The Best Indian Restaurants in Israel (2026)

Indian food is one of the most firmly established Asian cuisines in Israel. It has a built-in audience that few other cuisines can match: the huge number of Israelis who travelled India after their army service and came home craving thali, masala chai and a proper dosa. That demand has supported Indian kitchens here for decades — Tel Aviv’s Indira has been cooking since 1991 — and it keeps new places opening, from Mumbai-style street-food dabas in Florentin to family curry houses in market towns up and down the country.

It is also, for many diners, the easiest Asian cuisine to eat well in Israel. Indian food is deeply vegetarian by tradition, so the meat-free and vegan-friendly options are real rather than an afterthought, and several places on this list are vegetarian from top to bottom. This guide is for Indian expats after home cooking, returning India travellers chasing a memory, and anyone who wants the genuine article instead of a generic “Asian” menu. It is part of our guide to the best Asian restaurants in Israel, and a companion to our guide to the best Thai restaurants in Israel. Every place below is a real, verified entry in our community directory — we have not padded the list with invented restaurants.

Tel Aviv and the centre

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The Tel Aviv area has the densest Indian cluster in the country, ranging from veteran sit-down restaurants to Levinsky Market-style vegetarian counters.

Indira

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The grande dame of Indian dining in Tel Aviv, Indira has been serving authentic Indian food since 1991, from Sderot Shaul HaMelech 4. It is the most upmarket Indian address in the city, the place to go for a full sit-down meal rather than a quick plate. Decades in, it is still the reference point against which newer Indian kitchens are measured.

Gandhi

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Gandhi is the fast, casual Indian street-food spinoff from the Indira kitchen, on Ibn Gabirol 30. It is kosher, which is still relatively rare among Israel’s Indian restaurants, and it is built for a quick, affordable plate rather than a long meal. A good central option when you want Indira’s cooking pedigree without the sit-down occasion.

Tandoori Lands End

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Part of the long-running Tandoori family of restaurants, this branch sits right on the seafront at Herbert Samuel 76. It is one of the more established Indian addresses in the city, with a broad menu pitched at every taste, and a sea view to go with it. A dependable choice for visitors and a classic Tel Aviv Indian meal.

Himalaya Kitchen

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Himalaya Kitchen brings the food of the Indian and Nepalese Himalayas to the Florentin end of Herzl Street. The kitchen leans into the mountain end of the subcontinent’s cooking — expect momos and Himalayan dishes alongside the more familiar curries. A good pick if you want something beyond the standard north-Indian repertoire.

Cafe Bollywood

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A vegetarian Mumbai street-food daba in Florentin, on Maon Street, run by Puja and Maskin Moses, immigrants from Mumbai. The menu is pure Mumbai snack culture: pani puri, dosa, pav bhaji, paneer butter masala, chole bhature and masala chai. It opens evenings most days, with a shorter Friday lunch service — one of the most genuinely characterful Indian spots in the city.

Kalu Baba Thali

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Kalu Baba serves Rajasthani vegetarian thali in Florentin — the affordable, all-in-one platter that is the everyday meal of much of India. It is fully vegetarian with vegan options, an inexpensive, no-frills place that does one thing properly. The same people also run a Levinsky-area pop-up, Kalu Baba’s pop-up on Levinsky 36, for real vegetarian Indian food.

Cafe Kaymak

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A Levinsky Market-style vegetarian eatery on Levinsky 49, Cafe Kaymak fits the neighbourhood’s casual, market-counter mould. It is inexpensive and vegetarian, the kind of small spot you stop at as part of a Levinsky food crawl rather than a destination dinner. Good value, and squarely in one of Tel Aviv’s best eating streets.

Masala

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Just east of the city in Ramat Gan, on Jabotinsky 99, Masala serves authentic Indian food to the centre’s diners. It is a straightforward neighbourhood Indian restaurant — worth knowing if you are in Ramat Gan or Bnei Brak and want a curry without crossing into Tel Aviv proper.

Great India

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Great India is an authentic, kosher Indian restaurant in Petah Tikva, on Struma 8. Kosher Indian food is genuinely hard to find in Israel, so for observant diners in the centre this is an important address. The cooking sticks to the classics, done properly.

Manali

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Manali serves authentic Indian cuisine in Netanya, on HaTzoran 4 — the main Indian option for the HaSharon coast. A reliable stop for curry in Netanya, and handy for anyone along the northern coastal strip between Tel Aviv and Haifa.

Haifa and the north

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The north has a steady spread of Indian kitchens, from Haifa city out to the Galilee.

Kesar

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Kesar is an Indian restaurant in central Haifa, on Sirkin 11. It is one of the city’s core Indian addresses — a straightforward, mid-priced curry house for Haifa diners. There is no website, so check current hours before heading over.

Moriah

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Moriah, on Moriah Street 105 in Haifa, is a vegan and gluten-free restaurant with Indian cooking at its heart. For Haifa diners who want Indian flavours within a fully plant-based, gluten-free kitchen, it is a useful and somewhat unusual option in the north.

A. Taj

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A. Taj serves authentic, kosher Indian cuisine from Ramat Yishai, in the Yokneam area. As with Great India in the centre, the kosher certification makes it a key address for observant diners — here, for the Jezreel Valley and the Haifa hinterland.

Thali

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The northernmost Indian restaurant on this list, Thali is in Sde Nehemya in the Upper Galilee, near Rosh Pinna and Tzfat. It is well regarded locally and serves the kind of Galilee community that rarely has an Indian option nearby — worth the detour if you are travelling in the far north.

Jerusalem

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Ichikidana

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Ichikidana serves authentic Indian cuisine in central Jerusalem, on Hillel 24. It is one of the capital’s better-known Indian kitchens and a convenient, central address. There is no website, so confirm current hours before visiting.

Jeera Indian Food

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Jeera serves homemade-style Indian food in central Jerusalem, on Heleni HaMalka 7, a short walk from Ichikidana. The emphasis is on home cooking rather than restaurant flash — a solid, unpretentious Indian option in the city centre.

The south and beyond

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Little India

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Little India brings Indian food to the Negev, on Ringelblum Street 15 in Beer Sheva. It is well rated locally and is the Indian address to know in the south — a part of the country where the cuisine is thin on the ground.

Namaste

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Namaste sits on the Ashdod promenade and is the city’s Indian option, well rated by local diners. A handy, sea-facing stop for anyone along the southern coast wanting a curry.

Maharaja

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Maharaja is an Indian restaurant in Ramla, on Sderot Shlomo HaMelech 14 — the Indian option for the Ramla–Lod area in the centre-south, well rated by local diners.

Cooking it at home

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If this guide leaves you wanting to stock an Indian pantry — lentils, spices, ghee, basmati, ready-made paneer — Israel’s Asian and Indian grocery shops have you covered. We cover them in full in our guide to Asian supermarkets in Israel, essential reading for anyone cooking the cuisine at home.

Indian food has been part of Israel’s eating landscape for a generation, and it is still spreading — into Florentin dabas, market-town curry houses and Galilee villages alike. If you know an Indian place we have missed, tell us: this guide and our directory grow with the community.