Missing Home? Your Guide to Indian Food in Newcastle

For the city’s Indian students and families, comfort food is never far away.

By Ameya Edvankar

Ask anyone who has moved here from India what they miss most, and food is usually the answer. So I spent a few days going around Newcastle, asking restaurants and students where the city hides its taste of home. Here is what I found.

Moving to a new country changes almost everything, from the weather to the way people speak. For many, the hardest thing to leave behind is the food.

Newcastle is home to more than 23,000 residents of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage, according to the 2021 Census, and the city has a food scene to match, running from Mumbai-style street food to South Indian dosas.

In this video, I set out across Newcastle to answer one simple question: if you are far from home and craving the tastes you grew up with, where do you go?

I stopped at some of the city’s popular Indian spots and asked each of them for one dish worth trying. I also spoke to Ishaan Raghav, a student from Chennai, about what a taste of home really means. He pointed me to Chit N Chaat, and that is where the trail ends, over a dosa and a cup of chai.

“When I want a taste of home, I want a dosa. My top place for that is Chit N Chaat in Eldon Square.”

Ishaan Raghav

For Ishaan, the move to Newcastle came with an adjustment at the dinner table.

“The shift food-wise was bad, because my taste buds were used to Indian food.”

Ishaan Raghav

Over time he found his spots. When he wants to feel at home, he keeps it simple.

Where to find a taste of home in Newcastle

• Chit N Chaat, Eldon Square – Mumbai-style street food and chaat in the city centre, known for its dosas, pav bhaji and biryani.
• Rani Indian Restaurant, Queen Street – North Indian cooking near the Quayside.
• My Delhi, Clayton Street – Delhi street food, a multi-award winner known for its butter chicken.
• Snackwallah, Grainger Market – vegan Indian street food and chaat, known for its samosas masala chai.
• Urully Bell Restaurant, Queen Street – Keralan South Indian cooking, known for its dosas. Recommended by Ishaan.
• Zaiqaa, West Road – Punjabi cooking out in the West End. Recommended by Ishaan.

This is far from the full list. TripAdvisor lists dozens more Indian restaurants across Newcastle, ranked by diner reviews, if you want to keep exploring.

One dish each: the places from the video

• My Delhi suggested their butter chicken with cauliflower manchurian. You can find them on Instagram at @mydelhieatery.
• Snackwallah suggested a plate of samosa chaat with masala chai. You can find them on Instagram at @snackwallah.
• Rani Indian Restaurant suggested with dhaaba murg pilau rice. You can find them on Instagram at @ranisncl.

Hidden gems: two more spots on Westgate Road

House of Aroma, 432 Westgate Road – a spot for a range of Indian chicken and meat dishes as well as South Indian options.

Wingrove Cafe, The Beacon, Westgate Road, Fenham – known for its South Indian cooking, including dosas and biryani.

The bigger picture

Newcastle is not alone. Indian food has been part of British high streets for decades, and London’s Drummond Street, near Euston, is where much of it began. As BBC Travel reported, the street pre-dates better known South Asian hubs such as Southall and Wembley’s Ealing Road, and it was here in 1958 that L G Pathak opened the grocery shop that grew into the household name Patak’s. Some of its restaurants have been serving the same crowds since the 1980s.

Across the UK, Indian food is a fixture of the high street. Industry figures have long put the number of Indian and Bangladeshi restaurants and takeaways in the thousands, together employing more than 100,000 people, though many traditional curry houses have closed in recent years. Against that national picture, Newcastle’s scene has kept growing.

Newcastle’s Indian food scene is always shifting. In July 2026, ChronicleLive reported that The Last Days of the Raj, a much-loved restaurant known for its quality curries, had closed after 11 years in Dinnington, having first made its name over in Low Fell. On the way out, its owners thanked the customers and villagers who had made them so welcome.

Finding your own taste of home

Whether it is a dosa in Eldon Square or a biryani out on Westgate Road, Newcastle gives its Indian students and families plenty of ways to find a taste of home. You might be a long way from where you grew up. The food, it turns out, does not have to be.

The trail ended where Ishaan said it would, over a cup of chai. Yours might end somewhere else entirely, and that is the point.

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About the author

Ameya Edvankar is a multimedia journalism student at Newcastle University, reporting on the city and the people. Read more about him here.

Follow more of his work on Instagram at @ameyaedvankar and @ameya_frontrow.

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