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Calories · Indian food

Indian restaurant calories, curry, rice and bread.

An Indian meal out is a table of curries, a basket of bread, rice for everyone and a few things you didn’t order but couldn’t resist. Restaurant kitchens cook richer than home ones, with more cream, butter and ghee.

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In short

A restaurant chicken tikka masala with a plate of rice is about 800 calories, and a chicken biryani portion about 730. Cream, butter and ghee in the sauce, the rice or naan alongside, and how many dishes the table shares set the number.

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How a meal is built

Curries in the middle, bread in your hand.

Most Indian restaurant meals are shared: two or three curries, rice, a basket of naan or roti, and starters like samosas or pakoras to begin. Biryani is the exception — a whole meal in one pot.

Count it in three parts: your share of the curries, your rice, and your bread. The bread is the one people forget.

The menu

Indian dishes, one rough number each

Indian · typical restaurant servingEvery cuisine →

  • Samosa~310one large restaurant samosa · usually 200–400
  • Dal~350one restaurant bowl, about a cup · usually 250–600
  • Chicken korma~440one restaurant curry, no rice · usually 400–900
  • Lamb rogan josh~520one restaurant curry, no rice · usually 400–900
  • Tandoori chicken~540half a tandoori chicken, meat off the bone · usually 250–800
  • Naan~550one whole 10-inch restaurant naan · usually 260–750
  • Chicken vindaloo~670one restaurant curry, no rice · usually 450–1,000
  • Chicken biryani~730one takeaway or restaurant portion · usually 500–1,100
  • Butter chicken with rice~790one serving of butter chicken with one cup of rice · usually 600–1,100
  • Chicken tikka masala~800one curry with about 200 g of plain rice · usually 600–1,300

What drives it

Cream, ghee and the bread basket.

  • Creamy sauces. Tikka masala, butter chicken, korma and makhani dishes are finished with cream, butter or ground nuts.
  • Ghee. Used for frying spices and often stirred in at the end, including in biryani rice.
  • Naan. Restaurant naan is large and often brushed with butter or garlic butter; roti is lighter.
  • Fried starters. Samosas, pakoras and bhajis come straight from the fryer.
  • Rice. Pilau rice is cooked with oil or ghee; plain rice is about 210 a cup.
  • Lassi. Mango and sweet lassis are a dessert in a glass.

Lighter orders

If you want a lighter meal.

  • Tandoori or tikka dishes from the grill, without the masala sauce.
  • Tomato- or lentil-based dishes such as chana masala or a plain dal (dal makhani is richer).
  • Roti or chapati instead of butter naan, or one bread shared.
  • Plain rice instead of pilau, and a smaller portion of it.
  • Raita and kachumber salad on the side.

How the dishes compare

An Indian menu, roughly.

Butter chicken (about 790 with a cup of rice) sits right next to tikka masala: both are tomato sauces finished with cream and butter, and kitchens vary more than the dishes do. Restaurant portions vary, so read these as rough. For a shared table, PlateDiary’s calorie counter reads every dish from one photo — calories are off unless you turn them on.

Rough calories for typical Indian restaurant servings
OrderRough numberNotes
Plain rice, 1 cup~210Pilau rice runs higher
Chicken biryani, a portion~730Usually 500–1,100
Butter chicken with a cup of rice~790Usually 600–1,100
Chicken tikka masala with rice~800Usually 600–1,300

In PlateDiary

A rough number for the dishes you save — only if you want one.

Off unless you turn them on

Calories in PlateDiary are off unless you turn them on. Switch them on and, when PlateDiary AI reads your photo of the table, each dish gets one rough “~” number. Accept it or change it; a number you correct is remembered for that dish. With Calories off, the app looks exactly as it did before.

A read sends small pictures of the cut-out dishes, with the place's name as a hint — never the table photo, faces or your location. Calorie numbers never go to analytics, and nothing is written to a health app. PlateDiary AI starts with free tries; here is how it works.

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Sources

Where the facts come from

  1. UK CoFID (McCance and Widdowson’s Composition of Foods)
  2. USDA FoodData Central — Biryani with chicken (FDC 2706538)
  3. USDA FoodData Central — Rice, white, cooked, no added fat (FDC 2708408)

Questions

Questions people ask.

How many calories are in chicken tikka masala with rice?

About 800 calories for a restaurant curry with a plate of plain rice, usually 600–1,300 depending on the cream and the portion.

Butter chicken or tikka masala: which has more calories?

They are close: about 790 for butter chicken with a cup of rice and about 800 for tikka masala with rice. Both are tomato sauces finished with cream and butter, so the kitchen and portion matter more than the name.

How many calories are in a chicken biryani?

A restaurant or takeaway portion is about 730 calories, usually 500–1,100, depending on the ghee in the rice and the portion size.

What is lighter to order at an Indian restaurant?

Grilled tandoori dishes, lentil and chickpea curries, roti instead of naan, and plain rice instead of pilau.