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For an Uptown Waterloo table that cannot agree on North Indian curry or a Hakka-style chilli chicken, Empress of India settles the question by cooking both, on the same menu, at the same hour. The card runs from Royal Butter Chicken in mild makhani sauce through tandoori clay-oven dishes, a seafood-curry section, vegetarian thalis, and a Hakka and Indo-Chinese page that gets the same kitchen attention as the curries. The restaurant has held its King Street South storefront in Uptown Waterloo since 2008, and the menu has been shaped to fit the way that corner actually eats — lunch hours that fit a downtown break, a late close that fits a shift or a film, and a weekday discount that turns a Tuesday into a reason.
The first move is usually the makhani lane. Royal Butter Chicken is chicken tikka in a mild tomato-cream sauce — the default for first-time tables — and the same gravy logic carries Butter Paneer for the table's vegetarian. The clay oven runs the next section: Tandoori Chicken, Lamb Seekh Kebab, naan pulled to order. Daal Makhani simmers down to the heavy end of the dal lineup; Bhoona Chicken comes out drier and more aromatic than the cream-sauce stack; Lamb Vindaloo holds the spicier end of the curry book; Chicken Tikka Masala and Lamb Korma sit in the cream-sauce middle, less spice-forward than the vindaloo, more savoury than the makhani; a Kerala Fish Curry built on coconut milk anchors the seafood section against Shrimp Korma and Goat Curry. The Hakka page balances the same evening — Hot & Garlic Cauliflower Wings, the starred opener on the Indo-Chinese page, alongside Chilli Chicken, Dragon Chicken, and Chicken Chilli Momos. Start with Vegetable Samosas or a plate of Chaat Papri. Finish with Mango Lassi and Rasmalai.
Two things stand out about that breadth. The first is that the Indo-Chinese page is not a courtesy. It runs to plates uncommon in a Waterloo curry kitchen, and the cooks treat Hakka as a parallel craft rather than a concession to widen the audience. The second is the thali. Both the Vegetarian Thali and the Non-Veg Thali load one tray with rice, naan, dal, raita, papadum, pickle, dessert, and a pair of curries — built as a way to read the whole menu at lunch-hour pricing. A restaurant that wants to be ambitious tends to forget the lunch table, and one that wants to be useful tends to thin the curry list to fit. Empress of India does neither.
The operating week reads as identity. Monday through Wednesday splits into a lunch service and an evening service — open from eleven-thirty until two-thirty, closed through the afternoon, then reopened from four-thirty until eleven at night — the gap between them a working clue that the kitchen is doing real prep, marinating tandoori, building gravies, holding daal, rather than running a steam-table all day. Thursday through Sunday opens continuously from eleven-thirty in the morning straight through to eleven at night, Sunday treated the same as the weekend rather than as a soft close. A standing twenty-percent dine-in discount runs Monday through Thursday. A full bar carries alongside the curry book — cocktails and beer arriving on the same order as the food.
None of that lives in a fashionable corner. King Street South near Willis Way is a working block — bus pull-ins, the after-shift walk-up, the LCBO a few doors down — and Empress of India has filled eighteen years there by being useful on it. The lunch thalis and the weekday discount fill the daylight. The full bar and the late close carry the evening. The vegetarian curries and the Hakka page settle the table that cannot pick a lane. At eleven on a Thursday night, the kitchen is still pulling tandoori on one line and Chilli Chicken on the other.
The menu covers butter chicken, tandoori dishes, dal, paneer, biryani, breads, thalis, seafood, and Indo-Chinese choices while still keeping Indian curries at the centre.
The thali format gives lunch diners a direct way into the menu without turning a weekday meal into a large shared order.
The Monday-to-Thursday dine-in offer gives planners a reason to choose a weekday meal when the order is built around curries, breads, and shareable starters.
This is Restaurantica’s own read — synthesized from publicly available sources across diner signal and editorial research, last updated June 2026. It’s our interpretation of the evidence, not a crowd average — and placement is never for sale.
Royal Butter Chicken gives Empress Of India a clear first-order anchor: rich, familiar, and built for naan or rice. The menu also backs that signature with tandoori dishes, dal, paneer, seafood, and Indo-Chinese plates, so the meal can branch out without losing the core order.
The experience is strongest when diners treat the menu as a full Indian spread rather than a single curry stop. Butter chicken, tandoori meats, dal, paneer, biryani, breads, thalis, and seafood give enough range for a proper shared meal.
Lunch is the cleanest value path because the thalis turn a large menu into one focused plate. The weekday dine-in offer adds another reason to choose Empress Of India for a planned dine-in meal early in the week.
This is practical for groups because diners can split rich curries, tandoori dishes, breads, vegetarian mains, and Indo-Chinese plates. It gives cautious eaters familiar anchors while still leaving room for sharper choices like Chilli Chicken or Dragon Chicken.
Vegetarian diners have more than a token side-dish path here. The Vegetarian Thali, Daal Makhani, Palak Paneer, Channa Masala, Butter Paneer, and Hot & Garlic Cauliflower Wings make a complete order possible without borrowing from the meat side of the menu.
Restaurantica’s write-up above is synthesized from broad public signal — community reviews add the first-person layer. Share the nuances of your visit to Empress Of India in Waterloo: the standout dishes, the room, the service.
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