Bangalore Express SE1

From the same backers as Chelsea’s excellent The Painted Heron SW10, an exemplary contemporary-style budget Indian, by Waterloo Station.

Before we visited this excellent new Indian by Waterloo Station, we weren’t aware that it was a spin-off of the excellent The Painted Heron in Chelsea. Once you know that, however, everything become clear. Like its parent, it’s an exemplary establishment. The food is good and inexpensive. The service is very good (arguably a bit too keen). The setting is plain (and a bit noisy) but smart and tasteful.

What the team has clearly learned – and about time – are the virtues of location, location and location. The Painted Heron is still not as well known as it deserves to be, largely as a result of its hidden-away location, off the Chelsea Embankment. An offshoot in Kennington, similarly poorly-sited, didn’t last. The Bangalore site, however, is bang opposite Waterloo and – assuming it maintains standards – should be an absolute boon for all in, or passing through, the area.

How odd, incidentally, that two Chelsea near-neighbours –The Painted Heron and Cheyne Walk Brasserie – have, via offshoots, ended up even nearer neighbours in Waterloo. After a year in operation, however, the Cheyne offshoot – the Waterloo Brasserie – still doesn’t offer service as good as the Bangalore Express was managing in its first week.