Best Curry Restaurants in Cambridge for Students

Mill Road: Cambridge's Secret Weapon

Every university city has a street where the students actually eat — not the glossy restaurants near the colleges that drain parental credit cards, but the real places where a tenner buys you a genuinely excellent meal. In Cambridge, that street is Mill Road.

Running south-east from the city centre, Mill Road is Cambridge's multicultural backbone. You'll find Polish delis, Ethiopian restaurants, Chinese supermarkets, and — critically for our purposes — a string of curry restaurants that range from perfectly decent to genuinely superb. For a student on a budget, or frankly anyone who values flavour over theatre, this strip is essential.

Kohinoor Tandoori

The undisputed king of Mill Road curry. Kohinoor has been here since the late eighties, and generations of Cambridge students have fuelled their revision on its chicken dhansak and lamb madras. What makes it special? The base sauce, mainly. It has that deep, slow-cooked quality — sweet onion, roasted tomato, a whisper of fenugreek — that separates a proper curry house from a lazy one. The lunch deal is frankly absurd: any curry, rice, and naan for £6.95. That's less than a pint at most Cambridge pubs. Go on a weeknight when it's quiet enough to linger over your meal, or Friday when the atmosphere is buzzing.

Navadhanya

Slightly more upmarket than the average student haunt, but hear us out. Navadhanya does a three-course lunch menu for £12.95 that includes some genuinely inventive South Indian dishes — think crispy okra chaat, Chettinad chicken with fresh curry leaves and black pepper, and a coconut rice pudding that is far better than it has any right to be. It's the kind of place you'd take visiting parents to impress them without bankrupting yourself. Evening mains run £9–£15, which is still very reasonable by Cambridge standards.

The Golden Curry

No awards, no reviews in national newspapers, no Instagram presence whatsoever. The Golden Curry doesn't care about any of that, and neither do its customers. This is straight-ahead, no-nonsense Bangladeshi cooking — the kind that feeds you generously and charges you very little. The vegetable biryani is enormous (easily enough for two lighter eaters), the prawn pathia is sweet-and-sour perfection, and absolutely everything on the menu is under nine pounds. They also have one of Cambridge's few BYO policies — bring your own wine or beer, no corkage charge. For a student budget, this place is a godsend.

Beyond Mill Road: Other Student-Friendly Spots

Maharajah on Castle Street

Closer to the city centre and handy if you're near the colleges. Maharajah has been a Cambridge fixture since the seventies and has adapted well to the times. The menu now includes a solid vegan section, which a decade ago would have been unthinkable for a traditional curry house. Their masala dosa makes an excellent cheap lunch (£5.50), and the tiffin box — three small curries with rice, dal, and chapati for £8.95 — is designed precisely for people who can't decide what they want. That's most of us, frankly.

Curry King on King Street

A late-night favourite that's saved many a student from a regrettable kebab decision. Curry King stays open until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, and the post-pub crowd keeps the place humming. The food is exactly what you want at that hour: hot, satisfying, and fast. Their chicken tikka wrap — a naan rolled around tikka pieces, salad, and mint yoghurt — is five pounds and might be the best late-night food in Cambridge.

Saffron Brasserie on Hills Road

If you're looking for something a notch above your usual student curry, Saffron on Hills Road delivers without the price tag you'd expect. The chef trained in Kolkata and brings a Bengali sensibility to the menu — lighter spicing, more fish dishes, an emphasis on mustard oil and panch phoron (Bengali five-spice). Their lunch thali at £8.50 is generous, beautifully presented, and changes weekly.

Student Curry Survival Guide

• Lunch is always cheaper. Nearly every curry restaurant in Cambridge offers reduced lunchtime prices, often 30–40% below evening rates for the same food.
• BYO saves a fortune. Several Mill Road restaurants let you bring your own drinks. Pick up a bottle from the off-licence next door and save yourself ten pounds.
• Share dishes. Indian food is designed for communal eating. Four people ordering four different mains, rice, and bread to share will eat better and spend less than four people ordering individually.
• Ask about student discounts. It's not widely advertised, but at least three Mill Road restaurants offer 10% off with a valid student card. It never hurts to ask.
• Takeaway is cheaper than eating in. If ambience isn't the priority, most restaurants charge slightly less for collection orders. Some also run their own delivery service cheaper than the apps.

The Bigger Picture

Cambridge's curry scene reflects the city itself — smaller than London or Birmingham, but punching above its weight in quality. The university brings a constantly refreshed clientele who demand good food at fair prices, and the restaurants that survive here do so by being consistently excellent.

For more budget-friendly dining ideas, browse our list of family-friendly curry restaurants across the UK. If you're interested in the business side, our analysis of how to price a curry menu for maximum profit reveals the economics behind those brilliant lunch deals.

Cambridge may charge you four quid for a coffee and six pounds for a pint, but a world-class curry for under a tenner? That's still very much on the menu. Eat well, study hard, and tip generously. These places deserve it.