While Indian restaurants are now a staple of UK life, when Veeraswamy opened it was among the ground-breaking pioneers. It initially appealed to Anglo-Indians in London who missed the food they had enjoyed in India.
Co-owner Ranjit Mathrani says generals, civil servants and businesspeople who had links with India first came here, along with expatriate Indians. Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, were among its customers.
It became a fashionable West End venue, attracting a social glitterati including actors Charlie Chaplin and Marlon Brando and political figures including Sir Winston Churchill. More recently Princess Anne, David Cameron and Andrew Lloyd Webber have been visitors.
The restaurant has been to Buckingham Palace before – its chefs provided the catering for important Indian visitors in 2008 and 2017.
And it claims to be the birthplace of that most British of combinations: curry and beer.
Prince Axel of Denmark liked to drink Carlsberg while at the restaurant in the 1920s, beginning that culinary love affair.
