Marinated tandoor-roasted chicken in a creamy spiced tomato gravy with butter and fenugreek. Britain's most-ordered curry, claimed by London and Glasgow alike since the 1970s.
Chicken tikka masala is a British-Bengali invention of the late 1960s or early 1970s. Multiple Glasgow Pakistani chefs claim the dish (Ali Ahmed Aslam at Shish Mahal is most frequently named), and London's Brick Lane curry houses popularised it through the 1980s. Robin Cook, then Foreign Secretary, called it a 'true British national dish' in a 2001 speech. The dish marries north Indian tandoor cookery with a milder Anglo-Indian gravy: tomato puree, single cream, garam masala and dried fenugreek leaf. Brick Lane's Bengali-run curry houses (Aladin, Sheba) and the Tayyabs Pakistani tradition both still serve it; Dishoom and Gymkhana plate the modern restaurant versions.
5 editor picks for Chicken tikka masala in London, ranked by editorial score. All London signature dishes · Chicken tikka masala across every city.
Gymkhana ★ 4.8
mayfair · 42 Albemarle Street, London W1S 4JH
Karam Sethi's Albemarle Street Indian dining room in Mayfair London, opened 2013 and Michelin two-starred since 2024, modelled on a colonial-club room with serious tandoor cookery.
Trishna ★ 4.6
marylebone · 15-17 Blandford Street, London W1U 3DG
Karam Sethi's Blandford Street Indian coastal restaurant in Marylebone London, opened 2008 and Michelin-starred, focused on Konkan and Mangalorean fish cookery.
Gunpowder Spitalfields ★ 4.6
shoreditch-spitalfields · 11 White's Row, London E1 7NF
Harneet Baweja's family-recipe Indian small-plates kitchen on White's Row in Spitalfields London, opened 2015, plates regional Indian home cooking, no buffet, no naan basket.
Tayyabs ★ 4.5
whitechapel · 83-89 Fieldgate Street, London E1 1JU
The Tayyab family's Punjabi grill on Fieldgate Street in Whitechapel London, opened 1972, runs charcoal-grilled lamb chops, karahi and seekh kebab in a roaring open kitchen.
Dishoom Shoreditch ★ 4.5
shoreditch · 7 Boundary Street, London E2 7JE
The Bombay-cafe-styled Indian dining room on Boundary Street in Shoreditch London, opened 2012 as Dishoom's second site, runs Parsi cafe cooking from breakfast to late.