The first Indian restaurant

barra asks: When did the first Indian Takeaway/Restaurant open in the UK Where in the UK was it

In 1809 The Hindostanee Coffee House opened for business at 34 George Street, Portman Square, central London. Despite the name, it served Indian food rather than coffee. The visionary who first offered Indian cooking in Britain was a noble from Patna called Deen Mohammad (or Dean Mahomet), born in 1759.

The Hindostanee Coffee House was designed 'for the Nobility and Gentry where they might enjoy the Hookha with real Chilm tobacco and Indian dishes of the highest perfection'. Whether or not the Nobility and Gentry made use of the restaurant, there was a small Indian community in the capital, including over 1400 Bengali lascars (seamen), as well as a growing number of returned 'India hands' (Britons who had lived in the sub-Continent).

But it was not to be. The Hindostanee Coffee House closed in 1812, leaving Mohammad bankrupt. (His adventures were far from over - read more on him here).

What happened next

The Indian population in Britain grew slowly through the 19th century, consisting mainly of students and sailors. Serving this small group were a series of small London restaurants, some hardly worthy of the name. In 1911 the Salut e Hind appeared in Holborn, and The Shafi appeared in Gerard Street in 1920, opened by Mohammed Wayseem and Mohammed Rahim.

The oldest surviving Indian restaurant in the UK is Veeraswamy, in London's Regent Street. It was opened in 1926 by an Englishman, Edward Palmer, who claimed descent from both Princess Veera, a Mughul Princess, and a British General. An immediate success with London society - all 'swishy curtains, arched ceilings, turbanned waiters and a bedecked hostess' - the Veeraswamy served all the famous names of the day. And it's going strong to this day.

And there's more
That's the first Indian restaurants dealt with but there are a few more 'firsts' to consider.

• The first recipe for curry to appear in Britain was in Hannah (don't call me Delia) Glasse's 1747 cookery book The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy.
• The first appearance of curry on a British menu was at the Coffee House in Norris Street, Haymarket, London in 1773.
• Most 'Indian' restaurants are actually owned and run by Bangladeshis. But London only got its first restaurant selling true Bangladeshi food when Blue Ginger opened in Bayswater in 2000.
• The Veeraswamy achieved another first when they imported Britain's first tandoor oven in 1959, which in turn helped spread the popularity of...

Britain's national dish

Indian restaurants in the UK sell 23 million portions of Chicken Tikka Masala every year. Sainsbury's sell 1,600,000 'CTM' meals every year. But where does it come from

• The family of Sultan Ahmed Ansari, who owned the Taj Mahal in Glasgow, claim he invented the dish in the 1950s.
• A small group of restaurant owners from the Bangladeshi community in the London's East End claim they came up with it in the 1960s.
• Another suggestion is that an exasperated chef threw a tin of Campbells Chopped Tomatoes over some chopped chicken when a drunken customer demanded gravy on his food. Our thanks to whoever it was.

Chicken Tikka Masala is old hat. I'm a balti fan
Balti comes from the West Midlands - not Baltistan. And the first balti restaurant Pretty much every restaurant within 30 miles of the Bull Ring claims the title, but informed locals suggest you might like to make your way to the Al Faisal in Balsall Heath, or Balti Dave's in Lye, near Stourbridge.

A final thought:
There are more people employed in Indian restaurants in the UK than in the steel, coal and ship building industries combined.