A Vegetarian & Jain Dining Guide to London

TL;DR

• 🌿 London's South Asian food scene offers some of the finest vegetarian and Jain-friendly dining outside the subcontinent
• 🏛️ From Kensington to Borough Market, the city's neighbourhoods each hold their own story
• 🥙 Maharashtrian street food, South Indian classics, upscale thalis — the range is extraordinary
• 🇬🇧 Institutions like Memories of India have been proving this for over four decades
• 🍃 This guide covers the restaurants and areas that matter most for plant-based South Asian dining in London

London's relationship with South Asian food is one of the great culinary love stories of the modern world. It stretches back generations — to the first curry houses of the postwar decades, to the gradual sophistication of a dining scene that moved from convenience to conviction, from imitation to mastery. Today, the city's South Asian restaurants represent every region of the subcontinent, every style of cooking, every dietary tradition.

For vegetarian and Jain diners, this matters enormously. The subcontinent's plant-based traditions are among the most developed on earth — rooted in religious practice, agricultural reality, and centuries of culinary refinement. London's diaspora community has carried those traditions across the water and, in many cases, elevated them for a city that is now genuinely sophisticated about what it eats.

This guide focuses on the restaurants that do this best: the places where a vegetarian or Jain diner can eat with complete confidence, full pleasure, and a sense that the food has been made with real intention.

A Living Institution: Memories of India

Any honest account of vegetarian South Asian dining in London has to begin with Memories of India on Gloucester Road in Kensington. Open since 1983, this is one of the city's true dining institutions — a restaurant that has been serving the neighbourhood and the wider London food community for over four decades. Its proximity to the Royal Albert Hall has made it a destination for concertgoers and Kensington residents alike, and its reputation drew serious critical attention from food writers including Egon Ronay and Fay Maschler during the restaurant's formative years.

The menu at Memories of India covers the full range of the subcontinent's vegetarian repertoire. The cooking is steady, confident, and rooted in the understanding that longevity in London's restaurant scene requires consistent quality rather than constant reinvention. For Jain diners specifically, it is worth confirming the menu's current offerings in advance, as accommodations can often be made with notice.

Gloucester Road itself is a pleasant part of west London — tree-lined, residential, with the kind of easy tube access that makes it worth a special trip.

The City and The Queensway: The Rajasthan I and its Hundred Dishes

A very different kind of South Asian dining experience awaits in the City of London, where The Rajasthan I on Monument Street operates at a scale that reflects the ambitions of its location. With a menu that stretches beyond 100 dishes, this is a restaurant built for the diversity of tastes that a City crowd demands.

The name gestures toward Rajasthan, one of India's great vegetarian culinary regions. Rajasthani cooking developed an extraordinarily rich plant-based tradition precisely because of the historical influence of Jain communities in the region. Beans, lentils, dried vegetables, dairy — the building blocks of a cuisine that learned to be spectacular without relying on meat.

The Rajasthan I is also available for corporate events, which makes it a useful option for work gatherings where dietary variety across a large group needs to be covered. The Monument Street location puts it at the centre of London's financial geography, easily accessible for lunches and post-work dinners alike.

Insider Tip: Ask for the dal baati churma if it appears as a special. It is the most famous dish of Rajasthan's traditional cooking and gives you a direct line to the region's culinary soul.

Fleet Street and Borough: Everyday Vegetarian Done Well

Not every great vegetarian meal in London needs to be a destination experience. Two restaurants in particular demonstrate that everyday accessibility and genuine quality are not in conflict.

The India – Fleet Street, tucked into Crane Court just off the famous street, has built a following on its lunch thali service. A good thali is a kind of daily argument for vegetarian cooking — the variety, the balance of flavours, the sense that a meal can be complete and satisfying without any single element dominating. The kitchen here handles paneer tikka masala with confidence, and the vegetarian options across the menu reflect a serious engagement with the material rather than an afterthought approach.

For South Asian professionals working in and around the legal and media institutions that cluster along Fleet Street and into the City, The India – Fleet Street provides exactly what a working lunch should: efficient, flavourful, and worth coming back to.

Down at Silka on Southwark Street, just steps from Borough Market, the proposition shifts. This is elevated urban South Asian cooking — the kind of restaurant where the plating has thought behind it and the menu reflects genuine creative ambition. The vegetarian options here are not a category apart from the main menu; they are integrated into a kitchen that treats plant-based cooking as an equal discipline.

The Borough Market location gives Silka a particular character. The market itself is one of London's great food destinations, and arriving at Silka after a morning spent among the cheese stalls and bread vendors puts you in exactly the right frame of mind for food that takes its ingredients seriously.

Maharashtrian Street Food: Sree Krishna Vada Pav

For a completely different register of South Asian vegetarian experience, Sree Krishna Vada Pav in South Lambeth Road offers something the rest of London's South Asian restaurant scene largely does not: a rigorous focus on Maharashtrian street food, executed with the commitment of a kitchen that understands exactly what it is making.

Vada pav — the Mumbai street snack of a spiced potato dumpling in a soft bread roll — is one of those foods that sounds simple and reveals its complexity only when you have a truly good version in front of you. Sree Krishna Vada Pav is 100% vegetarian and operates with an honesty of purpose that is refreshing. Misal pav, another Maharashtra classic, is also on the menu — a spiced sprouted lentil curry served with bread that is substantial enough to be a full meal and complex enough to reward attention.

The South Lambeth Road location, under railway arches, adds to the street food authenticity. This is not a restaurant trying to be something it is not. It knows what it is, does it well, and serves a community that appreciates the difference.

South Indian Traditions: Shilpa

Shilpa rounds out this guide with a South Indian focus, particularly the traditions of Kerala cuisine. South Indian vegetarian cooking — built around rice, lentils, coconut, and a spice vocabulary that differs sharply from the north — is one of the world's great plant-based traditions.

For Jain diners, South Indian vegetarian restaurants require specific checking around the use of onion and garlic, which vary by dish. Shilpa's menu, rooted in Kerala's cooking, offers the kind of depth that rewards regulars who work through the menu over time.

FAQ

Q: Which of these restaurants is best for strictly Jain diners? A: Sree Krishna Vada Pav is 100% vegetarian and Maharashtrian in focus. For Jain requirements around onion and garlic, it is always best to call ahead — Memories of India and The Rajasthan I have the experience to accommodate specific requests with notice.

Q: Is the lunch thali at The India – Fleet Street good value? A: The India – Fleet Street is known for its lunch thali, which offers variety and satisfaction. Specific pricing is best confirmed directly, but the format — multiple small dishes — is inherently suited to sampling a range of vegetarian cooking.

Q: Does Silka near Borough Market take bookings? A: Silka on Southwark Street is a popular spot, particularly on weekends given its proximity to Borough Market. Booking ahead is strongly recommended.

Q: Are there South Indian options across these restaurants? A: Yes. Shilpa is the specialist South Indian address in this guide, with a focus on Kerala traditions. The India – Fleet Street and other restaurants also carry South Indian-influenced dishes on broader menus.

Q: How long has Memories of India been open? A: Memories of India on Gloucester Road has been open since 1983, making it one of London's longest-running South Asian restaurants.

Bottom Line

London's vegetarian and Jain-friendly South Asian dining scene is, without qualification, one of the best in the world. Memories of India anchors the west with four decades of consistent excellence. The Rajasthan I covers the City with scale and variety. The India – Fleet Street delivers reliable, satisfying lunches in a historic neighbourhood. Sree Krishna Vada Pav brings Maharashtrian street food into focus with real purity of purpose. And Silka, steps from Borough Market, makes the case that elevated South Asian vegetarian cooking has a natural home in London's most food-literate postcode. 🌿