two restaurants inside the city we could verify with a full dosa menu, the other being Lime & Lemon.
• OpenTable's listing text, supplied by the restaurant, describes family recipes and no artificial colors.
• OpenTable and Uber Eats spell it The Farmer's with an apostrophe; the restaurant's own header does not.

Address: Raleigh — 3721 Sumner Blvd., Ste. 100, at Triangle Town Center

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Jalwa Indian Bistro

The newest fine-dining Indian room in Raleigh took over the former Saint Jacques space in North Ridge Shopping Center on Falls of Neuse Road and opened January 27, 2025. Chef Mukesh Gautam cooks modern Indian with global touches: a Kashmiri lamb shank at $42, Chilean sea bass moilee in Kerala-style coconut curry at $45, tandoori quail, a lamb sukka vol au vent at $18. Owner Ajit Pal Singh Khanna's site says the kitchen uses no artificial colors or MSG, and a private dining room seats 30.

Why we chose them

• Opened January 27, 2025, a date Raleigh Magazine previewed in December 2024 and Triangle Food Blog confirmed that week.
• Closed Monday; lunch runs 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and dinner from 4:30 p.m., until 10:30 on Friday and Saturday.
• OpenTable's listing says Raleigh Magazine named it a Best Restaurant in 2025 and 2026, but that text is restaurant-supplied.
• OpenTable puts the price band at $31 to $50 a head.

Address: Raleigh — 6112 Falls of Neuse Rd., at North Ridge Shopping Center

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Kabab and Curry

Across Hillsborough Street from NC State, this campus-strip restaurant cooks Indian and Nepalese food side by side: North Indian curries and tandoor plates next to Nepalese momo, the steamed dumplings that sell for $9.95 for six vegetable or $10.95 for chicken. Chicken biryani is $15.95, chicken tikka masala $17.95, and a tandoori mixed grill of chicken, tikka, boti kebab and shrimp is $22. There is a patio, a full bar and an event space. The site says the chef has more than 20 years of experience, but no opening year is published.

Why we chose them

• Runner-up, Best Indian Restaurant, INDY Week Best of the Triangle 2025, Wake County, where INDY spelled it Kebab and Curry.
• Runs a daily lunch buffet from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., $12.95 Monday through Thursday and $15.95 Friday through Sunday.
• Its own ordering page gives the address as 2412 Hillsborough St.; hillsboroughstreet.org prints 2418, so use 2412.
• Open seven days from 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., per hillsboroughstreet.org.

Address: Raleigh — 2412 Hillsborough St.

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Lime & Lemon Indian Grill & Bar

Just off Hillsborough Street near the NC State campus, on Friendly Drive, this is the Raleigh store of a four-restaurant Triangle group that also runs Apex, Chapel Hill and Durham. The menu covers North and South India in one place: masala dosa at $13.99, Hyderabad chicken dum biryani at $17.99, tandoori chicken at $18.99, plus Indo-Chinese plates such as chilli chicken and gobi Manchurian. There is a full bar. Parking is a small lot squeezed between the building and Hillsborough Street, and sources disagree on whether it opens Monday.

Why we chose them

• Winner, Best Indian Restaurant, INDY Week Best of the Triangle 2025, Wake County.
• Runner-up in the same 2025 INDY Week poll for Best Vegetarian Eatery and Best Catering.
• Its own site lists lunch daily and dinner on Monday, but visitraleigh.com and OpenTable show Monday closed, so call first.
• Open since at least early 2022; Tripadvisor reviews of the Raleigh store begin February 17, 2022.

Address: Raleigh — 105 Friendly Dr., Ste. 101, off Hillsborough Street

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Masala House

North Raleigh's neighborhood option is a small strip-center spot on Millbrook Road just east of Six Forks that opened in late 2024, a date that comes from a Tripadvisor reviewer since none is published. It pairs North Indian cooking with a Himalayan and Nepalese menu: chicken Mo:Mo at $8.99, a vegetable Mo:Mo of cabbage, paneer, potato and soy chunks at $7.99, chicken biryani with raita at $16.99 and chicken tandoori at $16.99. Its own website was not loading in September 2026; the ordering page and OpenTable listing carry the menu and hours.

Why we chose them

• OpenTable puts it in the $30 and under price band.
• Open seven days, from 11:30 a.m. on weekdays and noon on Sunday, per visitraleigh.com and OpenTable.
• The only North Raleigh spot we verified that pairs Indian curries with Nepalese momo away from the campus strip.

Address: Raleigh — 126 E. Millbrook Rd.

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Soul Flavorscape of India

Glenwood South's only full-service Indian restaurant opened March 8, 2025 in a suite on Glenwood Avenue at the downtown end of the strip. The menu is North Indian and Punjabi-led, and it labels dishes by region instead of calling everything curry: Punjabi chicken curry, Punjabi kadhi pakora, chhole bhathure at $24, Kashmiri goat rogan josh at $24. Indo-Chinese plates cover gobi Manchurian and chicken 65, and there are five biryanis, with chicken at $24. Butter chicken is $22. OpenTable reviewers refer to an owner-chef, a woman, whose name is not published.

Why we chose them

• Opened March 8, 2025, per a WRAL article cited in the restaurant's OpenTable listing.
• Closed Monday; open until 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, per its site.
• Parking is Glenwood South street and deck parking; OpenTable lists a public lot.
• Reservations are taken through OpenTable, per its listing there.

Address: Raleigh — 301 Glenwood Ave., Ste. 190

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Tamasha Modern Indian

North Hills is where Raleigh's Indian cooking gets its most ambitious. Tamasha opened in February 2024 on Six Forks Road with a menu that jumps regions dish by dish: Hyderabadi dum biryani, a Kerala pork belly bao, Lucknowi galouti, a Kashmiri chili marinade. It is dinner only and priced like the fine-dining room it is, with butter chicken at $33 and crab moilee at $41. The guide status is MICHELIN Recommended, not a star.

Why we chose them

• Selected for the MICHELIN Guide American South 2025 as Recommended, the only Raleigh-area Indian restaurant on that list.
• Executive chef Bhavin Chhatwani was a 2025 James Beard Foundation semifinalist for Emerging Chef.
• Esquire put it on its 2025 Best New Restaurants in America list.
• Closed Monday and dinner only, with complimentary valet Thursday through Saturday from 5 to 10 p.m., per its site.
• The Hyderabadi dum biryani is $31, a chicken leg quarter marinated overnight and cooked in a sealed pot.

Address: Raleigh — 4200 Six Forks Rd., Ste. 130, at North Hills

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Prices, hours and opening status last checked September 21, 2026. Call ahead where an entry says to.