Gluten-free Indian takeout in Brooklyn: twelve dishes that actually are

A lot of Indian food is naturally gluten-free. Rice is the default starch in half the country. The sauces are built on onion, tomato, yogurt, and toasted whole spices — nothing in that list contains wheat. The restaurants that lean into bread (naan, roti, paratha) are a particular kind of restaurant, and a lot of the menu works without touching any of it.

If you are ordering gluten-free from us, here is what to know.

The twelve dishes we would send home tonight

From the tandoor. The marinades we use for tandoor dishes are yogurt-based, not flour-based, so the whole tandoor section works for you. Order the Paneer Tikka, the Chicken Tikka, the Malai Chicken Tikka, or the Seekh Kebab. All gluten-free, all marinated overnight.

From the curries. Our curry bases are gravy, not roux — they start from onion, ginger, garlic, tomato, and spice, and thicken from reduction. You can confidently order Butter Chicken, Chicken Tikka Masala, Lamb Rogan Josh, Saag Paneer, Dal Makhani, and Chana Masala. All twelve would be a lot for one person. A pair of them over rice is a full meal.

Biryani. All four — lamb, chicken, vegetable, shrimp — are gluten-free on the plate. The dum seal around the pot is made with wheat dough, but that dough is a gasket, not an ingredient — it is broken off and discarded before the rice comes out. The biryani itself has no wheat in it.

That is twelve dishes without even counting starters or desserts. Add Pani Puri if you eat it carefully (the semolina shells are gluten-free, but the filling lives next to other things in the kitchen — see the footnote below). Add Kheer and Mango Kulfi for dessert. Add Mango Lassi to drink.

The honest footnote on cross-contact

Here is where I have to be careful with you.

Mumbai Place is not a gluten-free kitchen. We cook naan, paratha, roti, kulcha, and samosas every day. The tandoor is the same clay oven that blisters naan. The fryer where we do samosas and chicken 65 is the same fryer we would use for a pakora. Shared surfaces exist in any restaurant that has a wheat menu and a non-wheat menu running at the same time.

If you are gluten-sensitive or gluten-avoidant — if wheat makes you feel bad but does not put you in the hospital — the twelve dishes above are reliably free of wheat ingredients, and you will be fine.

If you have celiac disease, or a medically significant gluten allergy, you should call the kitchen before you order. We will tell you honestly what we can and cannot guarantee. In general: the curry and biryani side of the menu is safer than the fried or tandoor side, because there is less cross-contact with wheat surfaces.

What to avoid on our menu

This is the short list. Samosa Chaat and Vegetable Pakora contain wheat (the samosa wrapper; the pakora batter is mostly chickpea flour but includes a small amount of wheat for texture). All breads (Naan, Garlic Naan, Roti, Paratha, Kulcha) are obviously out. Chicken 65 shares a fryer with things that contain wheat. Gulab Jamun is made with wheat flour.

That is it. Everything else on the menu is either gluten-free as written or can be made gluten-free on request.

Why we bother being specific

Because "most of our menu is fine for you" and "your dish is safe" are two very different statements, and conflating them is how restaurants hurt people. The menu has GF pills on every dish that is free of wheat ingredients in its recipe. The kitchen is not a dedicated gluten-free kitchen. Both of those things are true, and you should know which one is load-bearing for your situation.

You can see the full list with its V / VG / GF pills on our menu — filter mentally as you go.