Kinara Glasgow
Dum pukht means the pot goes into the oven sealed, usually under a ring of dough, so the meat cooks in its own steam and nothing leaves the vessel, and Kinara runs that alongside a tandoor it uses for whole fish and lobster tail rather than the usual skewers.
Why go
Shabu Natarajan spent years running Madras Cafe before opening this room at 10 King Street, in the Merchant City, on the site of the old Cafe Cossachok, with business partner Altaf Hossain and the team he brought with him (GlasgowWorld). The name is glossed as river banks, and also as cutting edge, in Hindi. The card splits North Indian tandoor work from South Indian curries, and the seafood is where the kitchen makes its case: a platter of monkfish, salmon and prawns, and the clay oven turned to whole fish. Two courses at lunch run GBP 14.95, pre-theatre GBP 19.95 (venue).
Order this / avoid
- Order: something out of the tandoor that is not chicken. Whole fish and lobster tail are what that oven is being pushed toward here, and a dum pukht dish tells you whether the slow side of the kitchen is as good as the fast side.
- Avoid: treating the 2024 award claim as settled. Kinara is absent from the Asian Restaurant Awards' own 2024 Scotland winners list, where Newcomer Of The Year went to Maharaj in Aberdeen2.
What locals & experts say
- The List, Eat & Drink 365 (20 October 2025): in the city's twelve curry hotspots,
Kinara is a sophisticated spot for Indian dining, though prices remain reasonable, particularly set menus.
3 - Pedigree, as reported: Natarajan is
the chef who spent years at the helm of the city's Madras Cafe,
which GlasgowWorld describes as voted the best Indian restaurant in Scotland the year before Kinara opened. GlasgowWorld names no voting body, so this entry carries the pedigree as reported and records no award.5 - Award check, negative: the Asian Restaurant Awards' 2024 Scotland winners, announced at the Scottish Parliament on 4 September 2024, do not include Kinara in any category.2
- Food hygiene, checked: Pass, inspected 13 February 2025, registered as KINARA By Shabu Natarajan.6
- Local rec: Jeff's save and his note, which is the reason the award was checked at source.
Good to know
- Timing: noon to 21:30 Sunday through Thursday, to 22:00 Friday and Saturday. The pre-theatre menu is the reason many tables are there.
- Booking: through the venue's own site. A King Street address puts it two minutes from Trongate and the Tron.
- Price: GBP 14.95 for two courses at lunch is the cheapest way into this kitchen, with the pre-theatre menu at GBP 19.95.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: "New restaurant of the year at asian restaurant awards 2024"
Verdict
should-visit — Shabu Natarajan spent years running Madras Cafe before opening this in 2024, and the menu shows the ambition: the tandoor is turned to whole fish and lobster tail rather than the usual skewers, and dum pukht sits on the slow side of the card. The List's 2025 Glasgow curry guide calls it 'a sophisticated spot for Indian dining, though prices remain reasonable, particularly set menus,' and a GBP 14.95 two-course lunch in the Merchant City backs that up. It is not a must-visit: the award on Jeff's row does not exist in the register that would carry it, and no full review anywhere has tested the kitchen.