The Best Indian Restaurants in and Around Manchester's Northern Quarter

Most people know the Northern Quarter for its indie cafes, vintage shops, and slightly overpriced flat whites. What doesn't get shouted about enough is the absolutely cracking Indian food scene woven through it, spilling out into neighbouring Ancoats, Piccadilly, and the rest of the city centre. The truth is, you don't need to trek down to the Curry Mile to eat brilliantly. Some of the best bhunas, dosas, dals, and street food plates in Greater Manchester are sitting quietly on NQ back alleys and just beyond.

So whether you're after a fiver-and-change lunch or a proper sit-down feast with cocktails, here's our guide to the best Indian restaurants in and around the Northern Quarter right now.

This & That

3 Soap St, Manchester · 4.7★ (2,187 reviews)

If you live in Manchester and haven't done a "rice and three" at This & That yet, consider this your official nudge. Tucked down a back alley on Soap Street since 1984, it's the granddaddy of the city's legendary rice-and-three canteens. The concept is beautiful in its simplicity: walk in, grab a tray, point at three curries from the daily chalkboard, and walk out with a plate of deeply comforting, home-style Indian food for less than a tenner. No frills, no nonsense, no reservations. Curries rotate daily (with chicken tikka masala holding its permanent spot on the counter), and regulars have been coming back for the best part of four decades. It is, quite genuinely, a piece of Manchester history.

While traditional curry canteens will always be the soul of this corner of the city, the NQ fringes have become a playground for more modern, street-food-inspired concepts, the kind that pair brilliantly with a pint.

Bundobust Manchester Piccadilly

Clayton House, 61 Piccadilly, Manchester · 4.6★ (4,070 reviews)

Tucked down a staircase just off Piccadilly Gardens, Bundobust kind of changed the conversation about Indian food in Manchester when it opened in 2016. The concept, dreamt up by Leeds restaurateur Mayur Patel and craft beer obsessive Marko Husak, is dead simple and somehow still feels fresh: vibrant, all-vegetarian Gujarati street food plus a properly nerdy craft beer list, served in a buzzy basement canteen. The okra fries and vada pav are rightly legendary, the tarka dhal is spot on, and the whole thing is designed for sharing. Perfect for a pre-gig feed, or a boozy catch-up that gets out of hand in the best possible way.

If you're willing to wander a little way over into Ancoats, things get a touch more refined.

Indian Affair Ancoats

46 Blossom St, Ancoats, Manchester · 4.8★ (506 reviews)

A short stroll from the NQ into neighbouring Ancoats gets you to Indian Affair, one of the area's quieter success stories. It's a smart, contemporary space where familiar recipes get treated with serious care, and the kitchen is equally at home looking after vegans, vegetarians, and confirmed meat-eaters. The spice blends in particular are worth paying attention to: layered, aromatic, never sledgehammer. A properly grown-up Indian restaurant for a proper sit-down dinner.

A bit further into the heart of the city, some of the grander dining rooms in town are flying the flag for Indian food.

Dishoom Manchester

32 Bridge St, Manchester · 4.8★ (10,184 reviews)

Yes, there's always a queue. Yes, it's very much a brand. And yes, it genuinely earns all the fuss. Set inside a Grade II-listed former Freemasons' hall on Bridge Street, Dishoom's Manchester branch is basically a love letter to the old Irani cafes of Bombay, all stained glass, marble tables, incense, and low-light drama. The menu, unsurprisingly, delivers: the bacon naan roll at breakfast is a minor religious experience, the house black daal (slow-cooked for 24 hours) is rightly famous, and the gunpowder potatoes might be the best side dish in the city. If you've somehow avoided it so far, now's the time.

For a livelier, more contemporary atmosphere, a couple of Portland Street and Princess Street spots do the big-group-night energy really well.

Sangam Manchester

98 Portland St, Manchester · 4.4★ (3,569 reviews)

Sangam on Portland Street is the kind of place you book for a Friday night when you need the vibes on full volume. The dining room is sleek, the menu bridges traditional heritage cooking and modern twists without tripping over itself, and the buzz on a weekend is genuinely contagious. Yes, it can get a bit loud, but in the good way: you'll be yelling across the table about how good the food is. A reliable pick for big-group bookings and birthday dinners.

Sometimes the best meals come from the places that prioritise the cooking and the service over the interiors.

Sthan-M1

50 Princess St, Manchester · 4.8★ (1,846 reviews)

Sthan-M1 on Princess Street is one of those restaurants that quietly, unshowily, does everything right. The kitchen has a genuine feel for regional Indian spicing, with dishes that are balanced and vibrant rather than just loud. But it's the service that really seals the deal: attentive, generous, and happy to tweak a dish to exactly how you want it. A proper under-the-radar gem that deserves to be a lot more famous.

If you want glamour and a serious hit of Punjabi heat, head riverside.

eastZeast Riverside, Manchester

28 Blackfriars St, Manchester · 4.5★ (3,865 reviews)

eastZeast Riverside on Blackfriars Street has been a glitzy fixture of the Manchester Indian scene for years now. The menu leans hard into Punjabi cooking: generous portions, bold spicing, and some serious chilli kicks if you ask for them. The dining room is all sparkle and cocktails, which makes it a natural choice for birthdays and anniversaries, and the front-of-house team handle a packed Saturday night with impressive ease.

On the southern edge of the city centre, there's a brilliant modern take on Indian dining that leans into small plates.

Indian Tiffin Room

2 Isabella Bank Street, First St, Manchester · 4.3★ (2,907 reviews)

Over at First Street, Indian Tiffin Room takes the energy and colour of Indian street food and drops it into a bustling modern restaurant. The menu is built for grazing, with everything from crisp, delicate dosas to proper regional curries, and the atmosphere is cheerfully chaotic in the best way. It's the sort of place where "just a quick bite" quietly turns into three hours and six different small plates. No complaints here.

Fans of the Piccadilly Bundo, meanwhile, have a very good reason to head a bit further south.

Bundobust Brewery

St James Building, 61-69 Oxford St, Manchester · 4.7★ (1,063 reviews)

Opened in September 2021, the Oxford Street sibling to the Piccadilly original is Bundobust turned up to eleven. The food is exactly as good (the vada pav, the okra fries, the dhal, all still sensational), but this time you're eating it under gleaming fermentation tanks, with pints poured straight from the on-site brewery. The beers are specifically designed to sit alongside the spices on the menu, which sounds like marketing fluff until you try a cold sour beer with the dhal and suddenly get it. Essential for foodies and beer nerds alike.

Finally, it'd feel wrong to talk about Indian food in Manchester without a nod to one of the city's most-loved halal institutions, a short hop south to Rusholme.

MyLahore Manchester

14-18 Wilmslow Rd, Manchester · 4.7★ (18,809 reviews)

Technically well outside the NQ, but MyLahore on Wilmslow Road is too big a part of Manchester's food story to skip. The Rusholme branch of the halal British-Asian mini-chain is an all-day, all-energy diner with a gloriously eclectic menu: subcontinental classics like dynamite chicken and seekh kebabs sitting happily next to mac and cheese, loaded fries, and ice cream shakes. It's loud, it's colourful, it's bang on halal-friendly, and it captures the diverse, fusion-y spirit of modern Manchester dining better than almost anywhere else.

From soul-warming rice-and-three in a back alley to glittering dining rooms across town, Manchester's Indian food scene is in serious form right now. Whether you want a fiver-ish feast, a craft beer and a plate of dhal, or a full-on candlelit feast, these ten spots will sort you.