Cinnamon Soho review – British-Indian masala mash-up

Upmarket Indian aims for the masses. Sort of. Selling upmarket Indian food is a tricky business. Given the cheap and cheerful nature of most high street curry houses, convincing most people to pay more than £6 for a main is akin to asking for moon rock in your lemonade. Even if you do convince people [...]

Carom review – Indian food gets noisy. Very noisy.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound. Meza is a long-standing bar in London’s Soho and it’s the last place I’d expect to find an Indian restaurant. Nestled in a corner of the bar itself, eating at Carom late in the week is a cacophonous experience – the loud, buzzy music, including a live sitar [...]

Moti Mahal review 2 – still as good as ever?

I am as constant as the northern star? I greatly enjoyed my first visit to Moti Mahal, which proved to be one of the most accomplished and delicious high-end Indian meals I had tasted at the time. Consistency is a tricky thing to maintain though and I was curious to see how well the Covent [...]

Classy Indian in Covent Garden – Moti Mahal review

This is no mere curry house. Apparently there is a franchised chain of restaurants in India called Moti Mahal that specialises in tandoori dishes, but this Moti Mahal isn’t one of them as far as I can tell. Whereas the Cinnamon Kitchen, the last high-end Indian restaurant I went to, had a contemporary twist on [...]

Cinnamon Kitchen review – No poppadoms here

Ignore the City boys and concentrate on the skilful, modern Indian cooking. Indian food has become so popular in Britain that it’s almost become a caricature of itself. Thankfully there are plenty of enterprising chefs and proprietors willing to innovate with the curries and grills that we’re all so familiar with and give us something [...]

Dishoom breakfast review – Breakfast Mumbai-style

Beyond the introduction of cereal bars and the occasional reheated curry from the night before, breakfasts haven’t changed that much over the years. The Jolly Giant, the Lensman, the Flame Haired Squelchie and I have therefore been seeking out the more unusual and inventive breakfasts available in London. The breakfast menu at Alan Yau’s budget-friendly Chinese [...]