Indian restaurant curries favour with customers with top ratings

Indian restaurant House Boat is celebrating awards success and top visitor ratings.

More than 1,000 people rated the St Peter’s Street eatery on Tripadvisor and Google as ‘excellent’, making it the best Indian restaurant in Derby city centre.

The 64-seater restaurant, which also has 40 seats in its beer garden and brand-new café-style seating at the front, scored 4.9 out of 5 for food, service, value and atmosphere.

Johns Geo, who runs House Boat with his friends, said he was thrilled that Derby people are rating the restaurant and the food so highly.

He said: “We were so happy to be shortlisted among the best in the UK by the Asian Restaurant and Takeaway Awards (ARTA).

“We were also in the running for Regional Restaurant of the Year in the East Midlands region – and this meant everything to us.

“But to be top of Tripadvisor for a city-based Indian restaurant is the best news ever. We feel very proud and deeply touched.”

Johns says he is planning to enter even more awards during 2026 to showcase the restaurant’s unique food.

House Boat, which opened in 2024, specialises in food from Kerala – a region in South India, and every dish is unique and bursting with authentic tastes and flavours.

As well as top ratings and awards, the restaurant has also been gaining media attention.

Recently, a TV crew from India filmed New Year celebrations at House Boat.

They recorded Vishu, the Malayalam New Year festival, for broadcast across Indian TV news channels.

Johns said: “We were really excited to have the film crew. We wanted to show them what makes our restaurant so unique and reveal the secret to our success.

“What makes House Boat special is that we put customers before anything. Of course, we need to make money to keep the business running, but our diners are extremely important to us.”

As well as being thrust into the limelight for its culinary delights, viral YouTuber Jonathan Yates behind Only Scrans visited the restaurant this year to sample the food.

With more than 110,000 YouTube subscribers, 460,000 TikTok followers, and 910,000 Instagram followers, the Doncaster-based foodie filmed his visit and gave his meal a glowing review.

Now management are planning to launch more culinary offerings and are exploring opportunities across the UK.

Johns said: “I am just getting all the paperwork signed off and then we will be announcing our second venture.

“The warm welcome in Derby has been so good that we want to build our business and extend the brand.”