“As far from a standard Indian as a Rolls-Royce is from a scooter”, this “poised” Goan/Keralan operation offers “perfectly-spiced” food, and service as “magically unobtrusive” as you’d hope to find at nearby Buck House; such a shame, then, that – even by hotel standards – the decor is deadly “dull”.
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The critic goes with low expectations to this “ominously bland” Indian off Victoria Street, which he is visiting simply because it recently got a Michelin star. Quilon, however, “almost manages” to convert him, but for every plus point he also finds a minus. Overall, “Quilon is just plain annoying, doing some things so well – the yoghurt! the appams! – that you almost forget you are sitting in a boring room paying high prices for overly refined cooking”. “What, then, got it the Michelin star”, he muses, “doing things properly, or the boring room, high prices and overly refined cooking?”
Fay Maschler (31st January 2008)
4/5 stars
Ms M hurries back to the Indian restaurant off Victoria Street that’s just been awarded a Michelin star. “Sitting among hotel guests and groups of Indian businessmen”, she finds herself ‘transported… to India and is probably the closest I will get this year to the country where I was born and which I love”.