Best Indian Food in Raleigh
Raleigh, North Carolina — updated August 22, 2026
Eight Raleigh Indian restaurants ranked by how convincingly the reviews back them up, from a 4.8 with more than 2,200 ratings to smaller kitchens still building a record.
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Raleigh's Indian restaurants cluster in a few predictable places: the Glenwood Avenue corridor northwest of downtown, the Six Forks and Millbrook stretch, Brier Creek out near the airport, and Hillsborough Street next to NC State. The ranking below leans on how settled each rating is, so a 4.8 backed by thousands of reviews outranks a 4.8 backed by a few hundred, and a strong score with a thin record is flagged as such.
1. Lime & Lemon Indian Grill & Bar - Raleigh
The strongest evidence in the city: 4.8 across more than 2,200 reviews, which is a rating that has been tested repeatedly rather than propped up by a good opening month. It sits on Friendly Drive off the western edge of downtown, and the kitchen posts Bombay Lamb Chops among the dishes it puts forward. Service runs in two blocks, a midday window and an evening one, with a gap between them, and Sunday dinner closes earlier than the rest of the week at 9. Check the current hours before a late arrival, since not every day carries both blocks.
2. Bazil Indian Cuisine
Also a 4.8, with more than 1,150 reviews behind it, putting it just under Lime & Lemon on volume alone. The Glenwood Avenue address is a straightforward drive from Crabtree, and the menu is organized around appetizers, biryani and sides rather than a sprawling all-regions list. Weekdays split into a lunch service starting at 11 and a dinner service starting at 5, so the mid-afternoon is dead. Weekends are the easier bet: Saturday and Sunday run from late morning through to 10 PM without the break, and Friday dinner also stretches to 10.
3. Bombay Curry
A 4.7 over 677 reviews, which is enough of a sample to take seriously without matching the top two. The location is on Strickland Road in north Raleigh, well outside the Glenwood cluster, which makes it the practical choice if you are coming from Bayleaf or the northern suburbs rather than driving in toward the beltline. Among the restaurants here it lands in the useful middle: a high rating, a solid record, and less of a wait than the two names above it typically generate on a weekend evening.
4. Masala House
The rating ties for the highest on this list at 4.8, but it rests on 492 reviews, the smallest count of the eight. That makes it promising rather than proven. Everything about the score points in the right direction, there is simply less of it. The address is East Millbrook Road, close to the Six Forks intersection, which puts it in reach of north Raleigh offices at lunch. If you want the numbers to be beyond argument, start higher on this list; if you want to get ahead of a place that is trending well, start here.
5. Tamasha Modern Indian
A 4.6 across 707 reviews, a well-supported score for a kitchen working a modern angle rather than a standard curry-house template. It is on Six Forks Road in the North Hills area, which means parking structures rather than a strip-mall lot and a heavier dinner crowd on Friday and Saturday. The review count is roughly on par with Bombay Curry's, so the gap between them comes down to two tenths of a point. Worth booking ahead when North Hills has events running.
6. Kabab and Curry - Raleigh
The 4.4 rating is the middle of this field, but it carries the second-largest sample here at more than 1,550 reviews, which makes it one of the most thoroughly documented Indian restaurants in Raleigh. The Hillsborough Street address puts it directly in the NC State corridor, so expect a student-heavy room and street parking that tightens on game days and during the semester. A consistent, heavily reviewed 4.4 is a different thing from a shaky one: it means a lot of people have found it reliable.
7. Azitra Indian Culinary Nirvana
Rated 4.2 across more than 1,000 reviews, so the score is well established even though it trails the leaders. Azitra is in Brier Creek Parkway near the airport and the retail center there, which makes it the most convenient option on this list for anyone flying in or working on the RTP side of town. The volume of reviews means the rating is unlikely to move much in either direction, and it is the right call primarily on location.
8. Kadhai the Indian Wok
At 4.1 over 677 reviews, this is the lowest-rated entry here, and with that many reviews the number is settled rather than provisional. It sits on the same Glenwood Avenue stretch as Bazil, a few blocks apart, which invites a direct comparison that Bazil wins on the numbers. Included because the sample is large and the score is respectable, not because it competes with the top of the list. Convenient if you are already on that corridor and Bazil is between services.