There is a point somewhere along New Jersey’s Route 27 corridor where deciding what to eat becomes almost comically difficult. One plaza offers crackling dosas; the next has smoky kebabs coming from a tandoor; a few miles later, somebody is serving goat biryani fragrant enough to make your original dinner plans irrelevant.
And the choices extend far beyond Edison. New Jersey’s Indian restaurant scene stretches from Jersey City Heights to Red Bank and all the way down toward Atlantic City, covering everything from Delhi street snacks and South Indian tiffin to polished modern cooking and elaborate regional curries.
The best places are not interchangeable, either. Some are built for grabbing takeout and eating it before you even make it home.
Others deserve a reservation and a table full of shared plates. Whether your weakness is butter chicken, paper-thin dosa, spicy Chettinad curry, or anything cooked over charcoal, these 12 restaurants make a strong case for exploring the state one meal at a time.
1. Delhi Garden: An Edison Comfort Food Stop
Takeout restaurants are not supposed to make choosing dinner this difficult, yet the menu at this Route 27 favorite in Edison can turn a quick pickup into a full-scale ordering strategy. Delhi Garden is primarily set up for food to go, and that lack of dining-room ceremony actually suits it.
The attention stays firmly on the curries, kebabs, biryanis, Indian-Chinese dishes, and breads leaving the kitchen. Start with the Delhi samosa chaat, where broken samosas disappear beneath chickpeas, yogurt, chutneys, and onion, or move immediately toward the clay oven.
Bihari kebab brings a deeper, heavily marinated flavor, while the milder Mal Mal Kebab leans creamy and tender. The chicken tikka masala and butter chicken are both priced at $13.99 on the current menu, which makes Delhi Garden one of the easier places on this list to build a substantial spread without watching the bill climb too quickly.
Vegetarians have plenty to work with, including saag paneer, dal makhani, methi malai matar, and malai kofta. There is also an Indian-Chinese side to the menu, with chilli gobi, Manchurian dishes, Hakka noodles, and fried rice.
Delhi Garden sits at 1677 Route 27 and currently serves lunch and dinner six days a week, closing Tuesdays. If you are ordering during the dinner rush, calling ahead is the smart move.
2. Moghul Restaurant: Make Dinner a Shared Event
Oak Tree Road has enough excellent Indian food to make picking one restaurant feel unfair, but Moghul has been a landmark choice in Edison for a reason. This is the place to pick when dinner calls for more of an occasion than grabbing a container of curry on the way home.
The restaurant at 1655 Oak Tree Road has a polished dining room, lunch service, dinner service, and private-event space, yet the menu remains rooted in recognizable regional Indian cooking rather than relying entirely on presentation. Biryani is an obvious direction here, with chicken, lamb, goat, vegetable, and shrimp versions represented across the restaurant’s menus.
A larger table lets you explore further: breads such as garlic naan, onion kulcha, and lachha paratha are natural partners for richer curries, while seafood options venture into Bengali shrimp curry, Goan preparations, Malabar-style fish, and other regional flavors. That breadth is part of Moghul’s appeal.
You can bring someone who wants familiar chicken tikka and someone hunting for something more specific, and neither has to compromise. Lunch currently runs from noon to 3 p.m., followed by dinner from 5 p.m.; Friday and Saturday service stretches later into the evening, while Monday is the weekly closure.
In a neighborhood where competition is fierce, longevity and range count for quite a lot.
3. Amma’s South Indian Cuisine: Follow the Dosa Craving
The sound of a crisp dosa cracking under a fork tells you almost everything you need to know about why Amma’s belongs on this list. The Voorhees restaurant puts South Indian cooking front and center, with a menu that gives rice-and-lentil crepes, tiffin dishes, kothu parotta, biryani, and comforting rice preparations as much attention as the curries many American diners instinctively associate with Indian restaurants.
A basic masala dosa is a fine starting point: crisp on the outside, filled with seasoned potato, and served with sambar and chutneys. But regular dosa eaters can go considerably deeper with ghee roast, Mysore masala, rava, podi, paneer masala, and several other variations.
The tiffin combo is particularly useful for indecisive first-timers because it brings together idli, pongal, vadai, a mini dosa, dessert, and a hot drink in one order. Kothu parotta offers a completely different texture, chopping flaky flatbread together with vegetables, egg, chicken, or mutton and spices.
Then there is the biryani selection, including Chennai-style chicken and mutton versions and preparations made with jeeraga samba rice. Amma’s is located at 700 Eagle Plaza in Voorhees Township, with additional New Jersey locations, and its menu makes the strongest case for arriving hungry enough to order beyond the familiar North Indian staples.
4. The Nizam’s: Give Biryani the Spotlight
South Jersey diners do not need to drive north toward Edison every time a craving for kebabs and curry hits. The Nizam’s, located along Route 40 in Egg Harbor Township, has built its menu around a broad mix of North and South Indian preparations and works equally well for a casual dinner or the sort of big family meal where half the table ends up passing dishes in every direction.
The grill is a sensible place to begin. Lamb seekh kebab and Nizam Tangri Kebab are among the restaurant’s featured specialties, giving meat eaters a smoky opening before the curries arrive.
Chili shrimp brings a sharper change of pace, while familiar chaat options such as samosa chaat, aloo tikki chaat, and papdi chaat make it easy to order a few starters for the table instead of committing to individual appetizers. What makes The Nizam’s particularly useful is its range.
Someone who wants an approachable meal can stick with samosas, tandoori items, breads, and classic curries, while more experienced Indian-food fans can spread the order across different regional styles. Save room for kulfi if you can; the traditional frozen dessert is one of the restaurant’s highlighted finishes.
The Nizam’s sits at 6725 US-40 in Egg Harbor Township, has a dedicated banquet facility, and currently lists daily service, making it one of the more dependable Indian options near the Atlantic City area.
5. Kabab Culture: Let the Grill Lead
Some menus bury the grilled food halfway down the page. At Kabab Culture, the smoky stuff is the reason to show up.
This Somerset restaurant on Route 27 specializes in dishes that reward anyone who believes a tandoor can improve almost anything. The Angaarey Chicken Tikka is a strong example: boldly marinated chicken hits the grill until the exterior chars, leaving a slow-building heat rather than simply blasting the palate.
Chicken malai tikka takes the opposite approach, using cream and cashew paste for something softer and milder. Then there is galouti kabab, the famously tender Lucknow-style preparation made from highly seasoned minced meat, which offers a welcome reminder that “kebab” covers far more territory than skewered chicken.
If you are going big, chef’s special lamb chops sit at the upper end of the menu, while mahi mahi appears both as fish tikka and Fish Amritsari. The mains are hardly an afterthought.
Chicken and goat dum biryanis, methi chicken curry, butter chicken, paneer butter masala, and even jackfruit biryani give the table plenty to explore after the grill plates disappear. Kabab Culture is at 1991 Route 27 in Somerset, right in one of New Jersey’s strongest areas for Indian dining.
Bring enough people to justify sharing several appetizers; ordering only one kebab here feels like missing the point.
6. Bombay River: Add Indian Food to Your Red Bank Plans
Broad Street in Red Bank is more commonly associated with boutiques, bars, and date-night restaurants than with pani puri and Goan vindaloo, which is exactly why Bombay River is such a useful address to know. The restaurant takes a more contemporary approach to Indian dining without stripping the food of its personality.
Small plates are particularly fun here. Lasooni gobi coats crisp cauliflower with garlic and chili sauce, honey chili crispy lotus turns lotus root into a sweet-spicy snack, and the “Naanchos” push things firmly into playful territory with crispy naan, chicken tikka, tomato-onion salad, queso-tikka cheese sauce, and tamarind.
Traditionalists have plenty of options too. The menu moves through saag paneer, dal makhani, lamb rogan josh, chicken jalfrezi, Goan fish curry, biryani, and several tandoor selections.
The apricot lamb korma is worth noticing because its combination of creamy gravy, Turkish apricots, turmeric, cinnamon, and cloves makes it stand apart from the standard curry lineup. Bombay River sits at 90 Broad Street, an easy fit for dinner before or after wandering downtown Red Bank.
Weekend brunch adds another excuse to visit, while dinner reservations are sensible when downtown is busy. This is the restaurant on the list for anyone who wants Indian flavors without giving up the feel of a proper night out.
7. Deccan Spice – Edison: Explore Beyond Your Usual Order
Ghost-chili paneer and $54 lamb chops appearing on the same menu should tell you that Deccan Spice is not playing it especially safe. The Edison restaurant combines familiar Indian favorites with a more ambitious collection of regional dishes, live-fire cooking, and upscale ingredients.
Angaarey Paneer is finished in the tandoor after a marinade involving ghost chili, turmeric, and ginger, while the Hyderabadi Royale Lamb Chop gets fennel, cloves, and a slower roast. Seafood gets equally serious treatment: Nasheele Jhinga uses tiger prawns with coastal spices and ajwain.
Even the vegetable dishes refuse to disappear into the background. Baghare Baingan, an Andhra specialty, pairs eggplant with coconut and peanut sauce, and kurkure bhindi turns okra into a crisp starter with ginger, garlic, onions, tomatoes, and masala.
Biryani fans should look toward the Hyderabadi-inspired chicken dum biryani, while diners seeking something milder can work toward korma and other richer gravies. The pricing here runs higher than at casual curry counters, particularly once seafood and lamb enter the order, so Deccan Spice makes the most sense when you want dinner to feel like an event rather than a quick weeknight fix.
Find it at 153 Wood Avenue in Edison. In a town overflowing with Indian restaurants, the menu’s willingness to stretch beyond the safest crowd-pleasers is what earns this one its place.
8. Bhog Indian Restaurant: Build a Balanced Table
One order of gongura chicken is enough to understand why Bhog should not be reduced to another butter-chicken stop. Its Somerset menu ranges across Indian regions and gives plenty of space to Andhra flavors, tandoor cooking, Indo-Chinese dishes, biryani, and less predictable meat preparations.
Gongura chicken uses the tangy sorrel leaves so closely associated with Andhra cooking, while kodi vepudu brings chicken together with curry leaves and green chilies. The same regional streak continues with gongura mamsam, a goat preparation with sorrel, chilies, and curry leaves.
From the tandoor, the Chicken Soola/Motia combination kebab is one of Bhog’s signatures, alongside lamb chops, spicy Kashmiri-style goat ribs, salmon tikka, and chicken malai kebab. Vegetarians are hardly sidelined: paneer, dosas, Indo-Chinese options, and a broad collection of vegetable mains give non-meat eaters a real choice rather than a token handful of dishes.
Bhog currently operates at 2 John F. Kennedy Boulevard in Somerset, with lunch and dinner periods separated on weekdays and longer midday hours on weekends.
Prices generally land above basic takeout territory, particularly for goat, lamb, and seafood, but the breadth of the menu makes it especially good for groups who want to order widely. Come with four people, not two, and treat the center of the table as shared territory.
9. Balaji Bhavan: A Vegetarian South Indian Detour
A three-foot dosa has a way of turning lunch into a conversation with neighboring tables. Balaji Bhavan’s 70MM Family Dosa is exactly what it sounds like: an enormous rice crepe served with sambar and chutney, and it neatly captures the straightforward, food-first appeal of this vegetarian Jersey City restaurant.
Located at 249 Central Avenue in Jersey City Heights, Balaji Bhavan focuses heavily on South Indian vegetarian cooking. That means dosas in numerous forms, idli, tiffin dishes, chutneys, sambar, and other meat-free staples that do not feel like substitutions for anything.
The gunpowder dosa adds a spicy dried lentil powder to the crisp crepe, while the MLA Pesarattu switches the usual rice-and-lentil base for a green gram crepe filled with onion and upma. If someone in the group insists on a richer North Indian-style curry, paneer butter masala and kaju masala broaden the options without changing the restaurant’s all-vegetarian identity.
Prices are refreshingly approachable, with several dosa and breakfast-style dishes sitting around or below the mid-teens on the current menu. This is not the place that needs an elaborate three-course plan.
Order a couple of different crepes, make sure there is enough sambar to go around, and let everyone tear off pieces until the table looks thoroughly defeated. For vegetarian diners in North Jersey, it is an especially useful address to keep bookmarked.
10. Paheli Modern Indian Cuisine: Get Curious About the Menu
Pani puri arrives here as “shots,” avocado finds its way into bhel, and tiny kulchas come stuffed with paneer and Amul cheese over makhani sauce. Paheli makes its intentions clear before the entrées even arrive.
The Wayne restaurant uses familiar Indian flavors as a starting point but is happy to nudge them in a more contemporary direction, making it a particularly good choice when the table includes diners who already know the classics and want something different. Crispy palak chaat, gobi 65, samosa chaat, and those mini Paheli kulchas make the appetizer section hard to rush through.
From there, the menu swings back toward recognizable comfort food with butter chicken, dal, chicken korma, biryani, and an assortment of chicken kebabs. The chef’s special masala roast is another frequently ordered option, while goat, lamb, and chicken biryanis let rice lovers choose their preferred level of richness.
Paheli is at 239 Berdan Avenue in Wayne, and current pricing reflects its modern, sit-down positioning: butter chicken and chicken biryani are around $24, with lamb and goat biryanis climbing a little higher. This is one of those rare restaurants where ordering the obvious dish is perfectly fine, but ignoring the smaller plates would be a mistake.
Give the table at least one starter nobody has tried before; that is where Paheli’s personality tends to show most clearly.
11. Chatpati Delhi: Chase Bright, Tangy Flavors
Come here with the mindset of wandering through a Delhi market rather than sitting down for the standard appetizer-curry-naan progression. Chatpati Delhi in Franklin Park builds much of its menu around street food, snacks, chaats, stuffed breads, rolls, tandoori dishes, and the kind of items that practically demand sharing.
Khasta kachori offers a crisp shell filled with seasoned lentils, while Jaipur-style pyaaz kachori leans into spiced onion filling. Chandni Chowk ke bhalle brings soft lentil fritters together with yogurt, tamarind chutney, mint sauce, and spices, producing the sweet-sour-spicy combination that makes chaat so hard to stop eating.
The menu then branches into sections with names such as Mumbai Local, Tikkawala, Biryani Ki Kahani, Old School Paranthas, and Roll Baby Roll, which should give you a sense of how broad the snack-food territory becomes. You can certainly build a conventional dinner here, but the smarter strategy is to order five or six smaller things and let the meal zigzag between crisp, creamy, tangy, and fiery.
Chatpati Delhi is currently at 3201 Route 27 in Franklin Park, not Iselin, and is closed Mondays. Friday and Saturday hours stretch to 10 p.m., which makes those evenings especially convenient for a long, snack-heavy dinner.
Bring friends who do not mind everybody reaching across the table.
12. Urban Tandoor: Plan an Indian Dinner in Harrison
Chicken 65 inside biryani is the sort of idea that sounds excessive right up until the first forkful. Urban Tandoor in Harrison layers crispy, ginger-and-lemon-spiced chicken into basmati rice for one of its featured dishes, and that willingness to have a little fun runs throughout the menu.
There is still classic butter chicken in a deep tomato-cream sauce for anyone who wants the familiar stuff, but the more interesting path runs through items such as chili cheese naan, Apollo Fish 65, Indo-Chinese dishes, and regional biryanis. The Dindigul Thalappakatti-style options are particularly notable because they use seeraga samba, the small-grain rice associated with this South Indian biryani style, rather than defaulting to basmati.
A mutton version and a Chicken 65 variation both appear on the current menu. Urban Tandoor also maintains dedicated vegan and Jain sections, a practical advantage when a group includes diners with different dietary needs.
The restaurant is at 206 Harrison Avenue, close enough to Newark and Jersey City to make it an easy North Jersey dinner option without heading toward the Indian restaurant clusters farther south. Prices mostly sit in comfortable mid-range territory, with butter chicken around $19 and many biryanis in the low $20s.
Order something from the tandoor, add one of the less conventional rice dishes, and do not treat the naan as an afterthought.
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