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The History of the Indian Takeaway

The Indian takeaway has a fascinating history which goes back several hundred years. The very early history came about as a direct result of the British in India and this led directly to a growing interest, including the invention of curry powder in 1780.
Curry actually first appeared on a menu at around the same time but the very first Indian restaurant outside of India and devoted exclusively to the serving of Indian dishes did not appear until 1809. This early Indian restaurant was not nearly as successful as the ones that followed and it filed for bankruptcy just three years later.


The nineteenth century began with only a few Indian eating establishments which were mainly started by Asian seamen who had jumped ship or had been put ashore without any other means of survival. Spread of Indian cuisine was initially slow but by 1931 the number of Indian students had risen from 100 in 1880 to over 1800. In 1927, the famous Veeraswamy’s Indian Restaurant opened in London’s Regent Street. This is thought to be where Lager beer was first introduced as an accompaniment to the curries of the day!
Although London was the epicenter of Indian food, its popularity spread during the intervals between the two world wars and Indian restaurants began to appear across the country. It’s a surprising fact that over during the 1960’s and 1970’s over 75% of Indian restaurants were actually run by people from Pakistan. Today, half of the restaurants are owned by people of Bangladeshi origin, until you travel as far North as Birmingham, where they are outnumbered by Pakistani’s. Even further North and the number and influence of Pakistanis increases even further.


The 1970’s and 1980’s led to the invention of Chicken Tikka Masala which is an invented dish and is currently considered possibly the most popular dish ever by a number of polls. The dish was jointly created and influenced by the British and the Bangladeshi’s and remains popular in very decade.
By 1970, there were over 1200 Indian Restaurants in Britain and the birth of the “Takeaway” began. This was soon to develop into an extremely popular method of obtaining spicy tasty food and by the turn of the century the number of Takeaway establishments numbered over 8000!


The massive rise of the supermarket has further contributed to the interest in Indian Takeaway food and your local takeaway remains one of the most popular food establishments in the country.

Prawn curry Guide

Testing article in the box. Hey thats the Chef who is on the Desi bite ad i think ? the one who cooks everything and then? throws everything in the bin and takes a packet of chips and eat it ? lol it goes on Travel and Living Discovery Channel

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Lahore Restaurant

2-4 Gateforth Street , London, Other NW8 8EH
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
Used to be good but now crap! - 2011-03-28 02:08:30

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The food was greasy, the restaurant was filthy... even the bill arrived dirty and greasy - AVOID!

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