About butter chicken
Butter chicken — murgh makhani — is the dish that introduces most people to Indian food, and the one they judge a new restaurant by. Tandoori chicken is simmered in a mild, glossy tomato gravy enriched with butter and cream, finished with the unmistakable aroma of dried fenugreek leaves. It is comfort food with a pedigree, and because almost every Indian restaurant serves it, it is one of the truest tests of a kitchen: get the balance of tang, sweetness and smoke right and it sings; tip it too sweet or too greasy and it falls flat.
That is exactly why Tastibase scores butter chicken on its own rather than hiding it inside a restaurant’s star average. The ranking on this page is built only from what diners actually said about the butter chicken — so it points you to the kitchens that make this dish well, not just the venues with a nice fit-out.
Where butter chicken comes from
Butter chicken is a relatively modern invention with a well-known origin story: it was created in the kitchens of Moti Mahal in Delhi around the 1950s, where cooks revived leftover tandoori chicken by simmering it in a gravy of tomatoes, butter and cream. The result was so popular it spread across India and then the world, becoming the default “Indian curry” on menus from London to Adelaide.
Its global fame is also its problem: many versions abroad have drifted into sweet, fluorescent-orange territory that a Delhi cook would barely recognise. A good kitchen treats it as a proper dish — real tandoor-cooked chicken, a gravy built on cooked-down tomatoes, and restraint with the sugar and cream.
What a great butter chicken tastes like
The gravy should be silky and balanced — savoury and lightly tangy from tomato first, with sweetness and richness from butter and cream as support, not the headline. The signature aroma comes from kasuri methi (dried fenugreek), crushed in at the end; without it, the dish tastes generic. Crucially, the chicken should taste of the tandoor: lightly charred and smoky, marinated and cooked separately, then folded in — not pale, boiled cubes added to a sauce.
The faults reviewers call out are consistent: “too sweet”, “oily”, “tastes like tinned tomato soup”, or “dry, rubbery chicken”. The praise is just as consistent — “rich”, “creamy but not heavy”, “smoky”, “best I’ve had”. Those are the exact signals the Tastibase score is built from.
Butter chicken, tikka masala and korma — what’s the difference?
They get muddled constantly. Butter chicken (makhani) is tomato-led, buttery and fragrant with fenugreek. Chicken tikka masala is a close cousin — grilled tikka in a spiced tomato-cream sauce — but generally a touch more robustly spiced and is widely considered a British-Indian creation. Korma is different again: milder and nuttier, thickened with cream, yoghurt, ground nuts or coconut rather than tomato. If you like butter chicken but want less sweetness, a well-made tikka masala is often the better order.
How to read this Adelaide ranking
Every restaurant above is scored only on its butter chicken, from the sentiment of real review mentions blended lightly with star ratings, then shrunk toward the average so one rave can’t fluke its way to the top. Use the confidence labels — “high confidence” means a hundred or more diners mentioned the dish specifically — and the map to find the best butter chicken near you. Only the last three years of reviews count, so the ranking reflects how these kitchens are cooking now.
How to order it well
Pair it with plain or garlic naan to mop up the gravy, or jeera (cumin) rice. If you find typical butter chicken too sweet, ask for it less sweet — most kitchens will oblige. Vegetarians should look for paneer makhani or malai kofta, which use the same makhani gravy. And if a menu also lists a dedicated “murgh makhani” alongside a generic butter chicken, that is usually a sign the kitchen takes the dish seriously.
Butter Chicken — frequently asked
Is butter chicken the same as chicken tikka masala?▾
They’re close but not identical. Butter chicken (murgh makhani) is tomato-led, buttery and fragrant with dried fenugreek. Tikka masala is grilled tikka in a spiced tomato-cream sauce, usually a little more robustly spiced, and is generally considered a British-Indian dish.
Is butter chicken spicy?▾
No — it’s one of the milder Indian curries, built for richness and aroma rather than heat. Most kitchens can add chilli on request.
Is there a vegetarian version?▾
Yes — paneer makhani (or “butter paneer”) uses the same makhani gravy with Indian cheese instead of chicken, and malai kofta is another popular option.