About Shilpa
So many of London’s Indian eateries are generic affairs, pulling in customers who are simply too tired of pounding the pavement in search of something, anything spicy enough to ward off the innerscape equivalent of London’s drizzle. Therefore, it’s always heartening to find an Indian restaurant that is a proper specialist. Shilpa Indian Restaurant is one such place, with an intimate understanding of South Indian cuisine and dishes typical of Kerala in particular. Located down Hammersmith’s King Street, close to Ravenscourt Park tube, Shilpa is a good place to hunker down with vegetarian and non-vegetarian delicacies from the historic home of India’s spice trade.
Opening Hours
- Monday 12:00 - 15:00, 18:00 - 23:00
- Tuesday 12:00 - 15:00, 18:00 - 23:00
- Wednesday 12:00 - 15:00, 18:00 - 23:00
- Thursday 12:00 - 15:00, 18:00 - 00:00
- Friday 12:00 - 15:00, 18:00 - 00:00
- Saturday 12:00 - 15:00, 18:00 - 00:00
- Sunday 12:00 - 15:00, 18:00 - 00:00
Further Information
Shilpa is an award-winning South Indian restaurant, with expert chops provided by their (yes, award-winning) head chef Sunny Kuttan, who honed his skills in the Taj family of luxury Indian restaurants. This London eatery focuses specifically on the regional cuisine of Kerala, an eastern state that has been a centre for the global spice trade for centuries, and Shilpa’s relatively narrow mandate when it comes to Indian cooking has allowed this Hammersmith restaurant to concentrate on perfecting a few, very particular signature dishes. Unsurprisingly, given Kerala’s long coastline – known as the Malabar coast – seafood features prominently. Grilled sea scallops, king prawns cooked with green mangoes and coconut milk, and banana-leaf-wrapped grilled sea bass are just some of the tropical delights that you can find at this King Street eatery.
But it’s not all clams, crab, prawn, lobster, mussels, cuttlefish and squid being shaken down with the Bollywood treatment down at Hammersmith’s Shilpa Indian Restaurant. Central Keralan dishes like the little-known erachi mappas – a succulent lamb specially prepared with a mix of freshly ground spices called erachi kootu – are also on the menu. And vegetarians in London take note, the Keralan take on South Indian cuisine emphasises a great variety of vegetarian options. Beyond the popular Keralan snack of banana chips (found in a supermarket near you) and the prevalence of coconut (it’s a beachy place), Shilpa does at least a dozen vegetarian mains for you to enjoy, meaning you’ll be coming back to this Hammersmith gem many a time to try out the cheera parippu thalichathu for example, a dish of lentils and spinach cooked with garlic and shallots and tempered with mustard seeds and curry leaves (this last another ubiquitous part of Keralan cuisine).
81 Reviews
Another great meal in Shilpa, the same warm welcome and professional service all evening! We had the lamb Madras and Kerala fish curry for mains. Both delicious! We'll be back :)
Fantastic food and incredibly nice staff. We had a wonderful experience! I especially recommend the tikka masala and the garlic naan. Everything was cooked to perfection.
Shilpa was amazing one more time! Very busy restaurant with excellent food and great service. Excellent value for money, this is our favourite local restaurant!
Great Indian food, has taking me back to my last visit to India, great atmosphere, good service a bit slow but when the food comes to the table you forget how long you waited for I will definitely recommend but only if you are not in a rush to go anywhere else
We were greeted by a really pleasant waiter who showed us to our table. Our waitress came over, she was extremely friendly and helpful. She was also knowledgeable about the menu. We started with the set poppadoms, 2 each with nice pickle tray, a selection of 4 pickles each. I had the seabass, cooked in medium spices, in a banana leaf. I liked the way we were asked if we preferred mild, medium or hot. Accompanying this, I chose lemon rice. The seabass was really tasty and was covered in an onion and tomatoe herb mix that was superb. The lemon rice went really well with the fish, was very tasty and had cashew nuts and lentils in. My husband had a chicken curry, kerala kozhi roast, which he thoroughly enjoyed, with steamed rice. We had two pints of Kingfisher and two sparkling waters. The bill came to £36.15, which we thought was very reasonable for the quality and quantity of food and excellent service. I had seen the restaurant advertised as one of the top 50 in London in Time Out and we were staying close by. We would definetly go again, if we come back to this area of London and would thoroughly recommend it!
Another wonderful meal at Shilpa. Each dish is distinct and delicious, the ingredients blended to perfection, yet not overwhelmed by the strongest. As usual, Shilpa pleases in every way, impeccable service and friendly in the best understated manner. The downside ? Can't find one.
Shilpa is our favourite Indian restaurant. They do a lot of south Indian and Keralan food - which is quite delicious. A particular favourite is the Masala Dosa - a huge very thin pancake filled with spicy potato. All of the food that we had was absolutely delicious and very fairly priced. We will be coming back again and again
Shilpa provides excellent food and excellent service. It is also very good value as well. My dad, who had never been to an Indian restaurant, really enjoyed it. We are going to Kerala next year so this was a great introduction to the cuisine of the region.
Met friends from France, where Indian restaurants are not numerous and they love Indian food. They loved it. Fabulous South Indian food and very warm welcome from the staff. First visit but we'll be back for sure. Thank you, Shilpa!
Really delicious food which was surprisingly good value. We went on Boxing Day, and whereas every else deserted Shilpa was bustling with people which I think is testament to what a great place it is. Service was also great.
Our 3rd visit to Shilpa - we live in Reading but when we go to Hammersmith Apollo, it's a must. Fantastic Keralan fish and seafood - such wonderful flavours and at reasonable prices. We'll definitely be back again!
The best authentic South Indian dishes we have ever found in London. Excellent quality, a wide range of flavours and friendly staff. Ravenscourt Park is lucky to have Shilpa – a stand-out place among local rivals.
Great little place - quiet and unassuming but the food was lovely and they were very accommodating of us being 30 minutes late for our reservation following a show running late, despite it being very close to closing time. Definitely will be recommending Shilpa!
I always enjoy coming to Shilpa as the dishes are cooked to a high quality and the service is very friendly and welcoming. I'd recommend it to my friends.
I'm amazed that this place has stayed under my radar considering all the time I have lived in the area. I thought that booking an Indian restaurant for as early as 7:30 would not be necessary, but in fact the place was packed out before 8pm. And the reason was soon obvious - though service was understandbly a bit slow, the food was excellent. We will be going back.
Friendly service and tasty South Indian food. Poppadoms were accompanied by delicious relishes ( particularly liked the coconut one and the sweet beetroot one), followed by lovely fresh spicy crisp cauliflower pakoras. The lamb in my main course was tender and lean and the coconut paratha went well with it. Would certainly go back again to try other dishes.
The restaurant has a friendly atmosphere and the waiter was friendly. Food was lovely although Bombay Aloo very spicy so if you don't like food too spicy avoid. The service is very slow so if you need to be somewhere leave plenty of time for your meal. I would go back there though as I enjoyed my meal.
I am vegetarian and their extensive menu leaves me spoilt for choice. I had parripu vada starter and thoran with lemon rice and roti main course. Thoran is a dry curry and very tasty. Lemon rice was excellent too. Will probably go again next time in Hammersmith.
The food was excellent, the waiting time was reasonable and the price was fair. The service however left much to be desired. Insufficient menus for a booked large party, not clearing away the menus after everyone had ordered, bringing people the wrong drink orders and not knowing the names of the dishes being carried to the table so that it was a struggle to recognise who had ordered what.
Great food and service. One of the most authentic sub continental restaurant in london! Recommend the Vada and Paneer starters as well as egg appam. We couldn't get enough. The one less than top rating is because whilst the dosa was nice, it's not as crispy as it should probably be. Excellent food nonetheless!
Very low key neighbourhood restaurant with flavourful cooking from Kerala. They are eager to please so if there is something you want particularly let them know when you get there. I recommend the raw papaya curry it highlighted well the layers of seasoning that are found in many of the dishes.
We went here as a group of 12 for a or pirate lunch! The food was good and reasonably priced for the area! The only thing to improve would be the service time as it took a bit longer than expected for the food to arrive! Good experience overall!
Stunning food in a modest venue. We were surprised and delighted with quality the food, in what we thought was just another Indian restaurant, I've booked to go back already, It's the best Indian food I've had in London.
Excellent as always. The food is outstanding though sometimes the (friendly) service can be a little slow, otherwise it would get a 6 from me. No doubt that's due to the popularity of the restaurant and the freshness and quality of the food. Great value too.
The Indian food here are awesome, authentic and yummy. The services here are very good, you feel like at home while having lunch here. I will come back for another few rounds whenever I am in Hammersmith.
The food was excellent and hot, what made the visit extra special was the lovely waitress was very polite and helpful often checking if food was ok and to see if we needed drinks etc.
I love this restaurant, amazing food, friendly service and good prices. The protions look smaller than they actually are, so i always end up ordering too much... The desserts are surprisingly delicious as well!
This is possibly the best curry in London, richly flavoured food served by excellent staff with a consistently high standard of service. Have been severa times now, and it never fails to impress.
Online reservation was really easy. Food was excellent and reasonably priced. Staff were friendly and attentive. We were even given a choice of how spicy we would like our mains. Would highly recommend.
Excellent meal, great service, reasonably priced. Definitely a cut above the usual Indian restaurants, I will be going back there and would most definitely recommend you to try it. 10/10 from me!
The staff were very friendly and helpful staff. The service was good and the food came very promptly. Best of all the food was excellent food and the price showed great value.
Great food, especially the vegetarian dishes, excellent service at a bargain price. Try the Cauliflower Chilli Fry to start and Mango Pachadi for delicious new experiences. We'll definitely be going back.
Dirt cheap. On taste card as well; with 50% off we felt a little guilty at dining so well for, 8, yes 8 quid ahead. Aside from this, food was very tasty, step up from your usual
very good - would highly recommend and the kerala cuisine is spot on. Certainly much better than the typical perceptions of the "local indian" restaurant - well worth a visit
Absolutely amazing food in this small restaurant! Definitely a step above your standard curry with wonderful fish dishes. And the dosa pancake was delicious. Lovely staff! Well worth the visit!
We love this restaurant ! Consistently good food and lovely staff, friendly prices too. Excellent Keralan cuisine. Our "Most visited resto of the year" for 3 years running !
We had two dishes, with a vegetable starter, naan bread, rice and two mango laassi It just looked like a normal cheap restaurant but the food quality was AMAZING.
Good meal and excellent value, served by helpful staff. Five of us ate all we could have wanted for less than £20 per person. Would recommend to anyone looking for a south Indian meal.
First time here; I let an Indian family at the next table order for me: lemon rice, garlic naan, chicken curry and a mango dish. Everything - sensational!
A good choice for vegetarians. The food was perhaps a little bland for my tastes, but overall very acceptable and we are likely to visit again next time we bust the Eventim Apollo.
Excellent food, nice flavours. Would defo go back. The wine was disappointing, beer is defo the drink to accompany Indian food. Simple decoration a little bit tired but the food's quality surpasses everything.
The food was delicious and authentic and the service was fast and efficient. I would recommend this place to anyone wanting to eat Indian cuisine in Hammersmith.
food was excellent as was the polite friendly service, will certainly use shilpa again, the chicken 65 was best starter I have had in any Indian restaurant.
Excellent food and service, freshly made after ordering. Nice Ambiance, authentic kerala food. Value for money when you need to have special kerala dishes in London
Fantastic food. The dosa is wonderful - crispy and light - really great vegetarian options. Reasonably priced. Good location close to Hammersmith. Great service! highly recommended.
Charming staff, friendly without being pushy, good food, feels like home cooking, busy and had the feel of a much loved local resturaunt, a good experience.
Always excellent as usual. Great and friendly service, nice cold beer with a lovely Kerala fish curry. Never been disappointed and would highly recommend to anyone.
Have been here many times, one of my favourite restaurants in the neighbourhood. Very delicious food and good service. Like the new menu too. Highly recommend!
Nice to see a new menu with old dishes still there. Food was as good as ever, the service is friendly and efficient. We'll be back!
Nice place, friendly service. My dish with chicken was very tasty, the other dishes with lamb not so much. Dal did not have the rich taste we are used to and pappadums were bland. Still, a nice visit.