Red Chilli is one of those hidden gems that reminds you why hole-in-the-wall restaurants are often the best places to eat. This cozy little spot in San Francisco may be small, but it delivers big on flavor, hospitality, and overall dining experience. We ordered the chicken curry, momo dumplings, and two regular naan. Everything was absolutely delicious. The chicken curry was rich, flavorful, and comforting with just the right balance of spices. The momo dumplings were a highlight of the meal--fresh, perfectly cooked, and packed with flavor. The naan was warm, soft, and the perfect accompaniment for soaking up every bit of the curry. The restaurant itself has a welcoming, cozy atmosphere with seating for around 10 to 15 people. It's the kind of place where you can sit down, relax, and enjoy a great meal without any fuss. The staff was incredibly friendly and provided excellent customer service throughout our visit, making us feel right at home. Parking can be a little challenging since you'll likely need to find street parking, but it's also easily accessible by bus and worth the effort to get there. If you're looking for authentic, delicious food in a charming neighborhood spot, Red Chilli is definitely worth a visit. Great food, great service, and a wonderful hole-in-the-wall ambiance. Highly recommend, and we'll definitely be back! read more

Red Chilli - Indian Near Me - San Francisco, California

We ordered pick up and highly recommend the lamb paneer, garlic naan, and chicken momos. Everything was spiced just right and surprisingly, so were the prices! Just a heads up, we found out the hard way rice costs extra ($4) and doesn't automatically come with the entrees, but we lucked out by ordering extra naan, so the rice wasn't too missed. The mango lassi is great too! read more

I've ordered from here many times over the years but not sure what's changed. I ordered daal and the container just had a pool of oil at the top. It's not bulking season wasn't a fan of having to slowly to just throw the oil out. read more

Red Chilli - Daal - Indian Near Me - San Francisco, California

This is my new go-to spot for Indian food. I used to visit Five Rivers in Daly City, but they're... closed? I'm actually not sure what they're doing, but it doesn't matter, because I've found my new spot for curry cravings. I've only tried butter chicken and prawn vindaloo here, and both are great! I love that they use big shrimps here, instead of lame baby ones you get at other places. I'm also used to places that overcook shrimps into a chewy, rubbery mess, so I was pleasantly surprised that this place doesn't do that. The curries have lots of flavors that blend well together. Unfortunately, rice is not included. That would've been nice. I do appreciate the lovely chai tea they offer. Staff is nice too, but parking can be tricky. read more

Don't let the walk over keep you from coming in. The food is delicious, and the service is friendly and homey. Dinner for three on a recent weekday evening and my husband and I got there early before our friend. They let us sit and gave us a pitcher of water and glasses and menus to look at while we wait. Finally our friend shows up, we order, et voila, the food starts coming! I also like the self service chai :) We enjoyed samosas, saag paneer, a couple of naan, butter chicken, and a lamb curry. We left stuffed! We beat the dinner rush, having sat down before 6P but when we left, the place was buzzing. We were lingering and catching up but different dishes kept coming out and I wanted to see what other people were eating. We'll just have to come back and taste more dishes and take more photos! read more

Red Chilli - Menu (partial). Forgot to take a photo of the other side. - Indian Near Me - San Francisco, California

Over priced and small portions. The food your about to eat is prepared 1 week ago. I got food poisoning with saag order. I recommend you go else. read more

Really good chicken chili momos and veggie momos. They also served complimentary chai as well! Seems like a really friendly family-owned restaraunt. read more

This place was really good - a great place to stop and have a quick bite before seeing a show. Also I appreciate that the prices are reasonable - a lot of entrees between 10-15 dollars. The chicken tikka masala that I had with my thali plate was some of the most flavorful I've had in a while. This place has a good-sized eating area and it's pretty casual. We actually ending up sitting and chatting for awhile and they weren't in a hurry to kick us out or anything. I also appreciated that they have free chai to drink. The staff was all very nice and food came quickly! read more

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We had the butter chicken and garlic naan. Food was really quite delicious. The service was friendly, and prompt, nice family vibe. The dining area was pretty noisy, the owners could do w/ putting some sound dampening on the ceiling. Highly recommend, will return. read more

Delicious food, we ordered chicken chow mein, tandoori fish, and butter chicken with nan. All the dishes were light and delicious, fish was the best. Owner was friendly and hospitable, he gave us complimentary desert (rice pudding), which was the best. Highly recommended. read more

Too much oil... both curry dishes had 1/3 of container filled with a pool of oil. I never tasted butter chicken like this place - it's not even butter chicken. What a disappointment. read more

I am saying for the few months of last year in 2025 and the past couple of months in 2026 everytime that I ordered boneless chicken biryanni looks almost the same but each time for sure tastes different from the other. On the times before looks and tastes the same everytime. read more

Hands down the friendliest Indian restaurant around. Don't miss the fish here and the tandoori chicken. Some pros in the kitchen back there and the price simply can't be beat. It's my goto in the area. Brings back memories of a parallel universe Dottie's True Blue cafe, too. read more

For some reason, I've never had fish tandoori so when I found Red Chili on Yelp and saw that they had this I knew I had to try it. Unfortunately they don't honor the Yelp check-in discount and this was a bummer. The restaurant looked clean enough when we entered. The interiors were forgettable but I wasn't expecting much anyway. It wasn't fancy dining and I was there to have a taste of their fish tandoori. My hubby ordered the lamb meat thali for his meal. Once we settled, an employee informed us that they served complimentary hot chai tea. When our dishes finally arrived, my husband's plate was huge! We were both surprised with amount of food included in his order. He said that lamb was tender and flavorful; the accompanying side dishes and naan were yummy too. My fish was good but didn't wow me so to speak. I like the flavor but I felt that something was missing... perhaps a spicy kick? Service was a bit slower especially since we were the only ones in the restaurant. I appreciated the free tea offer but didn't like it. Overall, I feel like this is between a 3 and 4 but maybe closer to a 3. read more

Red Chilli - Menu - Indian Near Me - San Francisco, California

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Someone in this kitchen knows how to cook. This is not just your run-of-the-mill Indian/Pakastani food. We had Aloo Ghobi and Mutter Paneer and the sauces had real complexity, we wiped the serving plates clean. Price are super reasonable and the family that runs the place is very friendly and kind. A great place to pick up a good meal before a show at the theaters in the neighborhood. read more

This place is our goto spot whenever we visit SFO.. their momos are always a must .. we were in sfo for couple a days and we daily dined at this place during our stay.. the quality of food is 10/10 along with their hospitality.. the naans they serve is smeared with butter and freshly made... the best is their complimentary chai.. which is like an icing on the cake... their fish is beyond words.. it's one of the best we had... a must visit if you're in San Francisco read more

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Yelp really did us wrong when we were looking for a late night joint for Pakistani food. Friday evening after an event I did a yelp search and it said Shalimar on Jones street was open till midnight. We get there at 11pm and its closed. We walk over to Chutney and its closed, and then to Pakwan and they have stopped taking any more orders. Someone dining at Pakwan says try Red Chilli, they are open late and have Pakistani food. So we walk to Red Chilli and ask the nice gentleman at the counter what time the place closes and he says 1:30am! Without making this a rambling review, good food, great service and a feeling of friendship and brotherhood at this late night hole in the wall place. We ordered fish pakoras, Chicken Karahi, Chicken Biryani and Naan, and everything was quite good. At nearby tables everyone else was getting the chicken or goat thali (set meal) and that definitely seemed like a good deal. The owner Raja Khalid was friendly, attentive, and from our observation seems a generous host. He went up to all tables asking if anyone would like a serving of freshly made daal (gratis!) and then proceeded to serve it from his saucepan! The overall experience was nice enough that we would return if we are ever in the area again. read more

Red Chilli - Chicken Kadahi, Chicken Biryani, House Naan Bread, Fish Pakora, Mango Lassi - Indian Near Me - San Francisco, California

I heard good things about this place, but overall I would not recommend or again. I paid $22 for naan and butter chicken which had 4 pieces of chicken in it, and the toughest chicken I've eaten in a while. The neighborhood was also sus, a lot of homeless people, but that's to be expected of tenderloin. read more

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They put chicken in my Vegetable Momo order!!!! This is really upsetting. I wouldn't recommend this restaurant! read more

Was here in town only for couple of days during back end of Ramadan and Eid! Away from home, but this wonderful place lead by beautiful father son team welcome you with so much warmth! Quality and Quantity with authentic ambiance! Must try. Very economical as well! Right in downtown! I actually went there 3 nights in a row! read more

Another solid halal spot in the TL! Food is amazing, good customer service, and everything tasted fresh and authentic. It is a cramped place and gets busy fast. Parking is a challenge since it's on a busy street, but not impossible to find. read more

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The food is delicious with subtle and deep flavors. Kind service from the staff. Only downsides are difficult parking if you're driving and crowded tables. read more

Solid tikka masala and garlic naan! Didn't come with rice but he gave us basmati rice when we asked :) It wasn't spicy at all - almost just tomato-ey though we asked for medium spicy. If they could up their spice levels, it'd be great! read more

Th best place for Momos and grilled meats. They follow order notes and food quality is great. This is fam owned run by father and his son both of them ar very friendly to their customers. Been coming to this place for 10 years now and they are still serving great quality food since then! Ambiance of restaurant inside is cute and frindly. They always check on you! Fill your water. I would recommend all the food in their menu. Everything is yummmy read more

The best Indian food I've had in SF! Super friendly and fast service, and a huge portion. Enough for a second meal the next day! I'll definitely be going back. read more

Food here is amazing. Everything has been great. The staff are so nice and the owner is amazing. We love the amazing desi food and the way everything taste fresh. Must come place is SF. read more

We originally started our semi-regular Red Chilli experiences by getting their momos - and then progressed to their takes on traditionals like Butter Chicken etc. Overall , usually good experiences. Though much much worse - and literally around 35% higher cost, if via some kind of delivery service like UberEats or DoorDash , and much poorer portion sizes [than those even described in other reviews] as well. Thankfully, it's not peak Tenderloin in its location, though on that block for sure the faeces count remains consistent. Some might want to call it 'Lower Nob Hill', but lets face it, as best it gets would be 'Tenderknob' The interior is very basic - whomever ticked the box as 'classy/romantic' .. probably got engaged @ a McDonalds and had their wedding reception at Dennys. Or Bouston Marche, for that euro-French chic. And it's very open - so, you get that 'tapestry of life' experience observing the owner, his friends and relatives, and all the shouting into their speakerphones, yelling at the chefs, all the while making an ok level of effort to hope you have a decent dine-in experience. I'd say a lot of the regulars whenever I've been are the 'drives a high milage blacked out Mercedes luxury sedan as an upscale Airport Taxi" crowd, flashing their fake Rolexes and again, shouting into their phones, and expecting a disproportionate amount of personal space. TBH - I wouldn't recommend dining in there unless it's already on your route - you certainly wouldn't want to park your car in that neighbourhood, and there's not much else close by*; But, with the price gouging and very inconsistent portions and quality from the likes of UberEats, DoorDash, then, it's not really very good value. So, the drive by/walk by self-pickup approach is my recommendation. [*Some might say that unbelievably, ] that the OG dive bare bones SE Asian restaurant, Shalimar, has now relocated literally next door. So that doubles your options for the kind of experiences described above. Having said all of this, for a walk-in, or self pickup experience, this [ and it's newly relocated neighbour Shalimar] are probably the best Indian/SEA food I've had in San Francisco. Maybe that's not saying a lot. The expensive Naan Bread and Mango Lassis aren't a must-do, and, the Naan's definitely in the 3 Star category at best. My suggestion is that if you're curious, dine-in first to get a sense of it all. If it's crowded etc, you've now got Shalimar right next door as a very viable alternative. With a bit of tweaking, this could even carve out a destination appeal, however I doubt very much that's consistent with the owner's approach and history. The dine-in or self pickup food experience is probably the high mark, and it's downhill from there read more

AMAZINGG INDIAN SOUL FOOD Ngl, was going to pakwan to have biryani but decided to try a new place and I don't regret at all! Chili chicken and biryani is comfort food for me so I loved it! My vegetarian friends had the paneer tikka, kathmandu paneer roll and loved it too :) The staff was super attentive and sweet (I crave Indian momos and I still haven't found the spot in Sf, I didn't wanna risk it so I asked the person at the counter if he would suggest that to me, looking at my love for momos he said you may not like it and this shows how genuine the people who work there are!) 100% recommended! Maybe the pictures won't do justice read more

Red Chilli - Chicken Biryani - Indian Near Me - San Francisco, California

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Sooo went there for the first time last week. Before it used to be a Nepali restaurant. But our Uber driver recommended this to be Pakistani. We went with low expectations but our minds were blown away! It was weekend, so they had "Namkeen chicken karahi" it was mouthwatering and honestly the best chicken karahi I've ever had! I cook very well but this was better. Their Chapli kababs were super tasty and their aaloo muter was very tasty too. Yummy complementary tea as well. We came back for more namkeen karahi, they said they only have it on weekends! :( bummer! So we ordered regular karahi chicken. It was too tasty but namkeen was out of this world. Chapli again were the same Tasty so good news that they maintain their taste!!! I believe they should make namkeen chicken karahi their regular dish!!!!! Not just weekends! read more

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4.5/5 Ordered garlic naan, cheese naan, basmati rice, chicken tikka masala (spicy level: hot). Everything was delicious but I would give it a 4.5/5 because the dish wasn't spicy :( Overall, everything was super tasty and I would most definitely order again! The chicken was so tender and the naan was so tasty. read more

Red Chilli - a plate of food with rice and naan bread - Indian Near Me - San Francisco, California

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I was visiting San Francisco on vacation and when I was walking I stumbled on this restaurant. I'm very glad I came in. I got some samosas and they were very very good. It came with 2 sauces that tasted very fresh. The gentleman that helped me was kind and helped me order as this was the first time here so I wasn't sure what to get. I would recommend this place, there's not a lot of good options around to be honest, but this place was really good! I wish I tried other things on the menu read more

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5/5 for Chicken MoMo (10 pcs). Their momo are full of chicken, soft, flavorful, and have thin dumpling wrapper which gives a really nice texture. You get full after eating 6-7 of them because they're huge. I love their portion size and taste. It's worth it for $15. Plus they're halal too. read more

Red Chilli - Chicken MoMo (10 PCS) - Indian Near Me - San Francisco, California

Very large portions like other reviewers have stated . Free chai!! Staff is extremely friendly and they are open late. What more could you ask for? Thank you will definitely be coming back next time we come to San Francisco ! Thanks read more

This restaurant is so close to my apartment and I'm so happy it is!!! I was looking on Yelp who has the best curry and decided to give this place a try. I ordered off DoorDash and it came in minutes. I decided to go with the goat curry, basmati, and naan. Literally the best trio to eat in opinion. The goat curry was so freakin good. It was spicy, the goat was tender, and it was savory. The chef was killing it making this! This was my first time ever trying this dish and I'm so happy I got to. Can't wait to have a day off so I can dine in and try their other dishes. Definitely my new go to for goat curry. read more

Red Chilli - Goat Curry ( Special ) - Indian Near Me - San Francisco, California

Tried vegetarian thaili and momo. Left a little underwhelmed. Was expecting amazing spicy flavors based on raving Yelp reviews but the food was actually quite bland. The highlight is actually the free chai- no sugar added and intense flavors. read more

I've been coming to Red Chili Chicken for 6+ years. I love their food. The Red Chili Chicken dish is amazing. But their service? Not so much. I recently placed an order for "Red Chili chicken", their signature dish which I've been enjoying for 6+ years but this one time I got a wrong order. It was a pickup order and I did not check whether my food was exactly as I had ordered it or not, my mistake. The next time I went back there I told them that I'm a regular customer of 6+ years and that for the first time I was unsatisfied with my order because I did not get the food that I ordered from them. I was given something I did not order. The attitude of the person taking to me was absolutely sh*t. He was trying to pass it off as "what's the big deal. You got food that you didn't order so what. Maybe you picked up food order of someone else" No sir. I picked up food that had my name. I checked my name. I just didn't check that it was the same meal that I had ordered because I expect that to be your job. I pointed out how I'm a regular customer and I am unhappy that I was not given food that I ordered and their attitude was "well what can you do?" What can you do? Well you are never getting a single $ from me ever again. I've been your loyal customer for 6+ years but I'm not going to put up with the bull crap of "well what can yo do" when I point out that you did not give me the food that I ordered from you, and you did not make any attempt to put it right after I pointed it out to you. You've lost a customer for life. Never ordering from this place ever again. read more

The place is a bit dirty and the food is decent. However they tried to pass of their chicken curry as their chili chicken. It was not good.

For takeout, we ordered from Red Chili in the Tenderloin. They served halal Indian, Pakistani and Nepalese specialties for amazing value. Their curries are the star of the menu. We ordered: Lamb Achar which comes with boneless lamb with pickled sour mangos and other pickling spices. It's a dish that originated from the Northern Indian Punjab region and this is probably the best version we have had. The chicken tikka masala was perfectly spiced and balanced and the texture was so velvety and smooth. Tikka masala is a tomato and cream (either in the form of heavy cream, yogurt or cashews) based sauce with lots of traditional Indian spices, including ginger, turmeric and red chili powder, garam masala, coriander and cumin. It is slightly sweet and earthy in flavor and Red Chili's chicken tikka masala is one of the better versions in San Francisco. We also ordered the kauli ra aloo, a cauliflower and potato curry that is spiced heavily with ginger. Their Nepalese version comes with a tomato curry based sauce. We also ordered their garlic naan to sop up all the sauces. Red Chili is one of our go to takeout spots for delicious curries and we usually call in and pick-up. They are pretty quick and our food is usually ready within 30 minutes. read more

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This place deserves good rating for all the good reasons. The owner of the restaurant is very warm and welcoming. He would accommodate every request with the food that you might have. We've been here a couple of times now and the food quality and taste surprisingly differs every time but always meets our expectations. This place isn't high on decor or ambiance but it's the exceptional food that drives us to eat there every time we are in the area. It's fairly a small place and I've observed that they get a lot of regular customers. I believe that speaks of the hospitality. Recommendations- Egg curry and Chicken Kadhai read more

Red Chilli - Egg curry Chicken Kadahi - Indian Near Me - San Francisco, California

The chicken chow mein was absolutely delicious, it wasn't oily and it was really flavorful. My favorite was also the chicken tikka masala momos - I'm Nepali and have never had momos like this, and it was literally mouthwatering. I'm absolutely amazed. Definitely will be back again! Everyone was so hospitable and extremely nice. There is free chai and a box of sweets out for everyone; I love the cozy and authentic ambiance. read more

Red Chilli - Chicken tikka masala momos (it's a special, you have to ask them to make it) - Indian Near Me - San Francisco, California

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