Diwali set menus in London 2026, from £22 at Hoppers
Set menus for the festival of lights, from £22 at King's Cross to a Diwali feast in Belgravia
Diwali, the festival of lights, runs from Friday 6 November to Tuesday 10 November 2026, and its first days fall across a weekend made for gathering family around one table. Tamarind Mayfair is inviting guests to celebrate Diwali with a festive menu, Amaya in Belgravia serves a Diwali Celebration Menu at dinner, and across London the set menus run from a Sri Lankan lunch plate at King's Cross to palace cooking in Mayfair.
Taken together, these set menus read like a map of the subcontinent, region by region. Kanishka looks to India's north-east and Hoppers King's Cross to the Sri Lankan coast, and the wider spread sits on every London lunch set menu.
01 | Tamarind Mayfair
Mayfair
two or three courses £25 to £29, Mon to Fri, 12pm to 2.30pm
Tamarind Mayfair has cooked North Indian food on Queen Street since 1994, and in 2001 became one of the first Indian restaurants to receive a Michelin star. The weekday lunch gives a choice at every course, from lamb kakori to Alleppey prawn curry, all with Mewari dal tadka and naan or rice. Downstairs, the Michelin Guide notes, diners can watch the chefs working at the tandoor counter.
02 | Amaya
Belgravia
Diwali Celebration Menu £65, Mon to Sun, 5.30pm to 10pm, until 8 November
For Diwali, Amaya in Belgravia has written a celebration menu for the whole table, served at dinner until Sunday 8 November. The Michelin-starred grill sends out its plates in a run, clove smoked chicken tikka, lamb gilafi seekh kebab and tandoori honey and mustard salmon tikka among them, before Ludhianvi butter chicken with garlic butter naan. A Diwali mithai tart closes the evening, with rose and pistachio kulfi ripple, saffron shahi tukda brûlée and dark chocolate motichoor ladoo among the sweets.
03 | Jamavar
Mayfair
three or four courses £47 to £54, Mon to Sun, 12pm to 2.30pm
Named for sixteenth-century Kashmiri shawls, Jamavar takes its cue from India's palaces and princely states. The Michelin Guide, which gives it a star, points to "dishes that would have featured in royal kitchens", and butter chicken and Malvani prawn carry that pan-Indian sweep onto the set.
04 | Kanishka
Mayfair
two or three courses £29.50 to £34.50, Mon to Sat, Mon to Thu 12pm to 2.30pm; Fri to Sat 12pm to 2.15pm
The north-east of India gets particular attention at Kanishka on Maddox Street, cooking that Restaurant Online traced to the seven sister states, Assam, Meghalaya and Nagaland among them. The Chef's Selection runs at lunch and again in the early evening, from a crisp Kolkata lamb croquette to Malabar fish curry with plantain and sea vegetables. Bhapa doi, a baked yoghurt mousse with meringue, closes it.
05 | Gunpowder Soho
Soho
three courses £25, Tue to Sat, Tue to Fri 12pm to 3pm, Sat 12pm to 6pm
Old Monk rum pudding is how the Soho Set ends at Gunpowder Soho, after french bean pakora and an egg curry masala with saffron jeera pulao. Time Out gave it five stars and found a moody, marble-accented dining room on Greek Street.
06 | Trèsind Mayfair
Mayfair
three courses £42, Tue to Sat, 12pm to 2.30pm
Arugula pani puri with preserved pear is among the snacks that open lunch at Trèsind Mayfair, which arrived on Hanover Street in May 2026 from a kitchen that began in Dubai in 2014. The Nudge reports that the original Trèsind Studio in Dubai holds three Michelin stars. Mains include Bengali kosha mangsho with green pea kachuri, and a filter coffee cornetto waits at the end.
07 | Hoppers King's Cross
King's Cross
three courses £22, Mon to Fri, 12pm to 3pm
The hopper that gives Hoppers King's Cross its name is a bowl-shaped pancake of fermented rice and coconut batter, cooked to order and served with seeni sambol and mallung. The Lunch Plate is ordered for the whole table, with a Lankan chicken kari cooked with pandan and lemongrass at its centre and chocolate biskut pudding to close.
Diwali begins on Friday 6 November, a festival of lights arriving as the London evenings draw in early. A long lunch or a celebration dinner, with the whole table sharing and a sweet course to end on, is a lovely way to welcome it.