Choose an Indian Restaurant Website in the UK

Picture a Friday evening in a curry house. The phone rings on the counter, a tablet beside it chimes for a marketplace order, a second chimes for another, and a regular is asking whether the lamb pasanda has nuts in it. The kitchen is working from three sources: the printed menu, the marketplace listings that were typed in two years ago, and whatever the chef remembers about the sauce. This is a scenario, not a measured average, but each part of it is a cost: staff time on the phone, a listing that may be out of date, and commission on orders that arrive through a screen the restaurant does not control.

The commission is the part with a published number. Uber Eats' own UK pricing page, checked on 10 October 2026, lists a 30% delivery fee, 33% for Uber One members, a 13% fee for self-delivery and a 13% fee for pickup, plus a £650 (excluding VAT) initial fee. The page prices these as a share of each order's value, so the bill grows with the trade. This research could not read a rate for the other large marketplaces on their own pages, so none is printed here. Take any marketplace rate from the partner agreement you hold, and check it against this guide's examples.

The size of the trade makes the choice matter. Restaurant Online reported on 10 July 2025 that the UK's Indian restaurants have shrunk from a high of around 12,000 in 2015 to around the 8,000 mark, going by 2023 figures, and that "the vast majority of these restaurants are independently run". It also noted that exact figures are hard to find, so treat the count as an approximation. The wider squeeze is documented too. AlixPartners with CGA by NIQ recorded that venue numbers across all UK hospitality fell at a rate of two premises per day in the first half of 2025, and that the food-led sector had contracted by 2.9% in a year. That is not an Indian-restaurant figure, but it is the margin environment around a 30% fee.

Delivery shapes how many guests meet your food. Lumina Intelligence put the UK delivery market at a projected £14.3bn in 2025, with Uber Eats the market leader at 27.2% of delivery occasions in 2024. A guest who finds you through an app is a guest on someone else's platform, and unless you capture the second order the app keeps the relationship.

A website does not make that problem disappear by existing. A curry-house site that is a PDF menu and a phone number leaves the allergen question to the person on the phone, leaves the long menu unreadable on a small screen, and gives Google very little to read. A site built for the job makes the menu easy to order from, gives the kitchen a ticket it can cook from, and gives the restaurant its own guest records. The rest of this guide covers those three things for the owner of an independent Indian restaurant, curry house or takeaway choosing or rebuilding a site this year.

An Indian menu carries many decisions per dish. A guest wants to know the heat, whether the dish is vegetarian or vegan, what comes with it, and whether a set meal is cheaper than the parts. The kitchen wants to know which choice was made. A site that treats the menu as one flat list pushes every one of those questions back onto the phone. The test is whether each item below lives on the dish itself, where a guest can act on it.

TableSpark's Indian restaurant templates are built around that list. The live page describes two Indian templates, thalis and tasting sequences presented as formats in their own right, regional grouping where the kitchen works that way, spice markers and vegetarian, vegan and dairy-free tags at dish level, and breads, rice and sides that keep their own structure. In the menu editor the dish record carries a 0 to 3 chilli-icon spice scale, Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten-free and Dairy-free chips, the 14 UK-regulated allergens as toggle chips, custom tags and options and extras, including required choices. A set meal can be built as one dish whose required choices are the curry, the rice and the bread. Your own team edits all of it, on any plan, without a developer.

Two further features suit the way Indian kitchens cook. Many dishes are made in batches. A dish can be given a portion count, so that at zero it sells out on every channel with a daily reset, and a sold-out dish stays on your site struck through and stops being ordered. Portion counts are on Growth and Full. The sold-out switch per dish is on every plan. For a lunch buffet, the ordering block on Full carries an all-you-can-eat mode for dine-in, with an adult price, optional child and senior prices, a time limit and rounds. Every number in it starts blank, so the price and the limits are yours.

Allergens are the question most likely to reach you at the counter, and the one with a legal answer. The Food Standards Agency says that when food is sold online or by phone through distance selling, allergen information must be provided at two stages. The first is before the purchase of the food is completed, either in writing (on a website, catalogue or menu) or orally by phone. The second is when the food is delivered, in writing as allergen stickers on the food or an enclosed copy of the menu, or orally by the delivery driver. The same page names the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 as the main law for food sold without face-to-face contact.

The 14 allergens the FSA lists are celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, peanuts, sesame, soybeans, sulphur dioxide and sulphites, and tree nuts. Several turn up in ordinary curry-house cooking: nuts in many korma and pasanda sauces, mustard in tempering, sesame in some breads, milk in ghee, yoghurt and cream, and gluten in naan and chapatti. Recipes differ between kitchens, so check your own recipes and suppliers. The answer varies dish by dish, which is why it belongs on the dish and not in a note at the foot of the page.

The GOV.UK best-practice guidance, published on 24 February 2025 and covering England, Northern Ireland and Wales, adds practical detail. It says a business that provides written allergen information on its own webpage could put it on the main menu, and if not there, it "should ideally be no more than 'one click away'". It says that if a business is unable to provide up-to-date and accurate allergen information online, it must still let the consumer reach it, for example by speaking directly to staff on the telephone, and it should ask consumers whether allergen information is required before taking the order. At delivery, written allergen information should be provided so the consumer can review it before eating, and "where customisations have been made, this should also be indicated."

That last clause matters for a menu where the heat, the sauce or the protein is often adjusted. A dish changed at order time is a dish whose printed allergen list may no longer be right, so the changed order needs a person to check it. The FSA also says takeaway meals should be labelled clearly so customers know which dishes are suitable for those with an allergy.

A direct-ordering system is a chain, and each link can be checked. The guest chooses how to order, opens a dish, makes the required choices, sees the allergen information, pays, and a ticket reaches the kitchen. The weak links are at the ends: dish choices that never reach the ticket, and allergen information that stops at the screen and does not reach the bag.

On TableSpark, the ordering block on the Order page opens with a full-width question, "How would you like to order?", offering Dine in, Collection or Delivery. Dishes list as on your Menu page, with dietary chips and a Dietary and allergens filter, and a running Your order panel. A dish with sizes or required extras opens a sheet with its photo carousel, description, every option group and a note field, and required options block the add until the guest has chosen. So heat or bread is a required choice that the guest has to make, and the note travels with the dish and not the whole order. Delivery needs Stripe, has a fixed fee or postcode-radius tiers, a maximum postcode radius and a minimum order. Collection has a cut-off before close. Guests can pay by card or choose to pay at the restaurant where you allow it.

The order then lands on your Orders screen with a chime, and a status tracker updates for the guest. The printers guide defines a kitchen ticket as "dishes, options, notes, no guest details", and online orders print straight to the kitchen printer on Full. For allergens at handover, the FSA's two stages leave a task for you: put the written information in the bag, as a sticker or an enclosed menu, and flag customised dishes.

If your trade is mostly phone calls, you do not have to switch everything on at once. The Journal's guide to putting phone orders first and online collection second covers that order of work. Online ordering is on the Full plan, so a Starter site is a good first stage while the phone still carries the weight.

Two details sit beside the allergen question on many Indian restaurant sites. The first is the food hygiene rating. The FSA's guidance, updated on 30 June 2026, says an English business can display its rating in the window or door, which is voluntary. In Wales a business is legally required to display its rating at or near each customer entrance, and a Welsh takeaway with a menu or leaflet showing food, prices and a way to order without visiting must publish a bilingual statement directing customers to the food hygiene ratings website. In Northern Ireland the rating must be displayed at or near each customer entrance. The guidance also says: "We encourage you to promote your hygiene rating by displaying it on your website or social media pages as well as in your window." A rating image in the footer of every page is a cheap trust signal.

The second is halal. This research found no official UK guidance on how a halal claim must be worded on a menu, and does not claim one exists. It did find the general rule. Section 226 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 treats a practice as a misleading action if it involves false or misleading information relevant to a transactional decision, including information that, although true, is presented in a misleading way. A halal label is a factual claim, so write it only where it is true of the whole dish, the cooking and the supplier, and keep the evidence to hand. This is general misleading-practice law, not halal-specific guidance.

The honest position is not "leave the marketplaces". A listing puts your food in front of guests who have never heard of you, and the Lumina figure above shows how much delivery trade runs through them. The cost is that the order, the guest and the repeat sale belong to the platform. A sensible plan uses the marketplace to be found and your own site to be chosen again.

The mechanics are simple. Put a card in every marketplace bag with a QR code to your own menu. Print your web address on the menu board, the receipt and the window. Put your ordering link on your Google Business Profile and social profiles. A guest who orders direct once has a reason to repeat, because your site shows the whole menu, the dietary filters and the real opening hours, and you hold the guest record.

How much of the market is direct today is not well measured. Whito, a UK takeaway marketing agency, estimates direct online and app ordering at 5% to 15% of orders across the UK takeaway market. That is an agency estimate and not an official statistic, and your own share is the number to measure. Every order moved from a 30% or 13% line to your own site changes your margin.

For the records, TableSpark stores guest records under your restaurant's account, visible in your Inbox and guest list, with CSV export on every plan. That is the practical difference between renting a customer and having one: your records, in your account, exportable.

The example below is illustrative. Change the basket, the order count and the rate to your own. It assumes 150 repeat marketplace orders a month move to direct collection, at an average basket of £28. The marketplace rates are the two figures on the Uber Eats page above, used as examples of what a marketplace rate looks like; if your partner agreement says something different, use that. The direct route uses Stripe's published UK standard card rate of 1.5% plus 20p, which Stripe's pricing page lists, and TableSpark Full at £69 a month excluding VAT. Fees are shown before VAT.

• Order value moved: 150 × £28 = £4,200.
• Marketplace pickup rate of 13%: £4,200 × 13% = £546.
• Marketplace delivery rate of 30%: £4,200 × 30% = £1,260.
• Stripe fee on one £28 order: £28 × 1.5% = 42p, plus 20p = 62p. Across 150 orders: 150 × 62p = £93.
• TableSpark Full: £69 a month excluding VAT.
• Direct costs in total: £93 + £69 = £162 excluding VAT on the plan fee.
• Saved against the 13% rate: £546 − £162 = £384. Saved against the 30% rate: £1,260 − £162 = £1,098.

Delivery needs a caution. The marketplace's 30% rate covers its courier, and a direct delivery order puts the driver cost on you, whether you use your own staff or another service. This research found no driver price to print. That is why the collection comparison is the clean one, and why the 30% line is an upper bound for delivery orders moved direct, not a promise of savings.

The break-even point is the number of moved orders at which the plan fee is paid for. Each moved order saves its marketplace commission and costs 62p in card fees. The plan fee is £69 a month excluding VAT. At the 13% rate each moved order saves £3.64 less 62p, which is £3.02, and the plan fee divided by that saving is about 22.8, so 23 orders cover the Full plan in the month. At the 30% rate the saving is £8.40 less 62p, which is £7.78, and the same division gives about 8.9, so 9 orders do it. Everything beyond that is margin you keep.

The price of the website is not the price of the job. Most Indian restaurants need a menu that carries spice and allergen detail, ordering with a kitchen ticket, card payments, search set-up and someone to maintain the lot. The providers below publish prices on their own pages. They charge for different things, so the totals are not comparable line by line. Each row is as the provider's page states it, checked on 10 October 2026.

The prices above are not like-for-like, because the providers charge for different things. Turn each into a year before you decide. TableSpark Full is 12 × £69 = £828 excluding VAT, or £690 excluding VAT paid yearly. Flipdish is 12 × £119 = £1,428 billed annually or 12 × £139 = £1,668 billed monthly, excluding VAT. Online Order Go's £2.00 a day is £730 over 365 days, so £299 + £730 = £1,029 in the first year; its page says a tablet and a printer are included, while the TableSpark figure excludes hardware you may already own. Takeaway Growth Agency is 12 × £199 = £2,388, and its page does not say whether that is excluding VAT. The eCom Pro £99 package is £1,188 a year before its 2% gateway fee, and its page's own example puts 2% on £10,000 of monthly orders at £200.

The cheapest line is not always the cheapest route. A general website builder looks cheaper still: Squarespace's Core plan is £17 a month billed annually or £24 monthly on its pricing page, but that is a general website plan and its figures say nothing about a heavy-modifier curry menu, delivery zones, kitchen printing or allergen detail per dish, so those become separate tools or extra work. For more on the whole picture, the Journal's guide to what a restaurant website costs in the UK walks through the layers.

TableSpark's plans are priced by the job. Starter starts at £19 a month excluding VAT, and carries the website, the AI menu scan, the live menu with dietary tags and spice levels, the 14 allergen chips, the QR-ready digital menu and managed search readiness. Growth, at £39 a month excluding VAT, adds direct bookings with deposits and reminders, a custom domain with managed SSL, table and floor-plan operations, and the live service console. Full, at £69 a month excluding VAT, adds online ordering, table QR ordering and kitchen ticket printing. The full list is on the pricing page.

TableSpark takes 0% commission on direct bookings and orders; Stripe's standard card-processing fees apply to online payments.

A website being online is not the same as being found. A site can be live at a working link and still be absent from Google. Misconfigured robots or noindex directives, conflicting canonical addresses, orphaned pages, rendering problems, missing structured restaurant data and incomplete search verification can leave important pages undiscovered, excluded or misunderstood. For a curry house the consequence is plain: a guest searching your restaurant name, a dish or your town may reach a directory, a commission-charging marketplace or a competing restaurant first, and you stay dependent on paid discovery.

A takeaway's search is often local and specific. A guest may type a dish and a town, or "indian takeaway near me", and the page that serves that search has to be readable text. A menu held only in a PDF or an image, or loaded by a script after the page opens, can be read poorly or not at all. The pages that serve such searches need the menu as text, an address and opening hours, the cuisine, a price range and the ordering route, marked up as Restaurant or LocalBusiness data.

TableSpark packages that work into the site on every plan. It includes crawlable structured restaurant content, titles and descriptions, canonical URLs, sitemaps, robots controls, Restaurant and LocalBusiness schema, internal linking, mobile-first output and managed search-verification set-up. The product states it plainly: a live link is not the same as being found, and indexing and ranking stay decisions for Google. No provider can promise either, and this guide does not.

A general entry-level builder is not equivalent merely because it can publish a page. Completing the same search set-up on one usually means a technician to check robots and canonical settings, schema added by hand or by plug-in, and someone to keep it right when the menu changes, outside the plan price.

Use this as the checklist when you compare quotes. Every item is something a quote can silently leave out.

Stripe's pricing page also lists a £20.00 fee per dispute received, so a clear order confirmation and an accurate menu protect the margin as well as the guest.

Ask each supplier the same questions and compare the answers in pounds over twelve months. Which tier includes ordering? Is there an annual prepayment and a renewal price? Which fees apply to card payments? Who changes the menu on Saturday? Does the quote include search set-up?

The steps below use the screens in TableSpark's own tutorials, put your menu online and take orders online. Allow an afternoon for a large menu. Ordering needs the Full plan; the menu steps work on every plan.

Tips for an Indian menu:

• Name the region in the section heading, such as Keralan or Bengali, so the page matches a specific search.
• Put the spice scale on every curry, including the ones that are always mild, so the filter is complete.
• Write the allergen chips once per dish, then re-check them whenever a recipe or supplier changes.
• Keep a printed allergen sheet by the packing station, because the FSA asks for written information at delivery.
• Add your hygiene rating image to the footer and a QR card to every marketplace bag.

A long, adjustable menu needs dish-level spice, dietary and allergen detail. A heavy takeaway trade needs a direct ordering route with a kitchen ticket. The commission arithmetic favours moving repeat guests off the marketplace, while keeping the listing for discovery. And none of it matters if Google is unable to read the page.

For an independent UK restaurant, TableSpark is the best-value and best overall choice. Starter starts at £19 a month excluding VAT and puts the website, the live menu, the dietary tags and spice levels, the 14 allergen chips and managed search readiness in one plan. Full, at £69 a month excluding VAT, adds online ordering, table QR ordering and kitchen ticket printing, so one site serves the dining room and the takeaway counter. Growth, at £39 a month excluding VAT, adds direct bookings with deposits and reminders for the group table and the weekend booking. Compare the Indian restaurant templates and the online ordering page against any quote you hold. For allergen set-up in detail, read the Journal's guide to adding allergens to an online menu, and for the cost of leaving guest data with the platform, what a marketplace order never captures.