How to read an Indian restaurant menu

Updated September 2026

An Indian restaurant menu is long because it is really several menus: a grill, a bread oven, a curry kitchen, a rice cook and, often, a South Indian or Indo-Chinese station, each with its own vocabulary. This guide explains how those sections fit together, what the regional labels promise, how heat is scaled, and how to order so a table shares a proper meal.

The name is the recipe

Most North Indian dish names are just the ingredients, in Hindi or Punjabi, in order: aloo gobi is potato and cauliflower; palak paneer is spinach and fresh cheese; matar paneer is peas and paneer; dal makhani is buttery lentils; murgh makhani is buttery chicken. Once you know a dozen words (aloo, gobi, palak/saag, chana, paneer, murgh (chicken), gosht (meat, usually lamb or goat), jhinga (shrimp), bhindi (okra), baingan (eggplant), matar (peas)) you can read most of the menu. The second word, when there is one, names the style: korma, kadai, jalfrezi, bhuna, dopiaza, achari, methi, vindaloo. Those styles repeat across proteins, so "chicken jalfrezi" and "paneer jalfrezi" are the same dish with a different center.

How the sections are organized

• Appetizers / starters. Fried things (samosas, pakoras and bhajis) and the chaat family, which is where the sweet-sour-crunchy street food of Delhi and Mumbai lives. Many restaurants also put their Indo-Chinese dishes here.
• Tandoor / from the clay oven. Tandoori chicken, tikkas, seekh and boti kebabs, lamb chops. Served dry, with sliced onion, lemon and mint chutney, or as a "sizzler" if it arrives on a hot iron plate. This is the section that shows whether the kitchen has a real tandoor.
• Curries, by protein. Chicken, lamb or goat, seafood, and vegetable / paneer, each list running through the same styles. Vegetarian sections are usually the longest and, at a Punjabi or Gujarati restaurant, the strongest.
• Dal. Often its own heading. One dal on the table is not optional in an Indian meal; it is the thing everything else is eaten with.
• Rice and biryani. Plain basmati, jeera (cumin) rice, pulao, and biryani, which is a complete dish, not a side, and comes with raita.
• Breads. Naan and kulcha from the tandoor; roti, paratha, puri and bhatura from the griddle and fryer.
• Sides and accompaniments. Raita, chutneys and achar, papad, kachumber salad.
• Thali and lunch specials. A thali is the whole meal on one tray; the weekday lunch buffet is the American-restaurant equivalent.
• Drinks and desserts. Lassi, chai, then gulab jamun, rasmalai, kheer, kulfi.

What the regional labels mean

Punjabi / North Indian

The default "Indian restaurant" menu in the West: tandoor grilling, wheat breads, dairy-rich gravies (butter chicken, dal makhani, saag paneer), chole, and the British-Indian dishes built on it: tikka masala, madras, balti.

Mughlai, Lucknowi and Hyderabadi

The court cuisines: slow-cooked kormas, saffron and nuts, delicate galouti kebabs, dum-cooked biryani (Hyderabad's is the most famous), and haleem.

Pakistani

Closely related to Punjabi cooking but meat-forward, with beef and goat where Indian menus have lamb and paneer, with karahi cooked by the kilo, nihari, haleem and paya, chapli and bihari kebabs, and always halal.

Gujarati and Rajasthani

Largely vegetarian, with a sweet-sour-spicy balance (Gujarat) or a dry-climate, dairy-and- pulse repertoire (Rajasthan). Best experienced as an unlimited thali. Also home to many of the snacks (dhokla, khandvi, farsan) on a chaat menu.

Bengali

Fish, mustard oil and the great chhena sweets (rasgulla, sandesh), plus Kolkata's kathi rolls and its own biryani with a potato in it.

Goan and Keralan (the coasts)

Coconut, tamarind, seafood and the Portuguese inheritance: vindaloo, xacuti, cafreal and fish moilee, appam and stew.

Nepali and Tibetan

"Indian & Nepali" restaurants add momos, thukpa, dal bhat, sekuwa and choila to a broadly North Indian menu, and often the most interesting page on it.

Indo-Chinese

Kolkata's Hakka-Chinese cooking as India adopted it: gobi Manchurian, chilli chicken, Hakka noodles. Sour, garlicky and hot; a cuisine in its own right and a staple of most Indian restaurants' starter pages.

South Indian menus work differently

A South Indian restaurant (Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayali) is built around rice and fermented batters instead of wheat and the tandoor. The menu leads with dosas and uttapam, idli, vada and upma, all served with sambar and coconut chutney; "meals" or a South Indian thali is the lunch. Curries are thinner, sourer and often hotter (Chettinad, Andhra), seasoned with curry leaves, mustard seed and asafoetida rather than cream and garam masala. Coffee, not chai, is the drink. Many "Indian" restaurants in the US run both menus; the South Indian page is the one to try if you already know the North Indian classics.

Ordering for a table

Indian food is served family-style: dishes in the middle, rice and bread shared, everyone building their own plate. A reliable formula for a table of four:

1. One or two starters: something from the chaat list and something fried or grilled.
2. One tandoor dish, served dry.
3. Two or three curries in different styles and colors: one creamy (korma, makhani), one tomato-based and spicier (kadai, jalfrezi), one green or vegetable (saag, bhindi, baingan bharta).
4. One dal. Always.
5. Rice for the table (or a biryani in place of a curry), and one bread per person, mixing naan and roti or paratha.
6. Raita and papad, if they aren't already coming.

Avoid three cream-based dishes; the menu's richness adds up fast. If in doubt, a thali has done the balancing for you.

The spice scale

"Mild, medium, hot, Indian hot" is a per-kitchen scale, not a standard. Dishes with their own built-in heat (vindaloo, madras and Chettinad, jalfrezi, anything Andhra) are hot at "medium"; korma, butter chicken and dal makhani are mild at "hot". "Spicy" in Indian cooking also means heavily spiced, which is not the same as chili-hot; ask which one the server means. A lassi, raita or plain rice cools things down; water doesn't.

Vegetarian, vegan and halal

Indian restaurants are the easiest place in the country to eat vegetarian: most menus mark veg dishes and many kitchens are entirely vegetarian (look for "pure veg", and for Jain options with no onion or garlic). Vegan is harder, since ghee, cream, yogurt and paneer are everywhere, but dals, chana, most South Indian dishes and many vegetable curries can be made without dairy on request; ask for oil instead of ghee and no cream. Pakistani and many North Indian restaurants are halal; those that are will usually say so on the menu.

Reading the prices

Curries are priced as a bowl that serves one generously or two as part of a spread; rice and bread are extra unless the menu says "served with". Tandoor platters and lamb chops are the premium items. A lunch buffet or thali is the best value for sampling widely; a biryani is the best one-dish meal. Pakistani-style karahi is often sold by the half or full kilo for the table. Family packs and "tray" pricing for catering are common at neighborhood spots.

Using the menus on this site

Every restaurant on CurryMenus is listed with its menu as published by the restaurant or a public listing: either photographed menu pages, an itemized menu with prices, or both. Under each itemized menu you'll find an "About this menu" box that counts the items and sections, shows the listed price span, and explains any dishes from the glossary that appear on that particular menu. Prices and dishes change, and restaurants close; treat what's here as a starting point and confirm with the restaurant before you go.