Indian Restaurants in Aberdeen: Where to Eat Curry

What Aberdeen's Indian food scene is actually like

Aberdeen does not offer a long Parade of near-identical curry houses. What you get is a compact city-centre option for a proper sit-down dinner and a neighbourhood tandoori doing the takeaway trade for the northern suburbs. That split matters more than any ranking, because it decides whether you book a table or open a delivery app.

Both kitchens are evening operations, so lunchtime curry is not the plan here. Wild Ginger runs dinner service only from Tuesday to Sunday and closes on Mondays, which catches out day-trippers who assume a city-centre restaurant will be open at the start of the week; check its listing before you travel. Bucksburn Tandoori likewise opens in the late afternoon and stays closed on Tuesdays.

Neither place is a budget grab-and-go counter, and neither is fine dining. If you want to keep the bill low, look at cheap places to eat in Aberdeen instead and save the curry for an evening when you want a table and a proper meal.

City centre: Wild Ginger on Union Street

Wild Ginger sits at 367 Union Street, in the heart of the city centre and within easy reach of the main shopping stretch and the station end of town. It describes its cooking as bold Indian flavours, which is the pitch you want from a kitchen doing a dinner service rather than a quick takeaway. Book ahead by phone on 01224 581555, and confirm the current hours before a special trip.

The opening window is Tuesday to Sunday, 5pm to 11pm, with Mondays closed, so a Monday city break needs a different plan. It also offers delivery through Deliveroo, which is worth knowing if you are staying outside the centre and would rather eat in. Treat those hours as the published pattern and confirm them before a special trip, since evening-only kitchens do adjust.

Union Street is the obvious base if you are combining dinner with a wander; the Union Street entry in the wider best restaurants list shows how the street fits into a full eating itinerary. For a sit-down curry before a show or a late train, this address is the simplest choice in the centre.

Neighbourhood option: Bucksburn Tandoori

Bucksburn Tandoori is at Sclattie Park in Bucksburn, north-west of the centre, and its menu runs across Indian and North Indian cooking: starters, tandoori dishes, mains, biryanis and freshly prepared naans. It is built for pickup and delivery rather than a long sit-down evening, so treat it as the option for eating at home or taking food back to a rented flat. Ring 01224 379330 if you want to check a dish or an allergy before ordering.

There is a separate kebab-with-chips section and a dedicated kids menu, which solves the group problem where not everyone wants a curry. The kitchen opens from 16:30 to 22:30 on Monday and Wednesday to Sunday, and is closed on Tuesdays. That makes it a workable early dinner for families and a sensible late order for anyone in the northern suburbs.

Because the kitchen is in Bucksburn, it suits addresses around Dyce, Stoneywood, Kingswells and Bridge of Don better than the city centre, where a different delivery option usually makes more sense. If you are staying south of the river, plan around Wild Ginger's Deliveroo listing rather than expecting this one to reach you.

How to choose: eat in or takeaway

Choose Wild Ginger when the evening is the occasion: a table on Union Street, a proper dinner service and no washing up. Choose Bucksburn Tandoori when the meal is part of a night in, when you have children with you, or when your accommodation is in the northern suburbs and a delivery is simpler than a bus into town.

Party size pushes the same decision. A couple or a small group wanting a sit-down dinner is better off booking the city-centre table, while a larger gathering with mixed tastes is easier to feed from a menu with kebabs, biryani and a kids section. If curry is only one part of a bigger eating plan, the Michelin star restaurants Aberdeen guide shows what the top end of the city looks like for comparison.

Vegetarians and vegans will find the usual vegetable-led starters and mains at both, but the menus change and the detail matters more than the category. Check the vegan restaurants Aberdeen guide if plant-based cooking is the deciding factor, and ask directly about dairy in naans and sauces when you order.

What to order

Start with tandoori dishes if you want the charcoal edge that separates a tandoor kitchen from a standard curry house; they also arrive quickly, which helps if you have a train to catch. Follow with a biryani if you want rice built into the dish rather than ordered alongside, and add a freshly prepared naan to share rather than one per person.

The kebab-with-chips section at Bucksburn Tandoori is not a compromise for the curry-averse so much as a separate, useful order for a takeaway night with children. Naans are made to order there, so they travel better than a dish that has been sitting; collect rather than deliver if you want them at their best.

If you would rather build a whole evening around Scottish seafood or a chippy tea, keep the curry for another night and use the seafood restaurants Aberdeen and fish and chips Aberdeen guides for those meals. A mixed group can also split across a curry night and a breakfast the next morning, which the breakfast in Aberdeen guide covers.

Price level and booking

Neither venue publishes dish prices in a form worth quoting here, so judge the bill by the style of the operation: a city-centre dinner service with a drinks list will cost more per head than a neighbourhood takeaway ordered to collect. Ring ahead for the current menu and any set options rather than relying on an old figure, and use the phone numbers above.

Book Wild Ginger for a weekend evening, especially Friday or Saturday, when a city-centre table is harder to find at short notice. Bucksburn Tandoori takes orders for pickup and delivery, so there is no table to reserve; order early enough to allow for the drive, particularly if you are outside the closest zones.

Delivery zones and minimums at Bucksburn

Bucksburn Tandoori sets minimum order values and delivery fees by zone, which is the detail that decides whether a takeaway is worth it from your address. The closest zones carry the lowest minimum and fee, and the outer zones require a larger order before delivery is accepted. Check your postcode against the zone table on its site before you build a basket.

In practice that means addresses around Bucksburn, Stoneywood, Dyce and Kingswells fall into the cheaper band, while places further out such as Westhill or the far side of Bridge of Don need a bigger order to qualify. If you are a small household, collection usually beats paying a fee and hitting a minimum for food you do not need.

Practicalities: Monday closures and evening-only kitchens

The single most useful fact for a short trip is that both kitchens close early in the week: Wild Ginger on Mondays and Bucksburn Tandoori on Tuesdays. Build your curry night around the rest of the week and you avoid the most common wasted journey. Neither opens at lunchtime, so a curry is an evening plan in Aberdeen.

Allergies are worth raising when you order rather than at the table, since the takeaway kitchen lists milk, eggs, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts and fish among the ingredients it handles. Say so on the order or on the phone and ask which dishes can be adjusted. Our Aberdeen pubs and food landmarks page has a short guide to each named place we cover.

Which curry night suits your trip?

Book Wild Ginger on Union Street if you want a sit-down Indian dinner in the centre and your visit does not fall on a Monday. Order from Bucksburn Tandoori if you are staying in the northern suburbs, feeding children or eating in, and check your zone and minimum before you build a basket.

Whichever you pick, ring ahead for the current menu, hours and allergy detail, and keep the evening free of a lunchtime assumption. Two phone calls settle almost everything this page raises.