Birmingham Balti History Established 1977

Birmingham Balti was the most significant culinary development on the UK curry scene since Chicken Tikka Masala became a staple of British Indian restaurants. A method of one-pot cooking, Balti was the brainchild of Mohammed Arif of Adil's on Stoney Lane in Sparkbrook, Birmingham, over 40 years ago.

Mohammed sought to attract customers beyond the local Pakistani community. By combining spices with vegetable oil rather than ghee, and using boneless meat, he created a lighter, café-style curry that could be cooked quickly. The result was something new—fresh, fast, and full of flavour.

Balti restaurants offered a casual dining experience that stood in contrast to the more formal British Indian restaurants of the time. There were no white tablecloths, hot towels, or leather-bound menus. Instead, the Balti itself was the theatre—served sizzling in a blackened bowl, its handles too hot to touch, delivering a distinctive flame-infused flavour. Often, it arrived straight onto a glass-topped table with a simple menu placed beneath.

At the heart of the dish was the specially designed, Birmingham-made carbon steel Balti pan, in which the curry was both cooked and served.

Traditionally, a Birmingham Balti is accompanied by a fluffy naan, baked in a large tandoor. The naan is used as a scoop in place of cutlery, and purists often skip rice and chutneys entirely, keeping the experience simple. 

In Birmingham, the dish quickly captured the hearts—and stomachs—of the city’s curry lovers. Its popularity spread beyond the Balti Triangle across the West Midlands and throughout the UK. However, as Balti became more widespread, the very elements that made it unique, its defining characteristics were misinterpreted.

Outside the West Midlands, “Balti” often came to mean any British Indian restaurant curry served in a handled bowl—usually shiny stainless steel, intended only for serving. This is a far cry from the original method, where the dish is cooked and served in the same blackened carbon steel pan, sizzling and slightly charred at the edges. Today, “Balti” can even be found as a jarred sauce, bearing little resemblance to the real thing.

There is now a growing movement to restore the true identity of Birmingham Balti—celebrating it as a uniquely “Brummie” culinary tradition and advocating for its recognition as part of the city’s intangible cultural heritage.

The Birmingham Balti Bowl Company began as a passion project by Andy Munro, aiming to continue manufacturing authentic Balti bowls in Birmingham and preserve the integrity of this distinctive dish.

For further reading, the site Balti Birmingham explores the history and culture of Balti in depth. Andy Munro’s book, The Balti, Its Birth, Its Boom Years and Beyond documents its journey from the 1970s to the present day.