Veeraswamy - widely regarded as the oldest surviving Indian restaurant in the world - marks its centenary with a Nostalgia Menu, launching on 26 March 2026.
Step back through the decades as we celebrate 100 years, tracing the evolution of Indian dining in Britain from Veeraswamy's launch in 1926.
The opening course sets the tone, with Anglo-Indian Mulligatawny Soup, from the original 1926 menu.
Mulligatawny soup as made for Europeans and Anglo-Indians resident in India is anglicised to a very large extent.
In Northern India, different kinds of dal and vegetables are usually used to produce shorbas and rasams: thin soups.
In Southern India, the term mulligatawny, which literally means pepper or chilli water, indicates the character of this dish, and whenever a dry curry is eaten, pepper water of some kind or other is served with it.
The second course pays homage to Edward Palmer.
Styling himself, E.P. Veeraswamy, his forays included retail (the Nizam brand of spices and condiments), cooking demonstrations, and recipe writing.
One such Indian cooking demonstration, detailed in The Lady's Pictorial, included a dish named Country Captain. Readers were advised that "...the experiment can procure a novelty for our European tables", and that the recipes "...too long to insert here... cannot fail to prove generally useful...".
Roghni naan was part of the early menus of the restaurant.
The main course offers a choice between two dishes that coincide with pivotal Indian and British history moments
Hyderabadi Lamb Salan Curry
This dish was featured in Veeraswamy's menu of 1947, the year when India gained independence from British rule.
Ceylon Prawn Curry
In 1959, Veeraswamy served dishes from India, Pakistan, Malaya and Ceylon.
Dessert offers a trio of classic sweets: mini gulab jamun, black carrot halwa and patli jalebi.
For those who know the restaurant, the Nostalgia Menu is a chance to reconnect with the restaurant's origins.
For those discovering Veeraswamy for the first time, there could be no better introduction to discover why the restaurant continues to nourish and celebrate the unique bond that exists between two great nations.