Best Indian Restaurants on the CT Shoreline

1 Darbar India

Darbar India has been feeding Branford since 1994. It spent most of that run on Main Street, and only moved into 168 Montowese Street about four years ago. It is a new room after nearly three decades in the old one, with the same owner, Haresh, known to most of Branford as Harry, and the same kitchen carried across town. On the shoreline, where restaurants open and close on a schedule that has nothing to do with how good the food is, thirty years in one town is not something you luck into.

What has kept it going is a refusal to sand the edges off. The kitchen cooks traditionally, and nothing on the menu has been quietly adjusted downward to suit a customer who might be nervous about it. Darbar is rated the number one Indian restaurant in Connecticut, and the Shoreline Times has voted it Best Indian Restaurant.

Darbar is open seven days a week with the same staff every day. The same people in the kitchen, the same people in the dining room, whichever night you walk in. In an industry where the front of house turns over every season, that is most of the explanation for why the food tastes the way it has always tasted.

The papad that arrives before the meal is a lentil cracker made with cumin seed, rolled thin, dried until there is nothing left to dry, then packed. At Darbar it is complimentary, which is not the norm; most Indian restaurants charge for it. It arrives with three chutneys: mint and cilantro, tamarind, and a third built on onion. That last one is the one he wants you to understand. It is better the second day. "If I just made it now and give it to you, you will see the raw onions," he says. "If I make it yesterday and give it to you today, it will be more tasty." The onion has to sit and lose its edge. Most kitchens would not bother explaining that to you. Haresh leads with it.

Then there is the beer, which is not what most people expect walking into an Indian restaurant. Haresh keeps a rotating list of Connecticut craft taps, heavy on New England IPAs, and he swaps them constantly. One kicks, something from another brewery takes the line, and the board never sits still for long. He has opinions about all of it. It is, by his account, the best IPA selection in town, and it turns out to be a far smarter pairing with this food than the lager most places default to.

2 Kamana Indian Cuisine

Branford's second Indian kitchen sits further out Main Street from the Green, and it gives the town something most shoreline towns do not have: an actual choice. The menu runs through curries, biryanis and the traditional dishes you would hope to find, with a dining room that leans a little more contemporary than Darbar's.

It shares a name with Kamana in Guilford, a few towns east. Worth knowing if you are searching for one and landing on the other. They are separate addresses with separate phone numbers.

3 JAIPORE Xpress

JAIPORE Xpress is the quick option, and it is honest about it. The name tells you what you are getting. Curries, naan, roti, biryani and chutneys, ordered without ceremony and eaten without a long sit-down. It is in the thick of Guilford's town center, which makes it the obvious stop if you are already downtown and do not want to plan an evening around dinner.

There is a real vegan selection here, which is not universal across this list and is worth knowing if that is the constraint you are cooking around.

4 Kamana

Guilford's sit-down Indian restaurant, out on the Boston Post Road rather than near the Green. The kitchen covers the range of curries, tandoori, and the South Asian dishes that anchor a proper menu, in a room set up for a full dinner rather than a grab-and-go container.

Between this and JAIPORE Xpress a few minutes away, Guilford is the one shoreline town where you can pick your format: sit down and take your time, or get it and go.

5 Curry Queen

The newest arrival on this list, and a genuinely welcome one. For a long stretch, the eastern end of the shoreline had nothing like it. Curry Queen brought curries and tandoori dishes to Old Saybrook and has been quietly winning over a town that did not previously have the option.

It keeps a shorter week than the others here, so this is the one to call before you drive. Hours have moved around since it opened.

6 Himalaya Cafe

Out on the Boston Post Road, Himalaya Cafe pushes north of the standard Indian menu into Himalayan territory, which gives it a character none of the others on this list share. Northern Indian cooking, curries and naan, served in a casual room that works as easily for a weeknight as anything else.

Vegan and gluten-free dishes are marked out on the menu rather than left for you to negotiate at the table: channa masala, aloo gobi, pakora and the rest. It is dinner-only most nights, so check the clock before heading over.