Online ordering for Indian and Pakistani restaurants in Tower Hamlets

Updated 13 November 2026. Source: the Food Standards Agency register, pulled on 13 November 2026. Coverage is the Tower Hamlets council area; we do not name any business. Whole-area figures are on our Tower Hamlets page.

In short: Tower Hamlets has 30 FSA-registered premises with Indian, curry or tandoori in the name, most in E1 and E2. A Tower Hamlets Indian restaurant can take direct orders on its own Chefzi page: plans run from £9 to £49 a month per location (ex VAT), commission is 0% ever, and the first month is free with no card.

The register lists 30 premises in Tower Hamlets with "tandoori", "balti", "karahi", "masala", "biryani", "tikka", "curry", "Indian", "Pakistani", "Lahore", "Karachi", "Peshawari" or "Punjab" in the business name, 6 of them registered as takeaways and 24 as restaurants or cafés. The most are in E1 (17), E2 (7), E3 (3), E14 (3). That is 2.0% of the area's 1,528 takeaway, restaurant and café premises, against 2.2% across the UK, so the word is about as common here as in the UK as a whole.

That makes Tower Hamlets a place where a direct ordering page earns its keep: the same few streets hold a lot of curry-named premises, so being easy to find and easy to order from is the whole game.

What the FSA register shows for Tower Hamlets Indian and Pakistani names

Read this as a name-keyword count, not a census. A premises is counted only if its registered name contains one of the words, so Indian and Pakistani restaurants with other names are missed and any place using the word for something else is included. Only takeaway, sandwich shop, restaurant, café and canteen premises are counted, and no business is named.

Of the 30 with a numeric rating, 17 (57%) are rated 5 and 0 (0%) are rated 0, 1 or 2. That is a lower share than the 63.5% of all rated takeaways in Tower Hamlets that hold a 5. A rating is a snapshot of one inspection, and the FSA says so on every record.

Where they cluster

E1 holds the most, 17 of the 30 (57%), and the premises sit across 4 postcode districts in all. A zone per district lets you charge a small fee for the close streets and a higher minimum for the outer ones, in Chefzi's delivery zones.

How Tower Hamlets compares with the council areas next to it

The five nearest council areas by the centre of their food premises, with the same name-keyword count:

1 of the five neighbours have more of these names than Tower Hamlets, and 4 have fewer, so the field here is among the bigger ones nearby. Neighbouring set-ups: Indian restaurant ordering in Westminster.

Tower Hamlets in the wider picture

Tower Hamlets has 339 takeaway and sandwich shop premises and 1,189 restaurant, café and canteen premises on the register. On takeaway premises it ranks 38 of 363 UK council areas, and 10 of 33 in London. Across all rated takeaways in Tower Hamlets, 63.5% hold a 5 against 62.0% across England, and 6.5% are rated 0 to 2 against 5.8%. Tower Hamlets is part of Greater London, whose page lists every council area there with its takeaway and restaurant counts.

Tower Hamlets against the UK: the numbers

Set against population, Tower Hamlets has 0.90 Indian and Pakistani-named premises for every 10,000 residents, above the UK figure of 0.64 (ONS mid-2025 population estimate for the area: 334,240). On the register, only 21 council areas have more of these names than Tower Hamlets; within London it ranks 6th of 33.

E2 is the district where the name is most common relative to local food premises (4%); E14 is the lowest of these four at 1%. The area-wide share is 2.0%.

These premises are inspected about as recently as the area as a whole: 47% inspected within a year (30 dated records) against 46% overall, with a median of 13 months since inspection against 13.

Population figures are ONS mid-2025 estimates; every other figure comes from the same FSA register pull as the tables above. Small samples move a lot from one inspection to the next, so read the shares as a guide to where the pattern is, not as a verdict on any business.

How a direct ordering page helps here

• Zones that match the map. The premises are concentrated in E1 and E2, so a tight zone around the busiest district with a wider second zone for the rest of Tower Hamlets fits the spread.
• Put your link where customers already look. Put the link on your Google Business Profile (how), and print a QR code for each bag (QR kit).
• Text your regulars with their permission (SMS and email marketing, Plus and Pro) when you launch a new dish or a weekday offer.
• Pause ordering on a busy Friday, and mark a dish out of stock when it runs out, so nobody orders what you cannot cook.
• Take cash as well as card. Cash on collection and cash on delivery are on every plan, and card payments are on Plus and Pro.

Late-night hot food in Tower Hamlets: what to check

Between 11pm and 5am, supplying hot food or drink counts as late night refreshment under the Licensing Act 2003, and the local council issues the licence. Tower Hamlets's council publishes its process here: Tower Hamlets council licensing page (checked 13 November 2026). Check it before you open your ordering hours past 11pm.

Our late night refreshment licence guide sets out the England and Wales rules. In Chefzi, collection hours and delivery hours are separate settings, so you can match whatever your licence allows. This is general information and not legal advice.

How to start

1. Put your menu into Chefzi on a short call with us. We set it up with you and aim to have you live in 24 to 48 hours.
2. Set required choices for the way your customers order, and set your delivery zones by postcode district or radius.
3. Add your ordering link to your Google Business Profile (how) and a QR code to every bag (QR kit).
4. With their permission, tell regulars about the page by SMS or email (how, Plus and Pro).

For more, see the Indian restaurant page, the commission calculator and our guide on moving customers from Just Eat to your own site, and the Tower Hamlets location page for every takeaway and restaurant figure in the council area, or all UK locations.

A worked example for a Tower Hamlets Indian restaurant

Treat this as an illustration, not a measurement for Tower Hamlets. No published average order value exists for Tower Hamlets Indian and Pakistani restaurants, so we assume £25, the default in our commission calculator, and a round 20 orders a week. Swap in your own figures.

Suppose 20 orders a week (about 87 a month, £25 each, £2,175 in sales) shift from Just Eat to your own Chefzi link. Just Eat's published rates (read 12 November 2026, details) are 14% with your own drivers and 30% when it delivers, plus VAT. At 14% those 87 orders cost £305 plus £61 VAT, £365 in all; at 30% they cost £652 plus £130 VAT, £783.

With Chefzi the 87 orders carry 0% commission and the bill stays at the flat plan price: £22 a month on Plus (£19 billed annually), per location, excluding VAT. We have not modelled card processing fees on either side, and the example ignores orders that remain on the marketplaces.

What Chefzi does not do

• It does not set up delivery for you: you run your own drivers, and Chefzi has no courier integrations.
• It has no kiosk and no CRM.
• A pre-order lead time is set for the whole location, not for one dish.
• Orders placed on Just Eat, Deliveroo or Uber Eats still pay those apps' commission. Chefzi helps you move regular customers to your own site.

Sources

• Food Standards Agency, Food Hygiene Rating Scheme open data API (api.ratings.food.gov.uk), authority Tower Hamlets, business types Takeaway/sandwich shop and Restaurant/Cafe/Canteen, name search for "tandoori", "balti", "karahi", "masala", "biryani", "tikka", "curry", "Indian", "Pakistani", "Lahore", "Karachi", "Peshawari" or "Punjab", extract 13 November 2026. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
• Tower Hamlets council licensing page linked above: https://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/lgnl/business/licences/alcohol_and_entertainment/alcohol_and_entertainment.aspx (opened 13 Nov 2026).
• Chefzi facts and pricing, chefzi.co.uk, read 13 November 2026.