UK Indian Takeaway Calories: What a Laboratory Measured

By Shivam Verma, Founder/Published November 7, 2026/Last updated November 7, 2026

Every dish safefood measured, beside our recipe

safefood's figure is the average portion the laboratory found. Ours is our stated recipe for the same dish, scaled to exactly that weight, so the two can be read side by side. A dish with no recipe on this site is left without one rather than borrowed from elsewhere.

safefood: laboratory analysis of 280 takeaway samples from 36 outlets, 2015, mean portion per dish. Ours: the stated recipe on each dish page, scaled to safefood's portion weight.

Where the calories sit

The curries are the heavy part. safefood's chicken tikka masala averaged 523 g and 1,249 calories, with 90.8 g of fat, 49.7 g of it saturated; the korma, 518 g and 1,248, with 51.7 g saturated. Those are single portions. Our UK takeaway style tikka masala at the same weight is 1,122 calories, 10 percent below theirs, and our korma 1,215, 3 percent below. Our recipes land close to what the laboratory found, and show where it comes from: the cream, butter and oil they state in grams.

The chicken jalfrezi was the lightest main they measured, 721 calories for a heavier 539 g portion, with 37.4 g of fat against 90.8 g in the chicken tikka masala. Among the starters the chicken tikka starter was lightest at 249, and the onion bhajis came to 429.

Our recipes come out above safefood's figure on 2 rows, the chicken tikka starter and peshwari naan, and below it on the other 7 we have a recipe for. For the onion bhajis, chicken korma and pilau rice, ours carries more fat yet fewer calories than the dishes safefood bought, which points to a different build rather than a heavier hand with the oil.

The sides are not small either. A plain naan averaged 504 calories and a peshwari naan 748; pilau rice 496 against 387 for boiled rice, 109 calories apart for the oil and ghee in the pilau.

Heavy, or only large

Per 100 g the curries are not the densest food on the table. The tikka masala is 239 calories per 100 g and the korma 241, below a plain naan at 291, a peshwari naan at 331 and poppadoms at 538. The jalfrezi, at 134, is about as dense as boiled rice at 136. The curries reach four figures because the portions are large: over half a kilo each, as safefood weighed them.

The same dish made at home

Our home chicken tikka masala at the same 523 g is 620 calories with 30.2 g of fat, against 1,122 and 89.0 g for our UK takeaway style recipe. Our home korma at 518 g is 729 against 1,215. The difference is the cream, butter and oil, each stated in grams on the dish pages, which is the gap the homemade against restaurant guide measures across the site.

A full takeaway night

Poppadoms, a starter, a main, rice and a naan, each at safefood's average portion. Together they are 1,151 g of food.

The together row adds the portions above; ours is summed from unrounded figures and rounded once.

What safefood's average meal came to

safefood also added up an average meal of its own, a poppadom, a starter, a main and pilau rice, without a naan: 2,287 calories, which it put at 114 percent of an adult's guideline daily amount of energy, 290 percent of the saturated fat and 150 percent of the salt. It noted that many portions are sized for two people, and that the shop-bought versions it compared were smaller and lower in calories. Our night above, with a naan, comes to 2,791 on their figures and 2,564 on our recipes. safefood measured salt as well: the dishes of our night carry 11.0 g between them, and the chicken jalfrezi, the lightest main, was the saltiest at 5.2 g a portion.

Against a US restaurant meal

A US study measured restaurant meals with a bomb calorimeter, the same idea as safefood's laboratory: non-chain restaurant meals averaged 1,205 calories, and 92 percent of them exceeded typical energy needs for a single eating occasion. That study's abstract gives no average for Indian restaurants, so we state none. A single takeaway korma on safefood's figures, 1,248 calories, is already past the US all-restaurant average before any rice or bread.

What moves the total

Three choices move a takeaway night more than any other. The main: on safefood's figures the chicken jalfrezi is 528 calories lighter than the chicken tikka masala. The rice: boiled rice in place of pilau is 109 calories less. The bread: a plain naan is 8 calories more than a portion of pilau rice, and many orders have both. Sharing a main that is sized for two halves it. How the same patterns run across the whole cuisine, at home and out, is in the guide to whether Indian food is healthy.

Poppadoms are the small part of the night: safefood's portion was 21 g and 113 calories. Our starter of two fried poppadoms with mango chutney and raita is 216, and most of the chutney is sugar: 50.0 g per 100 g on the median of 31 US labels.

Saturated fat and sugar

Fat is 66 percent of the korma's calories and 65 percent of the tikka masala's, against 47 percent for the jalfrezi, and much of it is saturated: 51.7 g of the korma's 91.4 g, and 49.7 g of the tikka masala's 90.8 g. How those amounts sit against health guidance is set out in the saturated fat guidelines on the ghee page. The sweet parts of the meal, the peshwari naan's filling, the chutney and a mango lassi, are measured against the added sugar guidance on the lassi page.

Sources

1. USDA FoodData Central
2. safefood. What's in your Indian takeaway? Laboratory analysis of 280 takeaway samples from 36 outlets, September 2015.
3. Urban LE et al. Energy contents of frequently ordered restaurant meals and comparison with human energy requirements and U.S. Department of Agriculture database information: a multisite randomized study. J Acad Nutr Diet, 2016.

Common questions

Every dish in this comparison

These figures are estimates from stated recipes, for general information. They are not medical or dietary advice. If you manage a health condition, check with a registered dietitian or your doctor.