Diwali menu ideas and free templates for UK restaurants and sweet shops

For Diwali 2026 on Sunday 8 November, most UK Indian restaurants run a two- or three-course vegetarian-friendly set menu, and sweet shops take mithai box orders for collection across the festival week. Copy the set menu, mithai price list and pre-order form below, then add your £ prices. The UK rules differ from India's: mithai boxes packed ahead of sale need full ingredient labels under Natasha's Law, and cold Indian sweets sold to take away are zero-rated for VAT.

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When is Diwali in the UK?

Dates are from Drik Panchang's calendar set to London. The festival follows lunar tithis, so for 2027 the London calendar gives Thursday 28 October while Indian calendars give Friday 29 October. Ask your local mandir or gurdwara which day your community will mark, and plan the busiest evening around it.

Diwali set menu template (two or three courses)

Nut-free guests are common at a Diwali table, so keep at least one complete route through the menu without nuts and say so.

Mithai box price list for collection

Diwali pre-order form

For group bookings and phone orders, print the holiday pre-order form with the Diwali preset. A short version to copy:

Name: __________ Phone: __________ Email: __________ Collection date: __________ Time slot: __________

Paid: £______ by payment link on ______ Taken by: ______

Mithai and the 14 allergens

UK law names 14 allergens that must be declared: celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, tree nuts, peanuts, sesame, soya and sulphur dioxide/sulphites. Indian sweets carry several of them, and recipes vary between kitchens, so check yours.

Our 14 allergens guide covers how to record them for every dish.

Natasha's Law and mithai boxes (PPDS)

This is the rule that catches sweet shops out at Diwali. A box you fill and close before the customer chooses it, and sell from the same premises, is "prepacked for direct sale" (PPDS). Since 1 October 2021 every PPDS item needs a label with the name of the food and a full ingredients list, with the allergens emphasised, for example in bold. That covers ready-made boxes stacked on the counter for the Diwali rush.

A box packed at the customer's request is not PPDS. If someone points at the counter and you fill a box for them, or you pack a pre-order after they have chosen the contents, no PPDS label is needed. You must still give them allergen information for the 14 allergens, for example on the price list, or with a clear sign telling customers to ask staff.

A quick way to handle the rush is to label only the fixed boxes you pre-pack, and pack everything else to order. The free allergen label maker prints ingredient labels with allergens in bold, and our Natasha's Law guide explains the full rules.

VAT on Diwali food

• Cold mithai to take away is zero-rated. HMRC's VAT Notice 701/14 lists traditional Indian and Pakistani delicacies, such as barfis, halvas, jalebi and laddoos, in its zero-rated column. Items held out for sale as confectionery or coated in chocolate are standard-rated, so a box that includes chocolates may need splitting on the receipt.
• Hot food and eating in are standard-rated. Jalebi served hot to take away is hot takeaway food, and anything eaten on your premises is catering. Both carry 20% VAT, under VAT Notice 709/1.
• Your set menu price includes VAT. Show the price the guest pays. More in our guide to VAT on takeaway food.

Price marking for mithai counters

Loose sweets sold by weight from the counter are goods sold from bulk under the Price Marking Order 2004. For these you must show the unit price; from 6 April 2026 that unit is the kilogram. The small-shop exemption from unit pricing does not apply to goods sold from bulk, so a price per kg is needed whatever the size of your shop. Fixed-price boxes just need their selling price. Your restaurant set menu falls under the separate food and drink services order, as on our Christmas menu templates page.

Worked example: pricing a Diwali set menu at 70% GP

These costs are an example. Use your own supplier prices.

Paneer, ghee and nuts make up most of the cost, so re-check those prices in late October. The free GP calculator does the same sum dish by dish.

Diwali 2026 timeline

How to do it in Menuthere

1. Put the Diwali menu online. Sign up free and upload your finished menu as a PDF or photo; AI reads the dishes and prices, and you check them before saving. Print the free QR code menu for tables.
2. Tag allergens on every dish. Each dish can show any of the 14 UK allergens, its calories and a halal mark, on every plan including Free.
3. Run the menu for the festival only. Make a "Diwali" category and switch it on and off. "Show dishes at set times" uses weekdays and times, not calendar dates.
4. Take mithai pre-orders with collection slots on the Lite plan (US$17 a month, billed in US dollars). Tick the boxes as dishes that need notice, set 2 days' notice, and customers choose a collection date and time. Payment is by card through Stripe.
5. Take Diwali table bookings on Lite: guests choose a date, a time slot and the number of people, and can pre-order the set menu with the booking. See our restaurant booking system.
6. Deposits: Menuthere does not take deposits at checkout, so many venues send a Stripe payment link with the booking confirmation instead.
7. Promote it. Schedule a pop-up banner ("Diwali boxes: order by 4 November"), add a date-limited discount code, and with your own branded app send a push notification to regulars.

Lite and Pro come with a 7-day free trial; a card is needed to start, and nothing is charged until the trial ends. See pricing, the takeaway ordering system, every menu template, and the restaurant marketing calendar for the next festival. Running a shop in India too? The Indian Diwali menu cards follow Indian pricing and rules.

The Free plan has no card and no commission, with allergen tags on every dish.

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