The winners were named at the National Curry Awards in a ceremony at the House of Lords this month
Empire Indian Restaurant is the longest running Indian restaurant in Cardiff(Image: Richard Swingler)
More Welsh curry restaurants have been awarded the titles of best in Wales, and their local areas at the 2025 National Curry Awards. This year’s awards, the sixth, were held at the House of Lords and gave gongs to restaurants in Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil, Newport, Chepstow and Welshpool.
Voted south Wales Restaurant of the Year was the Pink Elephant in Merthyr Tydfil, while the Empire Indian in Welsh capital won best restaurant for Cardiff.
Other venues that won titles at the National Curry Awards were Chilli Express Indian Takeaway that won Takeaway of the Year for Newport, Chepstow’s The Banana Leaf and Spice UK in Welshpool.
Empire Indian Restaurant was founded in 1992 and is one of the oldest in the Welsh capital. You can find out more about the restaurant, here.
Valued at approximately £5bn, the Asian catering industry employs between 80,000 to 100,000 workers, created in 2019, the National Curry Awards was created in order to promote the businesses within the Asian catering industry and to recognise their talented and hard-working staff at both the forefront and in the background to keep the industry productive.
This month has also seen venues in Wales recognised in the pub, kebab shop and Asian restaurant communities. The Good Food Guide recognised the best pubs in Britain earlier this week and the top 100 included five Welsh pubs, read all about that here.
The British Kebab Awards also named their Welsh semi-finalists for the title of best in the country, click here for that list if you love kebabs, The Asian Restaurant & Takeaway Awards named the best in Wales, too, earlier in October, you can see the winners from the ‘Curry Oscars‘ here.
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The list of Welsh winners at the 2025 National Curry Awards
- Pink Elephant, Merthyr Tydfil – Restaurant of the Year Award 2025 for South Wales.
- Chilli Express Indian Takeaway – Restaurant of the Year for Newport
- Empire Indian Restaurant, Cardiff – Restaurant of the Year Award 2025 for Cardiff.
- The Banana Leaf, Chepstow – Newcomer of the Year Award 2025 for Chepstow.
- Spice UK, Welshpool