Gurkha Kitchen in Shetland Islands

Given some of the other reviews and average score I'm at a loss to explain my experience here. I found the general ambience of the restaurant rather underwhelming. I chose a starter of onion bhajis. I was considering returning them, but I was very hungry and for whatever reason didn't feel comfortable sending them back. All I can say is, they hadn't been made that day. Moving to the main, I opted for the lamb Rogan josh, rice and keema naan. The curry was more like pieces of lamb with a kind of slightly spicy gravy. The rice was fine and the naan itself was very good. The keema was like some kind of doner meat. I left most of this and ate the bread. I can only assume they were having a bad night as the restaurant had come recommended. I wouldn't go again.

Lovely food, friendly and attentive staff, and a very welcoming atmosphere - definitely recommend!

Great vegetarian options - added extra spice at my request, my husband enjoyed his garlic chilli chicken. Recommend!

Food was excellent staff very plesent would recommend it to any one

Best Indian food I've had. The Katmandu chicken was fantastic!

Very good food. Enjoyed vegetable samosas with chickpeas and a delicious curry with beautifully cooked Shetland lamb and parsnip. Staff were very welcoming, friendly and efficient.

Defo prefer this kind of food than indian - indian is too heavy for me, however, indian naan bread is unbeatable but it is very personal opinion... Chicken was juicy and tender, the same the lamb, not big choice of salat (lettuce only: lettuce with lemon, lettuce with coctail tomato, and lettuce with cucamber, aaand something different and quite nice: warmish red onion in oil). What has hit me - floor was suuuper slipery... defo clean (no doubt!!!), however, I had to use geisha like walk not to flip over... Staff was very friendly and helpful, and not pushy (6* for it).

The food was excellent, a nice surprise. And, I forgot my headphones at the restaurant. I realized too late. They still sent them back home by post without asking any reimbursement

We spent 3 months in Lerwick and Gurkha Kitchen is without a doubt the best restaurant we ate at. The food is delicious and the staff sweet and helpful. This is the best Indian/Nepalese restaurant we have ever eaten at in all our years of travel. The flavors of each dish are distinct, rich and delicious! Enjoy!

Absolutely great food. Really tasty dishes and the Nepalese selection were very different from anything I had had before.

Had the buffet, really good food progressing in hotness. Good selection of dishes. Staff friendly and helpful.

One of only a very few places open on a Sunday evening on Shetland. Basic Indian food but very busy and with takeaway too.

Always a great meal in this award winning restaurant

A lovely meal and good service. Good value for money. (Clean toilets. )

Delicious food. Highly recommend.

Lovely food, all chose different things from Nepalese part of menu and all really liked the dishes. Not the usual Indian restaurant dishes. Staff very pleasant and helpful. Prices as expected in a good quality restaurant.

I love the background music Mountain music

Wonderful flavoursome meal, just what you need on a dreich night..

My heart sank a little when I walked into the restaurant. Although clean, the plastic table cloths, sanitiser bottles on the tables, and basic decor immediately put me off! However, as soon as the waitress came over I relaxed. Staff, as they always tend to be in Nepalese restaurants, were lovely and food was great! Avoid the wine, but bottle Gurkha beer lovely. A few soft touches in decor would make a huge difference.

Absolutely fabulous, not much more needs said tbh.

I had ordered several dishes from Gurkha kitchen on several occasions but recently an honourable member of staff took my order of £ 15.95 without giving me an NHS discount, today. I had mentioned it to her before the payment about the NHS discount and she had mentioned that she had calculated and put the discount. Unfortunately, after payment when I had calculated the amount (personally), I didn't find the discount on my receipt. This has happened several times in Gurkha kitchen. I believe that something else is going on in which staff members show favouritism. My advice to the owner is that, "please treat all clients with respect and without any bias or discrimination. If the service of your staff members are biased then the food served, will also be awful. I believe any food should be able to fill your mind and stomach and that has been the success of Indian food and it's culture. I hope that you will take this criticism and make necessary changes in training your staff members". Kind regards

Had a takeaway on Sunday afternoon 21st April. My first taste of Nepalese food but won't be my last. Absolutely divine - the best takeaway I have ever had!! Flavours were stunning. I would love to return but live about 500 miles south so who knows. Would recommend 100%!

We visited the restaurant on a Monday night and was surprised by how busy it was, for both fine in & takeaway. The restaurant is spotlessly clean and clearly well maintained and the greeting as soon as we entered was genuinely warm & friendly. The drinks menu is extensive enough to cater for all tastes. Same when it came to the food, with the menu offering a wide choice of Nepalese & Indian dishes. My only slight negative is that my ‘lamb’ curry was more like ‘mutton’ curry, with the meat a little tough & dark. But all very tasty and enjoyable. Happy to recommend.

Really enjoyed having chance to try numerous dishes by going for buffet option, staff friendly and food cooked well, well worth a visit.

I tookaway they gave me burnt naan curry is ok.

We always make time to call into Gurkha Kitchen when we're in Shetland and have never been disappointed. Food is first class and service excellent. Good choice of reasonably priced wine too. Highly recommended!

Without question the best eatery in Shetland (only THE SAFFRON comes anywhere close). Fantastic food, great staff, homey atmosphere (no Radio 2 or deafening acoustics), good portions at reasonable prices, and you can take your time, no pressure to eat quick and get out, which seems to have become a thing in Shetland.

Was at the Gurkha yesterday. What a excellent meal. Delicious

A large friendly restaurant that also does takeaways. The food is delicious and there are plenty of options. This is a well established place with an excellent reputation that locals enjoy.

The food is good. But quantity is less, I would choose the other Indian restaurant.

Great food, good staff, neat and clean

Best food in lerwick and at a very reasonable price

Gurkha Kitchen was a pleasant surprise for us to enjoy Nepali and Indian food in the Shetland. Kulfi dessert was a cherry on the top! Maya, the hostess of the restaurant, is a very pleasant personality to meet and offered Nepali hospitality. Thank you... hope to visit again...

Visited twice during our trip to Shetland. On both occasions the food was excellent with great flavours. Tried chicken and prawn dishes. Friendly and attentive service. Good choice of Nepalese and Indian dishes. Highly recommended.

Best food and prices are actually good. You get so much food

Where can I start? Food was fairly good, however the service was awful. Sunday is buffet night but I asked for full menus and we were left for nearly half an hour til I interrupted a waitress taking a drinks order from someone who had just been seated. We eventually got our drinks but then had to ask again for a food order to be taken. The girl who came with the popadoms didn’t know what all the dips were. They ran out of Bajais , which we didn’t get but we’re charged for before I complained. We waited over an hour for our mains and to be fair we got a free drink. But I would have much preferred decent service

Great food and portions absolutely right . Ordered a take out. We are oth vegetarians and food was really tasty. Top marks

One of the best curries I've had for many years. Good service and excellent Gurkha beer too!

Amazing food! And the kids enjoyed it as well.

Excellent Nepalese restaurant with wide choice on menu.we went to the buffet and enjoyed all on offer. Staff pleasant and welcoming.

The best place to discover nepalese cooking. And they so friendly and generous with lost tourists that speak nepalese…. Thank you !

Booked a table for seven o'clock this evening. Despite arriving early, was ignored and made to stand for 20 minutes. Only to eventually be told they had given our table to someone else. We have been coming to the restaurant for over a year and spent a considerable amount of money here. I even booked our Christmas work with them. I will never go again. Totally ruined a night out I was really looking forward too.

Great food and service as usual

Decent without being exceptional, this is a place to get a good meal - but not one you'll recall in years to come. It is quite pricey, but then again so is everything in Shetland.

Took my son for buffet food was delicious, service was excellent

Had the take away option and enjoyed the selection of dishes I don't normally see back in the US. Really good food and I thought the prices were on point as well.

Service a little slow. In fairness it was exceptionally busy

take away ordered, collected at the given time , it was all ready to go, nothing wrong, just a little average

Usually go here and ordered a garlic chilli chicken, was tasty enough but prices have gone up drastically (understandable) but portion sizes have gone down. Three bits of chicken for £15. Better off walking the short distance to the saffron.

Great Asian food, the best Indian food in town. Nice ambience and great atmosphere. Staff is friendly and nice. amazing vegetarian options for non meat lovers.

The service was slow during the annual Shetland Wool Week; the restaurant was shorthanded like everyone else. But the wait was worth it. The food was outstanding! It's a small place, so be sure to make reservations. They also do carryout.

Food ok but I’m from Birmingham so thier curries we’re a bit mild.

The menu is very varied, lots of choices from different areas in Nepal and India. Good service and quality food.

Very nice quality food here. Didn't go for the buffet so settled on chicken korma,egg fried rice and nan. Good quality food and speedy service.

Chose here for a meal out while on holiday and it certainly didn't disappoint. Yes, it was a quiet Wednesday, but the meal and the service were excellent. We left as 2 happy, full visitors.

We had a wonderful dinner at Ghurka Kitchen. The menu was extensive , all four of our dinner choices were delicious and the servings were very generous. The service was friendly, efficient but unobtrusive. Highly recommended!!

Had a lovely Friday evening meal with all the family. This is the first time we have been and the food was excellent and the staff were good. Will definitely recommend

God service, og vi fikk maten kjapt 🤩 Maten var veldig god, og ikke særlig dyr 🤩

Visited last year and returned, this spot is excellent, best meal of tour so far. The staff are great, proper family run business. Would love to return. Went on a Sunday but ate from menu and used staff for ideas. all of us loved it. The Gurkha beer is a bonus.

When the 4 of us arrived outside 1/7/22 early evening, the smell was amazing. I was so excited about the forthcoming meal, having looked at the menu. However things deteriorated the minute we were seated. I won't go into every issue as it would take too long. I will however highlight, we ordered Gurkha's Geda - which says it it meatballs.... and served with a yogurt dip. This appeared without any dip and was 'CHICKEN' not meat, despite other menu items mentioning meat meaning 'BEEF'! Shocking! When we asked the uninterested waitress who couldn't understand us, despite 1 of us from Aberdeen, 2 from Aberdeenshire and one Irish, she really had no idea what we were highlighting and very obviously couldn't be bothered. There was a Nepali Tandoori Chicken for starters that was in the menu as 1/4 Marinated chicken!!! I have eaten Indian meals all over Scotland and have never seen such a small effort! It was embarrassing (like a sparrow's leg if that) and should never be portrayed as a 1/4 chicken!!! and was supposed to be served with sauce?? but that never appeared either!! Far too over priced for one mouthful, if that at £5.50. Sano Macha arrived without its dip too!! Again every time we asked the uninterested waitress, we got no where. I could go on and on, but will finish off with the rice issue. We ordered 1 x steamed rice, 1 x pilau rice and 1 x garlic rice. When the useless uninterested waitress appeared she asked who had ordered the lemon rice - honestly you can not make this up!!! Lemon rice is not even on the menu! Such a shame as was so very looking forward to a decent meal - not to be - avoid. I will attempt to upload the sparrow leg and the meat ball that was actually chicken. This place needs to be managed appropriately.

Excellent curry and service. Loved it!

Food was good and tasty and the table service was attentive but the food from kitchen was a bit slow coming out.

Absolute delight!!!!! One of the very few nepalese resturant that serves actual nepali main dish-DAAL BHAT!!!!. I had been to to quite a few nepalese resturant here in UK, none of them had it. Amazing food and very friendly staff!!!! If someone craving for nepalese food while you are here, this is the place you must go!!!!

Very nice food and excellent service.

Lovely service and great food, even some Nepalese beers available

Found purely by chance, whilst on a work overnight. No problem getting a table, extensive menu of very tasty food. Prompt service and decent portion sizes, also does takeaway which was busy too… if I’m back in Shetland I shall return.

Decent Indian food, we enjoyed it! Wonderful service, very clean.

We enjoyed our dinner here! Very busy with locals and take out. I had the Chicken Korma with rice and plain Naan and my wife had a Aloo Gobi with coconut naan and pilaf rice. It was good! The service was great and the place nice and clean. Would go again!

The food was amazing, definitely one I'll be returning to

Fantastic place. Food was outstanding. Highly recommended. Big portions. Take away was non stop the night we were in also.

Excellent Nepalese/curry house in Lerwick. Really tasty, spicy food with good portion sizes that proved to be a major surprise for us in Lerwick

Pork ribs not as good as before lock down can't remember which one a curries had to much salt in it for my taste ice cream cheap and nasty

Lovel meal and service. Food amazing fresh and lovely cooked. You four of us all had different meals and all were very good.

Nice place, brilliant food, brilliant service. My favourite place!

Definitely worthy visiting. Quality meat and authentic flavours. Fast and friendly customer service plus nice ambience.

Excellent Nepalese food with outstanding,friendly service.

We were here for 3 weeks and found this lifeline in Lerwick. Delicious Indian and Nepalis food, you name it and they will serve it, the same traditional way. Kind staff,they help to fix what you should try and whatever they suggest, it works for your taste.

Love coming to the Gurkha. Either by siting in the lovely restaurant or having a Takeaway the food is always splendid! Staff friendly and very welcoming.

Lovely meal as always at Gurkha last night staff couldn’t Be more friendly and helpful the chef went out of his way To make us different tasty bites to try

We had poppadoms to start with different yummy dips then followed by wonderful Gurkha pakora then delicious mains. Absolutely delicious meal and changed the way I think about spicy food totally.

Had an amazing meal! The service was great but the food was amazing!!! Would definitely recommend best Chicken Tikka Masala and Nan bread I have had!!

The five of us had a lovely meal here. Everyone enjoyed it so much. 😊

Good food, very generous portions, friendly staff. Gurkha beer is worth a try.

I hate to give a bad review and don't do it lightly but unfortunately I wasn't actually able to eat anything besides the poppadoms and some naan bread here due to lack of understanding about allergies. I came in with my family after a trip out on a seabird trip and was looking forward to something nice to eat. The menu had a key at the bottom with the usual (v)=veggie (n)=nuts etc, but the Tikka Masala - which is described as having cashew nuts, didn't have that (n) next to it, which called into question the whole menu for me since I can't take any risks (if something had cashew nuts and didn't happen to mention it in the description and also missed the (n), I'd probably be in hospital). We asked our waitress with some assistance but she seemed to have a lot of trouble understanding us/anything to do with allergies and left us none the wiser. I'm sure the food would have been lovely but unfortunatley with no one to ask and no faith in the menu, I wasn't able to order anything properly. To the restaurant, I'd really recommend brushing up on your policy and training around allergies/general communication with customers. The food looked lovely so it was quite a shame I couldn't have any!

Lovely staff, tasty food. Really nice place.

had 2 takeaways when there, both were excellent, and all eaten. Just had 1 meal between 2 and that was enough as portions very generous. Really well cooked and fresh.

Just had a meal and it was outstanding. Had chana puri, Himalayan chicken, Nepali aloo, dal and paratha. Everything was just right. The service is fast and efficient. Can't recommend enough. Do book in advance.

I have been eating at the Gurkha Kitchen for over 15 years. They are really friendly and helpful. Great vegetarian dishes on offer, as well as some meat dishes that I have never seen anywhere else which makes it interesting. As a family we go there a lot, as they can cope with peanut allergies. The Sunday buffets were great and I hope they are able to return one day. The restaurant is handling the covid situation very well and we all feel very safe going there. The takeaways are always good too.

I thoroughly enjoyed my meal at the gurkha kitchen. It is always a pleasure to eat at this restaurant, the food is consistently good, service was as l wished, the owner Yanu is excellent at suggesting possible slight changes so things aren't too spicy for me, all staff are courteous and everything is in place in line with covid legislation. I would recommend this restaurant no problem whatsoever.

Gurkha Kitchen had been recommended to us and we weren’t disappointed.We weren’t very hungry and ordered a poppadum each, a main course each and a rice each. Portions were quite big with lots of meat.The food was delicious and the staff very friendly.COVID precautions were good with hand sanitiser on each table and plastic screens.Would not hesitate to recommend.

Wonderful food, great service and atmosphere and fantastic value for money! We booked for four and didn't need to wait for a table. We were served quickly and didn't have to wait too long for our food. The staff were friendly and quick with everything. However, the food was absolutely magnificent! Fresh and tasty, plentiful portion sizes - the menu had options for vegan and vegetarian meals. Can highly recommend and will be back for more!

We had 2 mains from the specials - chicken with chilli and honey; and lamb Mooi- both were excellent. Accompanied by potatoes/spinach and peshwari Nan bread. Portions were generous!!

Came here as there were limited Sunday options, but one of the best meals we had on the Islands.Flavoursome, fragrant great cooking. Had the legalities chicken- cooked on the bone and was really, really good. Home made roti were amazing too.Prices were Berry reasonable and the service very good and friendly. Highly recommend

Had an excellent meal there. Recommended.

Restaurant is not in the centre of Lerwick but popular. Lovely authentic meals offered but there was so much demand for carry outs between 6 and 7 it impinged on the service we received. Other than the long wait it was worth the money.

Ate hear whilst working away, restaurant was quiet but it was a Monday evening, food was awesome and staff were attentive.

I have been dining at this fabulous restaurant for over 5 years now & always great. Friendly service & a menu to suit all levels of spice...thank you for another top class night

Gurkha Kitchen is easily my favourite restaurant in Shetland. Never disappointed with the quality of Vegetarian food or service here!

First take away in years... excellent portion sizes. very polite and friendly staff

Had a great takeaway, everything was so tasty and the service was good - got a free bottle of beer too!