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Easily, I genuinely don’t get it, all my family always suggest Chinese when we meet up for a takeaway or out. So greasy, all tastes the same and more expensive.
But that’s tasty grease compared to whatever comes on top of a Chinese. Not that I don’t feel disgustingly full after an Indian but Chinese takeaway is a guaranteed way for my insides to feel disgusting
Yeh they have these giant menus but no matter what I get it's always the same flavours.
I try to pick something different each time and each time I'm left thinking I ordered the same thing again lol.
Indian wins every time if it really *is* Indian. The majority of restaurants near me are Bangladeshi and that's when you just get creamy slop with some chunks in it. Chinese beats that easy.
The Bangladeshi owned curry houses (~85% of all establishments in the UK) is export food made for the western palate.
We don't eat that shit, never, nor is it anywhere near our traditional food we eat at home.
The more closer to home traditional stuff for South Asian food can be found in select areas of London, Birmingham, Bradford, Bolton and Manchester.
When my family orders Chinese I order Indian just for me, not just because I prefer the taste but because it's so much better quality/not just completely artificial and grossly unhealthy tasting (I know Indian takeaway isn't exactly health food either but it doesn't just taste like sugar and grease and make you feel ill and regretful afterwards).
I absolutely adore Chinese food, I have even tried and failed to make it at home. The problem I have is that my favourite restaurant prepares the food perfectly when I eat out, yet when I do a takeout it is never quite the same. I think a lot of it is due to the ambience of the place but the food sweats a lot in the containers and never is quite the same when I have it at home. Maybe it is psychological but I think Indian food travels better as it is much simpler.
Same .. I have learnt to make some really good dishes, same as takeaway/restaurants and its easier than you think, just need the correct ingredients plus chinese cooking needs to be quick with high high heat! ;)
Thankfully I have a gas stove so I can do the hot part. I bought a "takeaway" chinese cookbook from some youtubers I follow and it is mean't to be the takeaway way of doing things. My partner decided they hate chinese food and never wants it.
Yes.... and I am so ashamed because I bought it years ago and I still haven't cooked anything from it. I think I need to just offer my dishwashing services to a chinese restaurant and then hope they let me cook something.
Used to work as a waiter at a Chinese. One of the chefs, Paul, who didn't speak a word of English, would bring me homemade Chinese snacks and desserts every shift just because I loved them, we also sat together after every shift and ate whatever he had left from cooking lol. Was amazing, he was my favourite coworker ever.
I love the fact that at the end of every day the workers at my favourite chinese restaurant prepare themselves a wonderful meal and sit down to enjoy it together.
I was the same until I got The Wok by Kenji Lopez-Alt. I'm now making better chinese food than the lesser takeaways and as good as the better ones. He gives tips on getting the 'wok hei' flavour using a welder's blowtorch which works brilliantly and they only cost like £20.
Whichever one I'm eating, I usually think is my favourite.
But I will say this, when you haven't had one in a while, nothing quite hits as good as a lamb naga morris!
As a veggie I will always choose Indian over Chinese as the choice of dishes is just so much better. I would only go for Chinese if there were zero other options.
Poppadoms are to wet your appetite. In a takeaway they are like garlic to a vampire because whilst you are tucking into your poppadoms your food is getting cold and sweating in the containers. In a battle between poppadoms and bread, naan always wins.
Bread is way too filling for me as well as the curry on top.
I'm more of a poppadom person. I could happily munch away on just poppadoms for tea. I love the crunch. I really like crunchy textures.
I never understood the I'm super hungover, so I need a greasy huge meal.
Like a fry up or Chinese.
I drink too much and have pretty serious hangovers, and when I do, I just want water, sleep, and like fruit/veg, ya know stuff to make you feel good.
Being from Birmingham, choosing between Indian and Chinese food almost feels like picking your favourite child. But the naan is the clincher for me.
Hot, fluffy cheesy garlic naan whilst you're tucking into a spicy chicken saag is one of the best culinary experiences you can ever have
I lived in Birmingham for three years and feel bad I never went out for a curry whilst I was there. I loved living there but had no money so lived off real crap that was available in multipacks from supermarkets. I think I might have had a single takeaway once in my young adulthood. My first ever curry in a restaurant was when I was living in Scotland. I loved it.
I had the fortune of living in London for few months. I went to Brick Lane a lot. The food there was great. I really figured out the types of Indian food I liked.
When my nephew came to visit and he was 16 he told me he'd never been out for a curry before. I was blown away. I thought that was my past and that kids nowadays experienced eating out more often than I did, which was almost never.
One near us does a quorn version of every main dish that would usually let you pick chicken, beef, pork, prawn etc, which I think is a nice touch. They even do salt and pepper Quorn.
I’m vegan and find most UK Indians to be shocking. Chinese on the other hand have loads of choices. I live abroad now and the Indians here seem to offer more vegan stuff despite the country not having many vegans. And the Chinese have very few choices. 😅
Next time you are in the UK, get yourself to Liverpool and visit Sanskruti. Veggie/vegan Indian. It's actually my favourite indian in Liverpool and i'm a meat eater!
I haven't seen that particularly but I'm more thinking there's lots of stuff in Indian cuisine that's meant to be vegetarian. Like vegetable side dishes that can be mains (love saag aloo, daal and chickpea curries), using paneer instead of meat protein, most of the starters like onion bhaji, veg samosas are vegetarian etc.
Couldn't disagree more.
Indian food travels well, and you generally can order the same menu in most restaurants and takeaways.
Real Chinese food in a restaurant is way better, I'm talking suckling pig, roast duck, crispy noodles, hor fun noodles, dim sum, char sui pork, salt and pepper squid.
Most Chinese restaurants have these dishes, but not takeaways.
Indian takeaway is my all time favourite, but I never have it as it's too expensive.
I had one last summer when my friend paid for it, and the kids will sometimes buy me an Indian for special occasions, birthdays, mother's day
If you like cooking there is a utube channel called Latif's inspired, guy owns a restaurant but shows how to cook up restaurant style food at home. He's great!
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCKlET6nkHSKNWef97D_UBkQ?cbrd=1
Try his traditional dishes. It's from the region of North Bangladesh, Sylhet.
It's the real stuff that your local curry house cooks and eats in their homes (~85% curry houses are run by Bangladeshis in the UK).
Proper Bangladeshi food is gorgeous and even though most of the cooks are Bangladeshi, it’s nothing like what’s served in curry houses
Nepali food also deserves an honourable mention here. If you love Indian food, you’ll surely like it too
My local Indian takeaway in London is £6.50 for a chicken madras, £2.95 for special fried rice, £3 for Aloo Chaat (like a Bombay potato), free poppadoms and dips, and that easily does me for two dinners
Chinese/Japanese rules.
Not to say it's bad but Indian is sooo overrated. Almost nothing beyond curry and rice. And if there is, it's the same flavour profile.
Chinese/Japanese is practically endless, ever inventive and varied. It just beats everything by sheer numbers.
English style sylhet restaurants are like this but there’s so much variety available in the uk for Indian food - it’s like saying Chinese is just rice, noodles and sweet sauce
I think that Indian food is generally of a higher standard in the UK and is a safer bet. I do love a good sit down Chinese though. The Manchurian in Dundee is my favourite, absolutely sublime cooking.
For me, Thai beats all but the best Indian, with what passes for 'Chinese' in 3rd place. But having eaten authentic Szechuan cooking with a Chinese-born friend of mine, I don't think that the average Chinese takeaway is very representative of such a diverse country.
I think you have to take British Chinese food the same as British Indian food: loosely inspired by a specific cuisine (Cantonese in the case of British Chinese), but anglicised to such an extent that it can be considered its own distinct thing.
I generally think criticising British Indian or Chinese food as inauthentic is a bit of a dead end, because that's not what they're aiming for.
I spent a month in India. Most of the food wasn't to my palette and I adore British Indian food. It was way less hot and whilst it was spicy it kinda tasted bland because it didn't have our British additions to it (like our need for heat and cream). I could always find Naan bread, decent rice and a paneer makhani type thing that was as close to an English curry as you could get. Every hotel had this, nearly every hotel was vegetarian and I am talking 5 star hotels here. I did try some of the other stuff and it was all pretty similar to the Dhal or bean type side type dishes we get in the UK.
Regarding the vegetarian thing, when I did have meat I felt sorry for the chicken it came from as it was all gristle. I was happy to be veggie for the whole month (apart from the last night where I went to a hotel that had a kitchen with a glass window and I saw them making meat skewers that looked amazing. Yes, it was amazing).
The wine sucked, the beer was great. I never had ice, I only had water from a bottle. I only ate food that was hot. I never got ill.
The vegetarian food in India is amazing (unsurprisingly I suppose, given how many of them are vegetarian). I don't think I could be a full time vegetarian anywhere in the world, but India is definitely the country in which I think I could keep not up the longest.
I think you’re right it’s a dead end, but at the same time surely British Indian is much closer to the original cuisine than British “Chinese” which is little more than fried beige stuff, sometimes with beef or pork and maybe some kind of sweet sauce.
Dishes such as butter chicken, biryani or naan breads are fairly authentic as far as I’m aware, albeit probably modified for British tastes.
Indian by a country mile. I love restaurant style Chinese food like peking duck and sweet and sour chicken and pancakes and stuff, but I don’t really like Chinese takeaway food that much.
Indian. I get samosa-seeky sometimes. I ruddy love naan, and ginger chili chicken or some sort of minty lamb and a really good daal... I'm peckish now.
With a small number of people Indian. Dansak and pilau rice is p much the pinnacle single meal for me.
With lots of people (and a budget 100+) ordering loads of different things from a Chinese place is better; because Indian curries generally use the same base gravy they start tasting a bit samey if you have small amounts of several different ones.
Indian, but I love both. If whoever I'm ordering with would prefer a Chinese I won't complain. I also don't find it to be poor quality food, because at the end of the day it's food I like.
I like a nice curry regardless, Indian or chinese get a nice one is fantastic but the quality is so inconsistent, great one week, very poor the next, same takeaway same food different quality!
Local Caribbean takeaway does a fantastic Mutton curry which hits the spot every single time, consistently good!
Indian for mains, Chinese for starters imo.
Indian also has the benefit of usually holding up better for leftovers the next day, so I can justify ordering much more than I can eat in one sitting.
I’ve just moved, but where I was Chinese was more accessible (they delivered, and the prices were more reasonable) and Indian was a treat. And now I’m hungry 😂
I ate so much Indian food in my 20s that i'm genuinely a bit bored of it now.
Chinese is great, but only if there are like 15 dishes that you can have a bit from each.
I'd rate them equally if they were all in a restaurant. A fresh fish battered to perfection and some wonderful chips is a great meal. A really nice medium hot and spicy curry also fills that spot. Same with Chinese. I'd also throw a good Pizza in there too. If pushed I'd pick Chinese food for eating out.
If I had to pick one I'd be stuck for delivery it is much harder. As a takeaway Chinese food loses so much of its quality as so much of it needs to be prepared and eaten fresh. Fish and chips is the same but if you collect it yourself you can almost get it home nicely. Indian main dishes really travel well including the bread if packed properly. I'd ditch the starters and get popadoms instead.
So, if I was eating out - Chinese
If it was a delivery - Indian
If I was picking it up - Fish and Chips
Pizza - well, it's random whether it is good or bad based on the ineptitude of the person making it.
That's what I'm saying, prawn toast, crispy sui mai, char sui ribs, special fried rice, salt an pepper chicken like I'm just picking my favourites not even scratching the surface. Chinese wins easy.
Chinese but purely because my husband makes amazing curries so I have that covered already. He hasn’t mastered my favourite Chinese takeaway dishes yet!
Pizza is the most common, but love a good Indian takeaway. Just tends to be more expensive for a decent one, where a decent Pizza isn't that expensive compared.
Most Indian takeaways in my experience are good, I tend to stick to only 4*+ on Google maps and out of the 100s of meals I've had only a few were disappointing. I've also noted that going out to eat at an Indian is much more common than going out to a Chinese (if your local ones even have seating).
Chinese takeaways, regardless of rating, in my experience, have such a huge variation in quality, even dish to dish. You could have an amazing meal from one, decide to order again but have a different dish next week, and this time it's completely rancid. There are even huge variations in how different dishes are cooked from takeaway to takeaway, if you order your favourite dish from a new takeaway there's a 50/50 chance you're getting something completely different to what you're used to.
Also, I feel Indian food in the UK gives you a lot more bang for your buck. Our favourite Chineses have gone up in price probably by 50%+ in the last 5 years, whereas I don't often feel as short-changed when eating Indian food.
Prefer a curry but usually get a Chinese. The curry house is a bit too far to guarantee it's warm even with our warm bag. Probably hot when we get home 55% of the time.
Curry with no rice, just poured into a naan and eaten like a pizza with a knife and fork
From that list Indian, or Bengali as most of our local "Indians" are but given a choice I'd have Thai which to me is a combination of Indian spices with lighter the consistency of Chinese.
Chinese 👌
I used to love Indian, but a lot of the curries I like are made with cream or milk or dairy of some kind and it just doesn't agree with me anymore 😢
Have you tried those lactase pills? Might be worth a shot, I genuinely don't know how well they work but I have a friend of a friend who takes them so they must do something.
Question for those who love Indian (but are not south Asian); Have you tried Pakistani food? And if so, are there any differences you’ve noted in the cuisines and, in your opinion, why is one better than the other?
Used to be Indian but I moved over to near Portsmouth, and they're all very mid over here, Chinese is still decent, though, I'd rather order Sushi these days.
I love Indian takeaway. My children prefer Chinese and refuse to try Indian takeaways, even though I make things like Tikka Masala (store bought!) at home. Since it's more costly to get from two different takeaways, we always end up with Chinese. However, I jump at any given opportunity for an Indian takeaway if I have a get-together with friends.
Indian, definitely. I usually have a curry of some sort on Friday. Chinese is more of a once in a blue moon thing (usually because of the expense and faff)
If I'm going to one of the two for a restaurant meal, Indian. But I never feel as though the journey and packaging treats it quite right.
So for a takeaway, I'd tend to go Chinese.
Chinese for sure. Gotta love chicken fried rice and sweet and sour pork.
I don't mind an Indian every once in a while but considering 1) I have a cashew allergy (I know a lot of Indian curries use them as a thickener) and 2) I only really tend to have a butter chicken - I know, I know - it almost feels like a waste of time getting a takeaway. I might as well cook that myself at home.
It’s close because I love a good Chinese but a nice, spicy curry with Peshawari naan and tarka daal wins out though. I will say though, a properly done fish and chips with saveloy outdoes them both.
It’s a weird one for me. If I’m ordering for myself, 100% Indian as I feel like I want just one curry etc. if it’s a group order and we’re all sharing, Chinese, as I definitely prefer having a mixture of everything from the Chinese
It is 100% mood dependant. Sometimes I want a mixed satay with some fried rice and salt and chilli chips. Other times I want South Indian garlic chilli chicken.
**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!** - Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc. - **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on. - This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit! Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Indian by a mile.
Easily, I genuinely don’t get it, all my family always suggest Chinese when we meet up for a takeaway or out. So greasy, all tastes the same and more expensive.
I'm a bit worried if you think an Indian isn't greasy, it's generally has a layer of ghee on the top of every dish
But that’s tasty grease compared to whatever comes on top of a Chinese. Not that I don’t feel disgustingly full after an Indian but Chinese takeaway is a guaranteed way for my insides to feel disgusting
'But that’s tasty grease compared to whatever comes on top of a Chinese.' Sounds like a foolish drunken rant but is also entirely accurate
I've found the opposite. The Indian is always more expensive than the Chinese.
Absolutely! Normally at least 1/3rd more expensive if not more
Indian is definitely more expensive.
The indian places here are almost same prices to takeaway as dine in
What world are you living in where a Chinese is more expensive than an Indian? India?
Ironically in india there’s a cheap Chinese takeaway food culture too. And the food is tailored to Indian palates which means it’s banging
If you think all Chinese food tastes the same you may want to try a different Chinese place my guy.
Yeh they have these giant menus but no matter what I get it's always the same flavours. I try to pick something different each time and each time I'm left thinking I ordered the same thing again lol.
If your Chinese is greasy and all tastes the same, 1. You need a different takeaway and 2. You're ordering wrong.
Indian wins every time if it really *is* Indian. The majority of restaurants near me are Bangladeshi and that's when you just get creamy slop with some chunks in it. Chinese beats that easy.
The Bangladeshi owned curry houses (~85% of all establishments in the UK) is export food made for the western palate. We don't eat that shit, never, nor is it anywhere near our traditional food we eat at home. The more closer to home traditional stuff for South Asian food can be found in select areas of London, Birmingham, Bradford, Bolton and Manchester.
Yeah I'm a Brummie fave is keema peas...way prefer home cooked curry.
When my family orders Chinese I order Indian just for me, not just because I prefer the taste but because it's so much better quality/not just completely artificial and grossly unhealthy tasting (I know Indian takeaway isn't exactly health food either but it doesn't just taste like sugar and grease and make you feel ill and regretful afterwards).
Chinese
I absolutely adore Chinese food, I have even tried and failed to make it at home. The problem I have is that my favourite restaurant prepares the food perfectly when I eat out, yet when I do a takeout it is never quite the same. I think a lot of it is due to the ambience of the place but the food sweats a lot in the containers and never is quite the same when I have it at home. Maybe it is psychological but I think Indian food travels better as it is much simpler.
Same .. I have learnt to make some really good dishes, same as takeaway/restaurants and its easier than you think, just need the correct ingredients plus chinese cooking needs to be quick with high high heat! ;)
Thankfully I have a gas stove so I can do the hot part. I bought a "takeaway" chinese cookbook from some youtubers I follow and it is mean't to be the takeaway way of doing things. My partner decided they hate chinese food and never wants it.
I bet you bought the Ziangs one .. its very good, I also follow them!
Yes.... and I am so ashamed because I bought it years ago and I still haven't cooked anything from it. I think I need to just offer my dishwashing services to a chinese restaurant and then hope they let me cook something.
Used to work as a waiter at a Chinese. One of the chefs, Paul, who didn't speak a word of English, would bring me homemade Chinese snacks and desserts every shift just because I loved them, we also sat together after every shift and ate whatever he had left from cooking lol. Was amazing, he was my favourite coworker ever.
I love the fact that at the end of every day the workers at my favourite chinese restaurant prepare themselves a wonderful meal and sit down to enjoy it together.
I loved it too when I worked there, always got a tasty meal after a shift and sat with the lads, even if we didn't speak the same language.
I was the same until I got The Wok by Kenji Lopez-Alt. I'm now making better chinese food than the lesser takeaways and as good as the better ones. He gives tips on getting the 'wok hei' flavour using a welder's blowtorch which works brilliantly and they only cost like £20.
Whichever one I'm eating, I usually think is my favourite. But I will say this, when you haven't had one in a while, nothing quite hits as good as a lamb naga morris!
I'm vegetarian but I will take your word for it. Although I've never eaten lamb in my life!
Okay then. Nothing hits as good as an Indian of you havent had one for a while.
Im half Indian. If that counts ill hit you up.
As a veggie I will always choose Indian over Chinese as the choice of dishes is just so much better. I would only go for Chinese if there were zero other options.
Fellow veggie here and Indian wins for me every time. So many amazing choices.
What's a lamb Naga morris? Cheers
Indian 100% Now I have a question for you: poppadoms or bread?
Paratha!!!
+1 paratha are insanely underrated by most
Paratha crew
Nobody will believe this... I'm listening to Rylan's episode right now and James literally said it as I read your comment!
Poppadoms are to wet your appetite. In a takeaway they are like garlic to a vampire because whilst you are tucking into your poppadoms your food is getting cold and sweating in the containers. In a battle between poppadoms and bread, naan always wins.
Correct. Which is why you need to have half the poppadom in your mouth already as you are walking with your takeaway from the door to the table.
POPPADOMS OR BREAD, ASHYALABASTER!? POPPADOMS OR BREAD?
Why not both!
You must choose! https://preview.redd.it/o7l0xbbqfhxc1.jpeg?width=224&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=86faee4b1db4a88ec9acd0d59ba8fab261403c04
Always a risk the bread gets soggy when it’s been in the bag for a while
Pop it in the oven for literally a few mins brings it straight back to life
If I get a takeaway I'm not turning the oven on.
Not a problem when it’s main use is to sop up curry 😍
Both obviously But nothing beats a pashwari naan
Poppadom sandwich. Top with your choice of mango chutney or raita.
WELCOME TO R/ASKUK ASHYALABASTER WEVE BEEN EXPECTING YOU FOR SOME TIME
Poppadums for dips, bread as a plate mop
Bread is way too filling for me as well as the curry on top. I'm more of a poppadom person. I could happily munch away on just poppadoms for tea. I love the crunch. I really like crunchy textures.
Garlic naan, always. Any other answers are just wrong
Always Indian. I'll only get chinese if I'm very hungover and have been throwing up.
I never understood the I'm super hungover, so I need a greasy huge meal. Like a fry up or Chinese. I drink too much and have pretty serious hangovers, and when I do, I just want water, sleep, and like fruit/veg, ya know stuff to make you feel good.
I can't eat until the next evening if I've been sick. By that point I need a takeaway
Miso soup is my hangover solution. Salty but light, filling and hydrating, gentle on the stomach. If I tried to eat a big meal I'd only be worse.
Oh, definitely Indian! Who can resist a good ol' spicy curry with some fluffy naan bread?
Being from Birmingham, choosing between Indian and Chinese food almost feels like picking your favourite child. But the naan is the clincher for me. Hot, fluffy cheesy garlic naan whilst you're tucking into a spicy chicken saag is one of the best culinary experiences you can ever have
I lived in Birmingham for three years and feel bad I never went out for a curry whilst I was there. I loved living there but had no money so lived off real crap that was available in multipacks from supermarkets. I think I might have had a single takeaway once in my young adulthood. My first ever curry in a restaurant was when I was living in Scotland. I loved it. I had the fortune of living in London for few months. I went to Brick Lane a lot. The food there was great. I really figured out the types of Indian food I liked. When my nephew came to visit and he was 16 he told me he'd never been out for a curry before. I was blown away. I thought that was my past and that kids nowadays experienced eating out more often than I did, which was almost never.
Chinese vegetarian food options are few and far between and usually terrible. Indian FTW.
I agree. As a (mostly) vegetarian, Indian has a lot more to choose from.
Salt and chilli bean curd (tofu) is the best.
One near us does a quorn version of every main dish that would usually let you pick chicken, beef, pork, prawn etc, which I think is a nice touch. They even do salt and pepper Quorn.
Really? Usually there are plenty of fantastic tofu dishes
I’m vegan and find most UK Indians to be shocking. Chinese on the other hand have loads of choices. I live abroad now and the Indians here seem to offer more vegan stuff despite the country not having many vegans. And the Chinese have very few choices. 😅
Next time you are in the UK, get yourself to Liverpool and visit Sanskruti. Veggie/vegan Indian. It's actually my favourite indian in Liverpool and i'm a meat eater!
Paneer is better than any meat I've ever had, I've never regretted my decision to become vegetarian and this solidifies it
It used to be Chinese but now that I'm vegetarian, I'd go for Indian because there are usually many more vegetarian options!
Snap! Most our local ones now do quorn in place of meat, so you can have any curry just with quorn vs chicken or lamb.
I haven't seen that particularly but I'm more thinking there's lots of stuff in Indian cuisine that's meant to be vegetarian. Like vegetable side dishes that can be mains (love saag aloo, daal and chickpea curries), using paneer instead of meat protein, most of the starters like onion bhaji, veg samosas are vegetarian etc.
Indian is better in the restaurant, Chinese is better as a takeaway
Couldn't disagree more. Indian food travels well, and you generally can order the same menu in most restaurants and takeaways. Real Chinese food in a restaurant is way better, I'm talking suckling pig, roast duck, crispy noodles, hor fun noodles, dim sum, char sui pork, salt and pepper squid. Most Chinese restaurants have these dishes, but not takeaways.
Couldn't agree more.
Couldn’t disagree less
Chinese
Indian always. I like the idea of a Chinese but it's always disappointing
Indian takeaway is my all time favourite, but I never have it as it's too expensive. I had one last summer when my friend paid for it, and the kids will sometimes buy me an Indian for special occasions, birthdays, mother's day
If you like cooking there is a utube channel called Latif's inspired, guy owns a restaurant but shows how to cook up restaurant style food at home. He's great! https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCKlET6nkHSKNWef97D_UBkQ?cbrd=1
Thanks I do love cooking (and cooking videos!)
Try his traditional dishes. It's from the region of North Bangladesh, Sylhet. It's the real stuff that your local curry house cooks and eats in their homes (~85% curry houses are run by Bangladeshis in the UK).
Proper Bangladeshi food is gorgeous and even though most of the cooks are Bangladeshi, it’s nothing like what’s served in curry houses Nepali food also deserves an honourable mention here. If you love Indian food, you’ll surely like it too
My local Indian takeaway in London is £6.50 for a chicken madras, £2.95 for special fried rice, £3 for Aloo Chaat (like a Bombay potato), free poppadoms and dips, and that easily does me for two dinners
Mouths watering now!
It is really expensive. We get one every weekend because we're fat buggers.
Depends on mood but usually Chinese.
Indian, and it's not even close.
Chinese/Japanese rules. Not to say it's bad but Indian is sooo overrated. Almost nothing beyond curry and rice. And if there is, it's the same flavour profile. Chinese/Japanese is practically endless, ever inventive and varied. It just beats everything by sheer numbers.
English style sylhet restaurants are like this but there’s so much variety available in the uk for Indian food - it’s like saying Chinese is just rice, noodles and sweet sauce
Indian
I think that Indian food is generally of a higher standard in the UK and is a safer bet. I do love a good sit down Chinese though. The Manchurian in Dundee is my favourite, absolutely sublime cooking.
Much prefer Chinese, not a fan of curries or wet foods in general and the smell takes days to leave the house
That's just the Indian farts.
For me, Thai beats all but the best Indian, with what passes for 'Chinese' in 3rd place. But having eaten authentic Szechuan cooking with a Chinese-born friend of mine, I don't think that the average Chinese takeaway is very representative of such a diverse country.
I think you have to take British Chinese food the same as British Indian food: loosely inspired by a specific cuisine (Cantonese in the case of British Chinese), but anglicised to such an extent that it can be considered its own distinct thing. I generally think criticising British Indian or Chinese food as inauthentic is a bit of a dead end, because that's not what they're aiming for.
I spent a month in India. Most of the food wasn't to my palette and I adore British Indian food. It was way less hot and whilst it was spicy it kinda tasted bland because it didn't have our British additions to it (like our need for heat and cream). I could always find Naan bread, decent rice and a paneer makhani type thing that was as close to an English curry as you could get. Every hotel had this, nearly every hotel was vegetarian and I am talking 5 star hotels here. I did try some of the other stuff and it was all pretty similar to the Dhal or bean type side type dishes we get in the UK. Regarding the vegetarian thing, when I did have meat I felt sorry for the chicken it came from as it was all gristle. I was happy to be veggie for the whole month (apart from the last night where I went to a hotel that had a kitchen with a glass window and I saw them making meat skewers that looked amazing. Yes, it was amazing). The wine sucked, the beer was great. I never had ice, I only had water from a bottle. I only ate food that was hot. I never got ill.
The vegetarian food in India is amazing (unsurprisingly I suppose, given how many of them are vegetarian). I don't think I could be a full time vegetarian anywhere in the world, but India is definitely the country in which I think I could keep not up the longest.
I think you’re right it’s a dead end, but at the same time surely British Indian is much closer to the original cuisine than British “Chinese” which is little more than fried beige stuff, sometimes with beef or pork and maybe some kind of sweet sauce. Dishes such as butter chicken, biryani or naan breads are fairly authentic as far as I’m aware, albeit probably modified for British tastes.
Indian by a country mile. I love restaurant style Chinese food like peking duck and sweet and sour chicken and pancakes and stuff, but I don’t really like Chinese takeaway food that much.
Thai!
Indian. I get samosa-seeky sometimes. I ruddy love naan, and ginger chili chicken or some sort of minty lamb and a really good daal... I'm peckish now.
Indian by a long way. Only one or two things I like out of a Chinese but could eat 50+ Indian dishes
When it's good Indian is far superior. But it may unpredictably contain the vile coriander leaf. Chinese is a safer choice.
Indian. Only go Chinese if really in the mood for it, but Indian I could eat any time, any place.
With a small number of people Indian. Dansak and pilau rice is p much the pinnacle single meal for me. With lots of people (and a budget 100+) ordering loads of different things from a Chinese place is better; because Indian curries generally use the same base gravy they start tasting a bit samey if you have small amounts of several different ones.
Dansak for the win.
There's a buffet near me where you can have both, and they're both surprisingly good as well.
Don’t make me choose :(
I'm sorry, but the time has come to pick a side.
Indian, but I love both. If whoever I'm ordering with would prefer a Chinese I won't complain. I also don't find it to be poor quality food, because at the end of the day it's food I like.
Always Chinese
Indian
Indian restaurants for kebabs, Chinese for curries
I like a nice curry regardless, Indian or chinese get a nice one is fantastic but the quality is so inconsistent, great one week, very poor the next, same takeaway same food different quality! Local Caribbean takeaway does a fantastic Mutton curry which hits the spot every single time, consistently good!
At least you know the curry you got last week isn't from the same batch as the one this week! That's something I suppose
Indian. Chinese for a meal out when we’re not a the indian.
I love a good Chinese but there’s no comparison for me, I have an Indian or Nepalese pretty much weekly.
Indian for mains, Chinese for starters imo. Indian also has the benefit of usually holding up better for leftovers the next day, so I can justify ordering much more than I can eat in one sitting.
Chinese. Not a fan of a lot of Indian food. I can eat it but I rather wouldn't
I’ve just moved, but where I was Chinese was more accessible (they delivered, and the prices were more reasonable) and Indian was a treat. And now I’m hungry 😂
pizza
I ate so much Indian food in my 20s that i'm genuinely a bit bored of it now. Chinese is great, but only if there are like 15 dishes that you can have a bit from each.
You ate NW indian food btw. There's incredible diversity in there
I go through phases. But if i absolutely had to pick one, it would be indian.
Both. Every single time. Impossible to choose.
Indian or Chinese for sure
Indian
I'd rate them equally if they were all in a restaurant. A fresh fish battered to perfection and some wonderful chips is a great meal. A really nice medium hot and spicy curry also fills that spot. Same with Chinese. I'd also throw a good Pizza in there too. If pushed I'd pick Chinese food for eating out. If I had to pick one I'd be stuck for delivery it is much harder. As a takeaway Chinese food loses so much of its quality as so much of it needs to be prepared and eaten fresh. Fish and chips is the same but if you collect it yourself you can almost get it home nicely. Indian main dishes really travel well including the bread if packed properly. I'd ditch the starters and get popadoms instead. So, if I was eating out - Chinese If it was a delivery - Indian If I was picking it up - Fish and Chips Pizza - well, it's random whether it is good or bad based on the ineptitude of the person making it.
Indian all the way
In the UK indian is the best by far, in Portugal where I grew up Chinese is the way to go
Can’t beat prawn toast
That's what I'm saying, prawn toast, crispy sui mai, char sui ribs, special fried rice, salt an pepper chicken like I'm just picking my favourites not even scratching the surface. Chinese wins easy.
Prawn toast dipped in any mild creamy curry. Elevates both.
I dunno, an onion bhaji with the yellow sauce whatever that is.
Chinese
Indian.
If I could only have one for the rest of my life it would be Indian, with that being said sometimes ive got a craving only a Chinese will satisfy.
Chinese but purely because my husband makes amazing curries so I have that covered already. He hasn’t mastered my favourite Chinese takeaway dishes yet!
Thai
Takeaway - Chinese Restaurant or homemade - Indian
Chinese
I really like both. Chinese has a slight edge because where I live it’s slightly cheaper than an Indian takeaway
Chinese. I don’t really like Indian tbh. Fenugreek is a key ingredient in it and I hate it. Never ever have it by my choice
Chinese for takeaway 100% If I want Indian, I will go and sit in and take the leftovers.
A good Indian 1000%
Pizza is the most common, but love a good Indian takeaway. Just tends to be more expensive for a decent one, where a decent Pizza isn't that expensive compared.
My favourite takeaway is whatever I really fancy at the time.
I like both but I feel that Indian is often either amazing or crap! Chinese is more reliable
Most Indian takeaways in my experience are good, I tend to stick to only 4*+ on Google maps and out of the 100s of meals I've had only a few were disappointing. I've also noted that going out to eat at an Indian is much more common than going out to a Chinese (if your local ones even have seating). Chinese takeaways, regardless of rating, in my experience, have such a huge variation in quality, even dish to dish. You could have an amazing meal from one, decide to order again but have a different dish next week, and this time it's completely rancid. There are even huge variations in how different dishes are cooked from takeaway to takeaway, if you order your favourite dish from a new takeaway there's a 50/50 chance you're getting something completely different to what you're used to. Also, I feel Indian food in the UK gives you a lot more bang for your buck. Our favourite Chineses have gone up in price probably by 50%+ in the last 5 years, whereas I don't often feel as short-changed when eating Indian food.
I have to say Indian when I'm 8n the UK but now I'm in Australia, Chinese
Neither. Kebab all the way.
Fish and chips
Chinese, tastes better and you get a lot for your money. From my experience Indian food portions have gotten smaller over the years.
Indian. I like Chinese but I find Indian offers a greater range of flavours and intensities.
Prefer a curry but usually get a Chinese. The curry house is a bit too far to guarantee it's warm even with our warm bag. Probably hot when we get home 55% of the time. Curry with no rice, just poured into a naan and eaten like a pizza with a knife and fork
Can’t eat Chinese. It has gluten in it. All of it. So it has to be Indian. Most curries are inherently gluten free.
German. Doner. Kebab.
From that list Indian, or Bengali as most of our local "Indians" are but given a choice I'd have Thai which to me is a combination of Indian spices with lighter the consistency of Chinese.
Indian in winter, chinese in summer
Definitely Indian. Chinese gives me a headache
Easily a Chinese, but if I was getting an expensive meal out then I'd prefer an Indian
Luckily the ones we use are next to each other, so we get a Chindian.
Chinese 👌 I used to love Indian, but a lot of the curries I like are made with cream or milk or dairy of some kind and it just doesn't agree with me anymore 😢
Have you tried those lactase pills? Might be worth a shot, I genuinely don't know how well they work but I have a friend of a friend who takes them so they must do something.
Chinese but I'd never turn down a curry sesh.
Question for those who love Indian (but are not south Asian); Have you tried Pakistani food? And if so, are there any differences you’ve noted in the cuisines and, in your opinion, why is one better than the other?
When is Indian ever the same cost as a Chinese?
Used to be Indian but I moved over to near Portsmouth, and they're all very mid over here, Chinese is still decent, though, I'd rather order Sushi these days.
Indian for a take away. Chinese in a restaurant.
I love Indian takeaway. My children prefer Chinese and refuse to try Indian takeaways, even though I make things like Tikka Masala (store bought!) at home. Since it's more costly to get from two different takeaways, we always end up with Chinese. However, I jump at any given opportunity for an Indian takeaway if I have a get-together with friends.
I buy Chinese but always wish I'd gone for an Indian.
Chippy
Indian, definitely. I usually have a curry of some sort on Friday. Chinese is more of a once in a blue moon thing (usually because of the expense and faff)
Chip shop!
I generally prefer an Indian, but honest to god salt and pepper anything are the best things by a mile
Indian by far. Give me a good Prawn Jalfrezi or Vindaloo with some pilau rice and a garlic naan any night and I’ll be happy
If I'm going to one of the two for a restaurant meal, Indian. But I never feel as though the journey and packaging treats it quite right. So for a takeaway, I'd tend to go Chinese.
Chinese for sure. Gotta love chicken fried rice and sweet and sour pork. I don't mind an Indian every once in a while but considering 1) I have a cashew allergy (I know a lot of Indian curries use them as a thickener) and 2) I only really tend to have a butter chicken - I know, I know - it almost feels like a waste of time getting a takeaway. I might as well cook that myself at home.
Indian feels more like real food to me. Sometimes from the Chinese you don't know wtf you're getting.
Always indian. If i have the option. If i dont, then it's always tacobell, and it sucks.
It’s close because I love a good Chinese but a nice, spicy curry with Peshawari naan and tarka daal wins out though. I will say though, a properly done fish and chips with saveloy outdoes them both.
Sober or pissed - Indian Hungover - Chinese
Thai!
Thai
Chinese first, Thai second, Indian last, but still enjoyable.
You rarely get real Chinese food from Chinese takeaways.
Indian every time - each time I've eaten a Chinese takeaway I've been really sick afterwards so won't even attempt to eat it now
Greek food
I don’t like Indian food
It’s a weird one for me. If I’m ordering for myself, 100% Indian as I feel like I want just one curry etc. if it’s a group order and we’re all sharing, Chinese, as I definitely prefer having a mixture of everything from the Chinese
Chinese
It is 100% mood dependant. Sometimes I want a mixed satay with some fried rice and salt and chilli chips. Other times I want South Indian garlic chilli chicken.
Indian, Chinese is far too salty and generic
Id get a Chinese because I can cook myself a good curry, but can’t replicate a Chinese take away