I had an Indian flatmate in London, who sent home pictures of the food he was "cooking". In reality, it was microwaved ready-meals from Sainsbury's. He was satisfied enough, although he was only 18-19 and might have had different priorities.

How would you rate the quality of these?

Regarding take-aways, Indian food has a history of being a fairly cheap option in the UK. (Everyone's drunk? Let's grab a curry!) I'd be slightly put-off a restaurant that said it offered take-away. There's a similar problem with Cantonese food, and burgers.

I haven’t tried Sainsbury’s but have tried Marks and Spencer’s frozen Indian dishes. It’s passsable if you’re desperate and missing it but the quality and taste isn’t great imo. I think some other food like Italian lends itself better to being reheated.

With respect to restaurants, I’m in central London, so not a suburb with many Indians, and there’s some decent places like Dishoom, Roti Chai etc but I wouldn’t say they’re cheap. Im thinking outer London in the west and then places like Birmingham probably have cheaper places but I never go out that far.

Why not order your takeaway from a good Indian restaurant? All the ones around here provide such a service.

Thank you! It's definitely hard to get right, but we're happy that so far we seem to be doing the job well! Even my dad (a very harsh critic when it comes to authentic Indian food) is a fan!