Correction (1 October 2026): an earlier version of this page listed ten “Indian” venues in Hampton, with addresses, prices and seat counts we could not match to any real business, and it claimed we had tested every one in person. We had not, and the list should never have been published. The page has been rewritten from scratch: every place below was checked against its own current website or ordering menu and a second, independent source on 1 and 2 October 2026.
Hampton’s Indian food is a high-street story rather than a diaspora one, and the Census points the same way. Community context: at the 2021 Census, 83.0 per cent of Hampton’s 13,518 residents used only English at home, and no Indian language or Indian birthplace appears among the suburb’s top responses. What the suburb does have is Hampton Street, where two Indian dining rooms publish menus you can read, with more kitchens just south in Sandringham and north along Bay Street in Brighton.
So this is an honest “in and around” guide. It starts with the two Hampton Street restaurants whose own menus we could read, then adds three neighbours in Sandringham and Brighton, each chosen because it publishes prices you can check before you leave home. The menus lean North Indian and Punjabi: tandoor breads and kebabs, butter chicken, slow-cooked black dal, biryani. Where a dish name might be new to you, there is a line explaining it.
The quick picks
| If you’re after | Head to | Start with | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| A sit-down banquet on Hampton Street | Roti Boti | Banquet 1, for two | $50 per head |
| Slow-cooked Punjabi dal | Southall | 48 hour Kaali Daal (pick-up) | $23.80 |
| The best-value butter chicken | Curry Treasure, Sandringham | TA Butter Chicken Mild | $22.99 |
| Biryani on Bay Street | Royale India, Brighton | Chicken biryani | $22.90 |
| Tandoor-cooked cauliflower on Bay Street | Shalimar, Brighton | Tandoori cauliflower (online order) | $22.95 |
Roti Boti — 513 Hampton St, Hampton VIC 3188
One of the two Hampton Street Indian restaurants whose menus we could read, with a dine-in menu that reads like a tour from the tandoor outwards. Butter chicken is $28 and its menu describes it as clay-oven chicken tikka in a tomato gravy scented with kasoori methi, the dried fenugreek leaf that gives the dish its faintly savoury finish. Half a tandoori chicken (four pieces) is $19, dal makhani is $22, garlic naan is $6, and for two people who would rather not choose, Banquet 1 is $50 per head: samosa and chicken tikka, then butter chicken and lamb madras with naans and saffron rice.
On the menu: under “Let’s Chaat” ($19) the menu lists aloo tikki (a pan-fried potato patty) and samosa, topped with tamarind, mint and cumin-yoghurt sauces: the sweet, sour and cool layering of North Indian street snacks. The restaurant is licensed and also allows BYO wine only, with corkage of $5.00 per head.
Start with: Banquet 1 for two, $50 per head.
Southall — 400 Hampton St, Hampton VIC 3188
Southall takes its name from the London district that its own website describes as a home for migrants from Punjab, and the same site tells the family’s story in its own words: a first Melbourne restaurant, Bombay By Night, from 1990 to 2015, and now “our dining room in Hampton”. Broadsheet lists the restaurant at 400 Hampton Street and names its mainstays as chicken tikka masala, saag paneer, lamb biryani and a 48-hour charcoal-cooked kaali daal. Prices here come from its online pick-up menu, which the restaurant says is already 15 per cent cheaper than dining in: butter chicken $23.00, lamb biryani $32.20, garlic naan $5.00. When we read that menu again on 2 October 2026, inside its stated 5pm to 9pm pick-up hours, every item was marked sold out, so ring ahead before you count on ordering online.
On the menu: kaali daal means “black dal”, whole black lentils cooked for hours until they turn creamy; Southall’s 48 hour Kaali Daal is $23.80. Batata wada ($12.75) is a Mumbai street snack of spiced potato balls fried in chickpea batter.
Start with: the 48 hour Kaali Daal, $23.80, with a garlic naan.
Curry Treasure — 82 Station St, Sandringham VIC 3191
A takeaway-focused kitchen in Sandringham, Hampton’s neighbour to the south, with the lowest butter chicken and biryani prices we found for this page. Its online menu lists butter chicken (marked mild) at $22.99, dal makhani at $19.00, a chicken biryani at $18.00 and garlic naan at $4.50. The curries carry a “TA” (takeaway) prefix, so these are takeaway prices; you can also book a table through the same site.
On the menu: tandoori chicken, $16.00 as an entree, is chicken marinated in yoghurt and spices and cooked in the tandoor, the clay oven that gives it a charred crust.
Start with: the TA Butter Chicken Mild, $22.99, the lowest butter chicken price on this page.
Royale India — 228-230 Bay St, Brighton VIC 3186
A Bay Street restaurant in Brighton, Hampton’s northern neighbour, which says on its own website that it is now under new management. Its online ordering menu lists butter chicken makhani at $27.90, chicken biryani at $22.90, garlic naan at $4.50, and a run of Indo-Chinese dishes alongside the curries. Its site lists it as closed on Tuesdays.
On the menu: tandoori gobi ($17.90) is cauliflower marinated in spiced yoghurt and roasted in the tandoor; samosa chat ($16.90) is a crushed samosa dressed with chutneys and yoghurt.
Start with: the chicken biryani, $22.90: rice and chicken layered and cooked together with whole spices, a full meal in one dish.
Shalimar Indian Restaurant — 343 Bay St, Brighton VIC 3186
Also on Bay Street, Shalimar describes itself as “Melbourne’s Oldest Indian Restaurant est. 1981”, and OpenStreetMap also records a 1981 start date; we have not checked the “oldest” claim. The restaurant says it specialises in North Indian cooking and names its must-try dishes as tandoori cauliflower (its house specialty), burra kebab (tandoori lamb cutlets), goat curry and murgh mumtaz, its name for butter chicken. Its takeaway menu is published only as two images, but the online ordering page linked from its site, read on 2 October 2026, lists tandoori cauliflower at $22.95, burra kebab at $34.95, goat curry at $29.75 and murgh mumtaz at $29.75. Its site lists dinner from Tuesday to Sunday.
On the menu: burra kebab is lamb cutlets marinated in yoghurt and spices and cooked in the tandoor.
Start with: the tandoori cauliflower, $22.95 on its online ordering menu, the dish the restaurant calls its house specialty.
Also on Hampton Street
Two more Hampton Street addresses turn up in restaurant listings, but neither had a website or a menu of its own that we could read on 1 October 2026, so they are not in the picks. The Australian Good Food Guide and DoorDash list Spice Mantra at 532 Hampton Street; the website address it used, spicemantra.au, did not resolve when we checked. At 277 Hampton Street, the Australian Good Food Guide carries listings under two names, Indian Express Hampton and Channai Biryani Hampton, while the DoorDash store page at that address now trades as TJ Hot Stuff with a biryani-led menu; the Indian Express website address did not resolve either. Ring ahead before you make the trip.
Quick answers
Which Indian restaurants are on Hampton Street?
Roti Boti at 513 Hampton Street and Southall at 400 Hampton Street both publish menus we could read on 1 October 2026. Listings also place Spice Mantra at 532 Hampton Street and a biryani kitchen at 277 Hampton Street, but neither had a working website or a menu of its own online, so they are not in our priced picks.
Is Roti Boti in Hampton BYO?
Its dine-in policy says it is licensed and BYO for wine only (no spirits or beer), with corkage of $5.00 per head and a minimum cover charge of $25.00 per head. Check when you book, as policies change.
Where is the cheapest butter chicken near Hampton?
On the menus we read on 1 and 2 October 2026: Curry Treasure in Sandringham lists its takeaway butter chicken at $22.99, Southall’s online pick-up menu has it at $23.00, Royale India in Brighton at $27.90, Roti Boti’s dine-in menu at $28 and Shalimar’s online ordering menu, as murgh mumtaz, at $29.75. Takeaway and dine-in prices are not like for like.
Is Hampton the same suburb as Hampton Park?
No. Hampton is the suburb in the City of Bayside, postcode 3188, about 14 km south-east of the CBD. Hampton Park is a separate suburb about 36 km south-east of the CBD in the City of Casey, postcode 3976. Everything on this page is in or next to Bayside’s Hampton.
What is kaali daal, and is it the same as dal makhani?
They are close cousins. Both are Punjabi dishes of whole black lentils (urad) cooked slowly until creamy; dal makhani (“buttery dal”) is the richer version finished with butter and cream. Southall’s menu calls its version the 48 hour Kaali Daal, and Roti Boti and Curry Treasure list dal makhani.
How we checked
On 1 October 2026 we read each venue’s own website, dine-in menu or online ordering menu and copied every item and price exactly as printed. Roti Boti’s prices are from its dine-in menu page; Southall’s from the HungryHungry pick-up menu linked from its own takeaway page; Curry Treasure’s from the menu on its own site; Royale India’s from the menu data behind the ordering page on its own domain; Shalimar’s from the online ordering page linked from its own site, read on 2 October 2026. We confirmed each address at a second, independent source: the Australian Good Food Guide, Broadsheet, Everything Indian or OpenStreetMap. Census figures are from the ABS 2021 QuickStats for Hampton (Vic.); distances are from Wikipedia. Online and takeaway prices can differ from dine-in prices, and menus change, so check before you go. 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
- Roti Boti: dine-in menu and online ordering; address also at AGFG and Everything Indian
- Southall: the story, location, takeaway page and its pick-up menu; address also at Broadsheet and AGFG
- Curry Treasure: menu and contact page; address also at OpenStreetMap
- Royale India: royaleindia.com.au and its ordering page; address also at Everything Indian
- Shalimar Indian Restaurant: shalimar.com.au and its ordering page; address also at OpenStreetMap and Everything Indian
- Spice Mantra and 277 Hampton Street listings: AGFG Spice Mantra, AGFG Indian Express Hampton, AGFG Channai Biryani Hampton, Everything Indian Indian Express, DoorDash store pages for Spice Mantra and 277 Hampton Street (TJ Hot Stuff)
- Hampton population and languages: ABS 2021 Census QuickStats
- Distances and councils: Wikipedia on Hampton and Hampton Park
