Harden's says
Early 2026 (our opening date is a guess) is when JKS will relaunch the prominent former Lyle's site at the foot of Shoreditch's Tea Building as the fourth link in their ten-year-old chain. Here co-founder Karan Gokani has announced that the food focus will evolve from the Sri Lankan cuisine for which they are known to incorporate other influences from the south of the subcontinent: with dishes from Chettinad, Madurai, Bangalore, Kochi and Chennai.
Harden's survey result
Summary
“Tasty, freshly prepared Sri Lankan food in a fun environment” has spelled success for this trio from JKS Restaurants, which have done much to popularise Sri Lankan and south Indian cuisine in the capital over the past decade (a hopper is a street-food pancake). The original Soho venue is “vibrant and intimately packed (at times a little too much so)”, while the newer branch at Coal Drops Yard in King’s Cross has a terrace where “on a warm summer’s day, sitting at an outside table with fresh bites and a cold pint is just excellent”. Top Menu Tip – “the short eats – hot butter squid, lamb kothu roti, bone marrow varuval – are absolute knockouts”; the best-sellers are the hoppers and the dosa dishes.
Summary
“Absolutely delicious Sri Lankan dishes” attract a “noisy, buzzy” crowd to this “squashed” Soho spot, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year (and whose owners, JKS Restaurants, have now opened spinoff branches in King’s Cross and Marylebone). “Staff work their socks off to get everyone fed” and the grub – “bone marrow vadhuvai + roti chennai, cabbage, aubergine, hopper etc” – is “tasty, and not shy on spice” (it’s also “particularly good for people on gluten-free or lactose-free diets as they supply separate menu cards”). All this said, the cooking no longer excites the adulation of the early days, with a suspicion in some quarters that it’s now “only slightly different to a ‘normal’ curry”.
Summary
“A fantastic menu of unusual Sri Lankan street food” with “lots of interesting ingredients (breadfruit, squid, dal, etc) in a mix-and-match format” has won a huge fan club for JKS Restaurants three-strong chain (with a fourth branch planned to open late in 2023 in Shoreditch). Ratings slipped across the board, though, this year – incidents of “hit ’n’ miss service” and “packed and noisy” conditions can make them appear “a bit pricey”.
Summary
“Authentic flavours of Sri Lanka with superb, well-balanced spicing” won strong acclaim this year for JKS Restaurants’ well-known, three-strong chain in Soho, Marylebone and King’s Cross, where the eponymous ‘hoppers’ are coconut and rice flour pancakes with various fillings; highly rated for a “superior tasting and reasonably priced” bite. A fourth branch is on the cards for late 2022. Top Tip – “it has a good range of options for vegans and vegetarians”.
For 34 years we've been curating reviews of the UK's most notable restaurant. In a typical year, diners submit over 50,000 reviews to create the most authoritative restaurant guide in the UK. Each year, the guide is re-written from scratch based on this survey (although for the 2021 edition, reviews are little changed from 2020 as no survey could run for that year).
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