Chaula's Indian Cafe Restaurant Lewes in Lewes

This is without a doubt, the best place to eat in Lewes and further afield! So yummy, staff lovely and friendly welcoming restaurant

Rude and paid after asking for the food. Les’s in there than a microwave meal. Rude

I had a wonderful experience at Chaula's Indian Restaurant while visiting the UK. The food was fantastic—especially the butter chicken and fresh naan. A huge thank you to SAJAN and RAHUL for their friendly help and great recommendations. If you’re looking for delicious Indian cuisine, this place is a must-visit!

The buffet is back and just as good as before. This is the only authentic Indian restaurant in the area. I’d go back again.

The buffet is back on. It was great

This is a lovely restaurant, friendly and attentive staff and delicious food! I would recommend as the best place to eat in Lewes

Amazing atmosphere, amazing food, amazing service! 100% recommend!

Absolutely disgusting food I am sorry to say . Ordered biryani it was more like chicken rice with stale chicken and a total joke for the price !

Absolutely incredible food and service. Haven’t been for ages for some reason, went last week to meet a friend and remembered what I’d been missing. Went back tonight and it was equally as good.

Wowzers. If you're gluten free, vegan or have any dietary requirements this is your place. The veg biriyani reminded me of my grandmother's who was Indian... so amazing to see patra on a menu. If you're looking for authentic Indian food then this is your place

We had the most amazing dosa, like being back in Oman ♥️ I will be back on Friday ! The service was very good and attentive would highly recommend !

just delicious! friendly staff too :)

Love Chaulas. Amazing food as usual, good value & great service. They recently went above and beyond for my birthday dinner ❤️ Highly recommended.

I live in Lewes and this is my favorite and most authentic Indian restaurant in town. Lots of veggie options and the menu is updated often enough to keep it interesting. Friendly and attentive staff.

This is our favourite restaurant in the world. The food is amazing with several authentic dishes to try. The service is outstanding and we have become regulars. Thank you to Rahul and the team.

We went in and it was very friendly service and the food was absolutely wonderful really tasted delightful

Scrumptious food, great service & value for money. Staff very attentive & friendly. 1st class restaurant 😋

Pros: menu is varied enough without being overwhelming. Prices are reasonable. Food is delicious and authentic. Staff are attentive and helpful (e.g., when I turned away one of the complementary sauces due to my preference, they offered an alternative which turned out to be just right for me). Also, when I tried to tip at the end of the meal, the server was incredibly honest in pointing out that service charge is included in the bill. Cons: no negatives in my experience, which is admittedly limited as I have only been there once. Would definitely go again, highly recommend.

Really lovely. My partner and I dined here when visiting Lewes for the weekend. The food was delicious. A nice combination of westernised and authentic Indian food. We shared the King platter to start, followed by chicken makhani, another chicken dish I cannot remember the name, pilau rice, the potato and spinach dish, and peswari naan. Finally we finished with a lovely traditional Golab Jamin. Every element was delicious, hearty and homely. The staff were attentive, polite and personable. Service was efficient and timely. They also made nice recommendations and were accommodating. Highly recommend. Would definitely go again.

We had the new Masala Dosa and it was absolutely delicious. Very reasonably priced and the service was excellent. A really good place to go for lunch and we will be back again soon.

Kindly accommodated our late arrival and we had a great spread quickly served for us - thank you!

Excellent food, maybe best curry I've ever had?

Amazing food and super polite service. Lovely evening with great friends made better!

Incredibly efficient and friendly staff, food was lovely, would definitely return.

We love the food at Chaula. It is the only Indian restaurant in our area that serves this quality of traditional Indian food. We travel from our home in Steyning because its worth it. The staff are very friendly too.

Friendly staff and lovely food.

We had a takeaway this evening (30 Aug 2024) and, never having tried this place before, we weren't sure what to expect. HOWEVER - it was LOVELY. Everything spot-on, food delicious, staff curteous when I arrived to collect etc. My wife doesn't usually love Indian food but she loved this. Will definitely go back.

Amazing. Best Indian food I’ve ever eaten.

Fantastic Gujarat cuisine. Always a wonderful experience. A must try and once tried you will be going back

Whenever I visit my son in Lewes I treat us to a Chaula's takeaway. Everything about the experience is a huge treat, the service, the hospitality, the food. Love it.

Fabulous food, great vegan selection

The food was truly memorable. Freshly prepared, wonderful flavours and portions are excellent. The Vegetable Thali was the best ever - thank you for looking after us so well.

We visited 3 times this month at lunchtime for the buffet. Very good value and the staff are very welcoming. The food is delicious and, no matter how hard you try, it’s impossible to have more than 2 plates. We’ve been waiting for the buffet to return since lockdown

Absolutely incredible food, lots of options for people with allergies (all listed nicely on the menu). Will definitely be coming back x

Amazing service all the waiters and staff were lovely great food too would recommend 10/10

Amazing food, lots of vegan options and great service 😍

My husband and I visited Chaula's Restaurant for Dinner and had a wonderful experience. From the moment we arrived, we were warmly welcomed by the staff. The starter was absolutely delicious, setting the tone for a fantastic meal. The staff was incredibly kind and humble, providing excellent service throughout our visit. The food was outstanding, with amazing aromas and authentic Indian flavors. The chef made the best curry, and we also loved the chili garlic naan. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and can confidently say it was some of the best Indian cuisine we've had. Highly recommended!

I came to Chaula’s on my own after work to treat myself. The team were very welcoming and their service was wonderful, always asking if the food was good and whether I needed a drink refill. The food came very quickly - I ordered the butter chicken with pilau rice and a naan - and was absolutely delicious. I would most definitely return to Chaula’s with friends and family!

A good reception from very friendly staff. Good authentic Indian food. We enjoyed it and now visit regularly.

The thali was spectacular, perfect portion size and incredible flavours. Great service too, can't wait to go again!

The food in Chaula's indian restaurant was absolutely delicious.The dining ambiance at Chaula's is very comfortable and inviting.The service at Chaula's is excellent. The staff is attentive, friendly, and quick to respond to any requests.

Tasty and delicious food with nice ambience

Its hard to get Authentic indian food in lewes. This is one of the best places.

We had an absolutely brilliant meal here. The service was incredibly helpful and attentive with all aspects of the menu. We had 2 starters, 2 mains, 1 rice and 1 naan and left very satisfied and full. All was cooked very well and the flavours were delicious. Update 2024: Chaula's is incredible. Staff very knowledgeable and friendly on what is vegan and what isn't. All the food is cooked in sunflower oil, not ghee so the choice is very good. Completely separate vegetarian sections on the menu, and not just the usual 5-8 curries you get, some very interesting options. The curries all tasted fresh and left us full but not over-full. The roti and paratha were also excellent. Overall, this is probably the best Indian I've visited in years. There was a great selection of vegetarian and vegan dishes, all labelled on the menu, and the staff were very helpful with any questions we had about the cooking of the dishes. Couldn't recommend more for a lovely meal!

I was absolutely delighted to find an Indian restaurant that serves the kind of food I remember from eating Indian food in the Gulf. Much as I love it, a lot of what is called Indian is actually 'British Indian Restaurant' and is really a kind Bengali fusion food adapted over the years to British tastes. Chaula's serves the kind of food you find in India which to me has a lighter feel especially the vegetarian dishes which I prefer. From the moment you walk in, you feel like you're in India. The smell of Nag Champa incense blends with the gorgeous smell of curry coming from her kitchen. I ordered the Vegetarian Thali, something that you rarely see on the menu of your regular curry house. I fell in love with Thalis in the Gulf, its like a tasting platter of different flavours and textures which finishes with a tantalisingly sweet and delicate Gulab Jaman. If you want something different to your usual curry house, this is the place to go. As close to India as you can get on the banks of the River Ouse!

Amazing delicious authentic Indian food, you won't find better in the whole of Sussex, lots of different things on the menu, so much more interesting than any other Indian restaurant around. The service was exceptional and super friendly too.

Super nice food, friendly staff. All the dishes taste homemade and traditional which is a nice change from regular indian restaurants. I come here once a month or so as a treat to myself as it's just so lovely inside, love the music and the decor. Highly recommend!

Disappointed. The food was as others have said, bland. We were excited to find vegan bhajis on the menu, sadly soggy in the middle. The portions sizes are very small, which makes the high cost even more irksome. The asmosphere is not great either, not helped by the loud s***faced bloke nearby, and multiple guffawing hooray henries and henrietta's. Best things... the waiter was very nice as was the £23 bottle of wine (that probably sells in tesco for 7 😫) Unlikely to return if current standards maintained. 🙁

Fantastic, authentic Indian food - famiky run restaurant. Murphy Makhani is a gem,.

Chaula's is always one of our go-tos. We often will order ahead and takeaway. Sometimes it's hard to get through on the phone but worth not giving up. We find it is easiest to go in and order and then run errands until our order is ready. Appreciate the beers provided for takeaways

Ate here last weekend while visiting Lewes and can sing nothing but praise for this restaurant. The food was delicious and high quality. The service was also excellent. Genuinely the best service I've experienced in any restaurant in many years. I'd definitely recommend reserving a table as it was full to the brim even early on a freezing January Friday.

Food great as always but room very cold

Food was bland but service friendly. I had a biriani, my favourite dish and Waitrose do a better ready meal.

Disgraceful along with there little corner shops Disgraceful disgusting behaviour towards females I've been over charged 3 times in there little shop in St pancreas Gardens lewes how Disgraceful and repaid why over charges you think I'm stupid female????

Good food period. Pretty much everything was on point, maybe a little oily but who cares. It's a splurge and indulging and excellent. The To-go section is great and so is the service and there is parking closeby. Go Enjoy!

In our recent visit to this restaurant in Lewes, our intention was to enjoy some drinks and starters. However, during our time there, we encountered a rather surprising and disappointing incident. A lady, who we assumed either owned or managed the establishment, approached us and requested that we leave. Her reason was that the restaurant did not solely serve starters. What made this encounter particularly perplexing was the fact that the restaurant was completely empty at the time, with no other patrons present except for us. This led to a sense of disbelief and astonishment regarding the situation. Our disappointment stems from the treatment we received and the apparent lack of courtesy exhibited by many Indian restaurants in the Lewes and Brighton area. It's disheartening to encounter such rude behavior, especially when customers were willing to patronize their establishment. This experience highlights the importance of hospitality and customer service in the restaurant industry, and it's unfortunate that it fell short in this particular instance.

Absolutely lovely experience. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming and had great knowledge of the food, their recommendations were spot on and everything we had was so delcious! We will be back again!

We had a lovely time at Chaula's tonight! We were seated immediately, served immediately and checked upon regularly. The waiting staff were polite and attentive. The food itself was perfect, good sized portions and full of flavour! No complaints whatsoever.

Excellent food; really authentic, varied and interesting flavours, textures and spice levels. Service was perfect, friendly, informative helpful. Beer was cold. What more could you ask for on a Friday night?

These owners take it up a level compared to others in my opinion. when visiting again the food quality was once again amazing. fantastic resturant! 👏

Authentic Indian home cooking, do not compare this Indian to a local takeaway. This is an actual restaurant with the best spices and fresh ingredients money can buy. This is the best Indian I have ever had every meal is packed with flavour and you can taste all the different spices, why this restaurant does not have a Michellen star I don’t know. Best Indian I have been to by far in the whole of East Sussex a rare and beautiful find ❤️

Very bland prawn puri. Matter paner insipiy. No Indian spice flavour what so ever.. Too expensive and bland and boring

Excellent! Nothing more to say.

Lovely food and excellent service, lots of helpful advice. Plenty of choice for veggies like us too .Thoroughly recommend this restaurant

Really enjoyed our meal. Staff were very attentive and friendly. Would definitely go again.

Stopped here on way home from Eastbourne..so glad we did! Proper home cooked authentic India food, absolutely delicious! Congrats to the hostess. Probably the best curry I have eaten.

Fantastic food , with excellent service

My other half and I hadn't been to Chaulas for a while but went for an early evening midweek dinner and had a really excellent meal. Nothing fancy, just a curry and rice each with a naan, preceded by a couple of poppadums and chutneys, but it was all excellent. The curries tasted freshly cooked and really nicely spiced, the rice was well cooked and the naan lovely. really enjoyed the food, all unpretentious and good value. Service was very pleasant and friendly and despite it being early evening, there was a nice atmosphere in the place. We'll be back again soon.

Absolutely excellent food and really lovely staff. We'll be back.

Just eat should send me an email when order ready

This is one of the best genuinely authentic regional Indian restaurants I have eaten in, in the U.K. a favourite of mine. I’m posting this as I am Surprised (but not surprised) by some of the comments stating it’s different to normal curry house food or not « spicy » enough. It is spicy. But the depth of flavours are more complex because it is genuine (Gujarati-i think home cooking). It’s not pure chilli hit, for the English standard curry house food. I personal recommend the Thalis and the vegetarian ones. Best set of flavours and lovely to have a mix. The Mango lassi and buttermilk lassi are good too.

Probably the best Indian food on the South coast

Fantastic curry house.Will definitely be going back.

I don't know if they have changed their prices recently but they are now OUTRAGEOUSLY EXPENSIVE. For takeaway, £13 for a chicken vindaloo, £13 for a chicken biryani, £8 for a single saag bhaji portion and £2.25 PER POPPADOM. I have been into an Indian takeaway kitchen and watched them make poppadoms in front of me - they make them in a stack, it takes about 30 seconds - to charge £2.25 per poppadom is crazy and frankly insulting. For comparison, my local in London charges £7 for a chicken vindaloo, £8 for a biyrani, £4 for a saag bhaji portion and 85p for a poppadum. Now, one could argue that I should have looked at the prices before ordering, which is fair enough, but, having lived in London my whole life and gone to countless Indian restaurants and had countless takeaways, they all are around a similar price range. This kind of meal should have come to about £30, not double that amount. I don't know what they are thinking, that the up-and-coming middle class Lewesians should pay this kind of money, but this is not Veeraswamy or Cinnamon Club. This restaurant should take a serious look at the prices they are charging because they are insane. I have never seen anything like it for an Indian offering takeaways. As for the quality of the food? It was OK. Quite nice. The vindaloo could have been hotter - and I asked for a chicken tikka vindaloo and they just provided a normal one. The saag bhaji was good, but the portions were very big and we couldn't finish them. But anyway, it wasn't worth the cost, by any stretch of the imagination. I won't be going back till they fix their menu.

We went in for valentines day, food was fantastic (the Hydrabadi chicken was amazing) & cooked perfectly. Service was great, atmosphere was great. Worth visiting for a curry!

The food was almost inedible. I was pleased to find a restaurant with a good selection of vegetarian dishes and some unusual dishes. However the reality was very different. Some of the food was absolutely disgusting. Really disappointing.

Great meal for group of 15 and great service. Restaurant was bit nippy but I think that's a one-off and it did not detract from the evening

10th December 2022. Great food and generous portions. Everything was well cooked, perfectly spiced, tender and well presented. Unfortunately let down by it being so cold in the restaurant that we were all shivering and one of our group had to resort to wearing his coat.

I was staying at premier Inn 2 minutes walk away and ordered ahead. They nicely phoned me to say it was ready for collection. It seems to have a nice atmosphere in the place with some character. Ordered chicken jalfrezi, palui rice, chana masala, bread and drink for £30. Good to better standard of curry.

We had a delicious meal on a damp autumn Thursday evening. The Bombay potato was so delicious - unlike any I have ever eaten before, full of sauce and flavour. The Dhal was so good, too. I ate these two dishes with coconut rice which was perfect. I look forward to returning.

This is a special Indian restaurant. First class food. I’m a local but haven’t been here for years …. And I’m now regretting that decision. My son said ‘it’s the best curry I’ve had ‘ and I wouldn’t disagree. You’ll need to book but you won’t be disappointed

We went for dinner very recently twice within a week. This is an authentic genuine Indian restaurant. This is so very different from the many Bangladeshi restaurants pretending to serve Indian food. This is a proper Indian restaurant serving delicious dishes. Our experience was simply wonderful from non veg platters starters to the many main courses and desserts. The chef Tarun knows his business and the service was great. I would highly recommend this restaurant to one and all. A great pity we live a few hundred miles away but hope to visit again in the not too distant future.

Excellent food and service. Relaxing ambience and a good place for a meal and to talk to your companions

The taste of the food was amazing and the service was also very nice and the staff was very nice and friendly. I will recommend this restaurants if you want to have Indian food this is one of the Best.

We were very impressed with the quality, flavours, portions and service (ordered a takeaway for collection)! The food was DELICIOUS!!! Really authentic, homecooked but of high standard. The Dhal Makhani was my favourite. Will definitely visit/order from in the future and recommend.

We phoned this place while driving to Lewes but found the staff rude as they put the phone down when we enquired about the cuisine.

We eat here after the football yesterday chaula is very accommodating , great Indian food the best curry in lewes no doubt . 5 star restaurant ! As promised we have leaft a review thank you for the great food last night .

Service great and the food was very good.

My wife visited this curry house a few years ago and has always wanted to return so finally being in the area we popped by. The food was out of this world, I had the best chicken madras I've had in a long, long time...

My family and I had a wonderful meal from Chaulas this evening - everything really fresh, beautifully seasoned and spiced. A real treat!

First visit to Chaula's. Very friendly welcoming staff. Service was quick. Food was excellent, everything we ordered was super tasty. Definitely worth more than one visit!

Wonderful food and a very friendly welcome. Our favourite dish was the stuffed baby aubergines, which was a family recipe. All the dishes tasted super fresh, with rich and specific spicing to each dish we tasted.

We had the loveliest meal this evening and only wish we were local so could visit more frequently. The service was warm, friendly and professional. We were not rushed and neither did we feel neglected, and the restaurant was busy. The food was delicious. We...

How did we miss this ??? The best lamb chilli, and the best Hyderabadi chicken . Lemon rice and cumin rice were delicious. It really is as described. 'Food of India not just Indian food ' . Beautifully done . Wonderful staff who ate friendly...

Booked a table online through Chaula’s website (no confirmation received despite a confirmation message saying they’d be in touch “to ensure we can provide you with a memorable experience”). Our waiter waved in the direction of some free tables when we arrived. Service was very...

Really delicious Lamb Rogan Josh. Very tender. Will call again.

We were visiting our daughter near Lewes and staying in a hotel nearby. We called in ostensibly to book a table. The lady at the desk barked at us, WHERE'S YOUR MASK. We are both exempt for medical reasons but she appeared uninformed as to the legislation and that she was risking a fine for intimidation and discrimination. I told her we would just order a takeaway instead. We didn't want any more hostility. I called back after 30 minutes to collect it. Sorry I did because the food was as hostile to our stomachs as her attitude on arrival. Does she want to deter customers by imposing the government's draconian rules on them or stay in business.

Great food, more authentic dishes that give you just a slightly different palate sensation. You need to be willing to explore outside your normal comfort zones to get the most out of it.

Lovely food and friendly service 😋

Good menu , nice food. Average service.