Correction (1 October 2026): an earlier version of this page listed nine “Indian food” venues in Elwood, with street addresses, seat counts, prices and “insider tips”, and said we had visited every one. We could not find any of the nine in OpenStreetMap or the Australian Good Food Guide, and the dishes it named (house-made relish, mushroom pasta, a charcuterie board) were not Indian. The page has been rewritten from scratch. Every venue below was confirmed at two independent sources, and every price was copied from the venue’s own menu or ordering page on 1 October 2026.
Elwood is a beach-and-canal suburb, and it is honest to say up front that it is not one of Melbourne’s big Indian food suburbs. The menus that matter for an Elwood curry night are spread across one kitchen on Brighton Road and a handful just over the borders in St Kilda and Elsternwick. This guide pairs each one with dishes and prices as they are published today, and explains each dish in a line for anyone reading the board for the first time.
Community context: at the 2021 Census, 145 of Elwood’s 15,153 residents (1.0 per cent) were born in India, against 4.0 per cent across Victoria, and 79.5 per cent of residents spoke only English at home. The map tells the same story: we found one Indian kitchen in Elwood with a menu we could read, and more over the borders. Menus move, so give them a squiz before you head out.
The quick picks
| If you’re after | Head to | Start with | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indian takeaway in Elwood itself | Curry Leaf Cafe | Takeaway Pack (small curry, rice, naan) | $20.00 |
| The cheapest butter chicken on this list | Qmin, Elsternwick | Butter chicken | $20.90 |
| Fritters and curries for a takeaway night | Indian Essence Elsternwick | Onion bhaji | $10.10 |
| A sit-down dinner with a long curry list | Babu Ji, St Kilda | Dal tadka | $20 |
| South Indian and street snacks | Mukka St Kilda | Pani puri | $14.90 |
| Biryani from a kitchen that names Elwood | Amrapali Indian Cuisine | Chicken biryani | $29.90 |
Curry Leaf Cafe — 101 Brighton Rd, Elwood VIC 3184
The one Indian kitchen inside Elwood whose full menu we could read, and it calls itself “BYO & Indulgent Indian Cuisine”. Its own ordering site takes pick-up orders, and the handiest line on it for one person, listed under its Specials, is the Takeaway Pack at $20.00: a small curry, small basmati rice and a plain naan, with butter chicken, beef aloo, lamb rogan josh, daal makhani, daal tadka or veg korma to choose from. A full butter chicken is $26.90, a garlic naan $4.90, and the Chicken Thali Bento Box is $22.00: the chicken curry of the day with daal, rice, salad and naan or roti, the thali idea (a meal of small portions for one) packed to travel.
On the menu: the Chennai Curry Leaf ($22.90) is the South Indian thread here, described on the menu as tender pieces tempered with mustard seeds and fresh curry leaves in a coconut curry, the tempering being whole spices sizzled in hot oil and poured over at the end.
Start with: the Takeaway Pack, $20.00.
Qmin Indian Eatery and Drinks — 297 Glen Huntly Rd, Elsternwick VIC 3185
The Elsternwick Village traders’ directory says Qmin’s creators “envisioned a modern haven where traditional Indian flavours could be celebrated with a contemporary twist”, and its own website takes pick-up orders from its takeaway menu. The butter chicken, listed as “twice cooked”, is $20.90, the lowest butter chicken price on this page. The Chennai Chicken ($19.90) is spiced with star anise, fennel, black pepper and curry leaves, and the Kashmiri lamb roganjosh is $22.90; rogan josh is the slow-braised lamb curry of Kashmir, coloured deep red by mild Kashmiri chilli.
On the menu: Punjabi samosa (2pcs), $10.90: crisp pastry parcels of potato and peas, the samosa in its best-known North Indian form.
Start with: the butter chicken, $20.90.
Indian Essence Elsternwick — 586 Glen Huntly Rd, Elsternwick VIC 3185
Further along Glen Huntly Road, and its online ordering page takes both takeaway and delivery orders. Prices on that ordering page differ from the menu printed on its own website, so these are the ordering-page figures. Onion bhaji, onion rings in a chickpea-flour batter, is $10.10, as is the veg pakora of cauliflower, onion, potato and spinach; a pakora is any vegetable fried in that spiced batter. Butter chicken is $23.30, dal makhani (black lentils in a creamy Punjabi-style gravy) $18.25, and a garlic naan $4.05. Its own website lists Monday as closed.
On the menu: samosa (2 pcs), $12.15, the “Indian favourite teatime snack” in the menu’s own words.
Start with: the onion bhaji, $10.10.
Babu Ji — The George Building, 4-6 Grey St, St Kilda VIC 3182
A sit-down restaurant on Grey Street that also does takeaway seven days, 11:30am to 9:30pm, according to its own contact page; dinner service runs 5:30 to 9:30pm every night. The dine-in menu prints bare numbers, so read these as dollars: dal tadka is $20, split yellow lentils finished with a ghee tadka (spices fried in ghee and stirred through at the end), and the dal makhani, black lentils slow cooked for 12 hours, is also $20. Butter chicken is $26, made with free-range chicken thigh, and the Kerala fish curry, blue grenadier with turmeric and coconut milk, is $27. Naans start at $6.
On the menu: the Kerala fish curry, $27. Kerala, on India’s south-west coast, cooks a lot of its fish in coconut milk, a gentler base than the tomato-and-onion gravies of the North Indian curries above.
Start with: the dal tadka, $20, with a $6 naan.
Mukka St Kilda — 16 Fitzroy St, St Kilda VIC 3182
Mukka’s second location (the other is in Fitzroy), and its online ordering shop offers both pick-up and delivery. The “From The Streets” section is the reason to come: pani puri is $14.90, hollow crisp shells you fill with spiced water and eat in one bite, and the menu itself lists phuchka and gup chup among its other names. For South Indian food, the thatte idli ($17.90) is a broad, flat steamed rice-and-lentil cake topped with gunpowder spice (a dry chutney of roasted lentils and chilli) and ghee. The non-veg Isolation Thali, one non-vegetarian curry and one vegetarian curry with basmati rice and naan or roti, is $29.00.
On the menu: samosa chaat, $22.00: homemade samosas topped with spiced chickpeas, green and tamarind chutneys, cold yoghurt and sev, the crunchy chickpea-flour noodles.
Start with: the pani puri, $14.90.
Amrapali Indian Cuisine — 278-280 St Kilda Rd, St Kilda VIC 3182
Its own website names Elwood among the suburbs it serves, alongside St Kilda, Balaclava and Albert Park, and its ordering page gives a 10 km delivery radius. It is also the dearest kitchen on this page for the staples: the butter chicken makhani is $34.90 and a garlic naan $7.90. The biryani list is where to look. A biryani layers part-cooked rice over a spiced meat or vegetable curry and steams the two together, so the rice takes the flavour; chicken biryani is $29.90 and vegetable biryani $26.90.
On the menu: chicken biryani, $29.90, described on its ordering page as “saffron rice cooked with chicken”.
Start with: the chicken biryani, $29.90.
Quick answers
Is there an Indian restaurant in Elwood?
Yes. Curry Leaf Cafe at 101 Brighton Road, Elwood, is the only Indian kitchen in the suburb we found with a full menu online. Its Takeaway Pack is $20.00 and its butter chicken $26.90, from its own ordering site on 1 October 2026.
Where can I get Indian takeaway in Elwood?
Curry Leaf Cafe takes pick-up orders on its own website. Close by, Qmin in Elsternwick takes pick-up orders online, Indian Essence Elsternwick and Mukka St Kilda take pick-up and delivery orders through their ordering pages, and Amrapali Indian Cuisine in St Kilda names Elwood among the suburbs it serves.
How much is butter chicken around Elwood?
On 1 October 2026: $20.90 at Qmin, $23.30 on Indian Essence’s ordering page, $26 on Babu Ji’s dine-in menu, $26.90 at Curry Leaf Cafe and $34.90 for the butter chicken makhani at Amrapali.
Where can I get South Indian food near Elwood?
Mukka St Kilda has thatte idli at $17.90, a flat steamed rice cake with gunpowder spice and ghee. Babu Ji’s Kerala fish curry is $27, Curry Leaf Cafe’s coconut-based Chennai Curry Leaf is $22.90, and Qmin’s Chennai Chicken is $19.90.
Which Indian restaurant near Elwood does takeaway seven days?
Babu Ji on Grey Street, St Kilda lists takeaway seven days, 11:30am to 9:30pm, on its own contact page. Indian Essence Elsternwick lists Monday as closed.
How we checked
On 1 October 2026 we read each venue’s own website or online ordering page and copied every item and price exactly as printed: raw page source where it carried the menu, and Jina Reader renders for the ordering pages that load their menus with JavaScript (Curry Leaf Cafe, Qmin, Mukka). We confirmed each address at a second, independent source: the Australian Good Food Guide, the Elsternwick Village traders’ directory or Localsearch. Population figures are from the ABS 2021 Census QuickStats for Elwood. Online ordering prices can differ from counter prices, and Babu Ji’s prices are from its dine-in menu, so takeaway may differ. We did not use delivery-app prices, Google ratings or review counts. The photos are illustrative, from Unsplash: they show the kind of dish, not the venue’s own food.
Seen something out of date? Email [email protected] with the page link and what has changed, and we will check it again.
Sources
- Curry Leaf Cafe: curryleafcafe.com.au (menu and pick-up ordering); address also at AGFG
- Qmin Indian Eatery and Drinks: qminindianrestaurant.com.au (takeaway menu); address also at the Elsternwick Village directory and AGFG
- Indian Essence Elsternwick: indianessenceelsternwick.com.au and its ordering page; address also at Localsearch
- Babu Ji: menu and contact page; address also at AGFG
- Mukka St Kilda: mukka.com.au/st-kilda and its ordering shop; address also at AGFG
- Amrapali Indian Cuisine: amrapali.com.au and its ordering menu; address also at AGFG
- Elwood population and country of birth: ABS 2021 Census QuickStats
