Soho, Indian Restaurant Guide

Chinese-Indian Hakka cuisine incorporating some interesting ingredients (crab, rabbit, venison) help inspire enthusiastic (if limited) feedback for this Soho two-year-old. In late 2021, a sibling will open on a former Polpo site in Covent Garden featuring a new cocktail offering and unusual wines from organic producers across the globe.

“Authentic, fast Indian food” is on the menu at this Soho outpost of a Manhattan chain, whose founder, Payal Saha, missed the street food of her native Kolkata – kati rolls, buttery parathas filled with grilled meat, cheese or vegetables.

This spin-off from Mayfair’s Tamarind has a “really good buzz” and “an unusual take on Indian food”, serving “delicious and aromatic small plates”, many of them “inspired by street food”. With its “great decor and good, friendly service”, it’s “not super cheap, but the prices are consistent with the area”.

“The new Covent Garden branch of Dishoom is spectacular and the food is still ace” – our poll’s most commented-on chain continues to win overwhelmingly rapturous reviews. It helps that the “very different” Indian menu is a winner: “super-tasty” and “excellent value”, with the “out-of-the-box” breakfast options a particular fave rave (“have a bacon naan and a cup of chai, and the world feels a better place”). But, actually, the stand-out feature is the “always buzzing and fun” atmosphere at its individually designed branches; and post-lockdown, WC2 took the wraps off a successful makeover, which mines the heritage of Bombay theatres and early Bollywood talkies. It helps that service is “slick”, from “courteous and attentive staff who never push what they want to sell”. The catch? “painful and lengthy queues” for walk-ins which have, if anything, worsened since they introduced reservations in all locations.

2021 Review: “For a cuzza in Soho”, this “good Indian in the centre of all the action” is just the job thanks to its “flavoursome and so tasty” cooking and “top price/quality ratio”. Family run since 1988, its unfashionably traditional basement setting is also a great antidote when you’re sick of being dazzled by trendy new restaurant design-concepts.

Named for the Roomali roti bread that’s one of its menu mainstays, Anirudh Arora’s small group aims to bring Delhi-style ‘tapas’ to Theatreland, Marble Arch (in a smart, if slightly “sterile” hotel dining room) and – most recently – Paddington. Feedback is more limited than we’d like, but once again speaks of “superb food”.

“Love Atul Kochhar’s cooking” (focused on dishes from India's northeastern ‘Sister States’) say fans of his three-year-old, who award “five stars all the way” for “incredible meals, with levels of spice and heat like nothing else I’ve experienced”. The interior design is not everyone’s idea of a “posh Indian”, however, and – more significantly – ratings are undercut by those who feel culinary results are “below expectations for such a talented chef”, or alternatively feel that “it’s very nice, but my word, the prices…”.

At 95 years old – the same age as the Queen – London’s oldest Indian restaurant, near Piccadilly Circus, continues to send out “delicious, beautifully presented food drawing on Mughal recipes with a modern twist”. Unlike Her Majesty, however, its styling is rather contemporary nowadays, giving next to no hint at its long heritage. “Sitting at a table overlooking Regent’s Street, with the mouth-watering fragrance of Indian spices, swish decor and professional yet understated service. you could almost do without the food! But the food is superb."

“Brilliant Indian cuisine with an experimental flare” – “glorious morsels of street-style foods” on “tapas-style” small plates – has earned all-but-universal praise for this popular duo, first in Spitalfields and more recently on the South Bank near Tower Bridge (“handy before or after the Bridge Theatre”). Now their signature “tender lamb cutlets” and Kowari soft-shell crab can be sampled at a high-profile new venue in Soho’s Greek Street, opened in late 2021. “You always over-order because everything sounds so good!”.

After winning a mentorship in a pop-up competition at Westfield White City Shopping Centre in 2018, Mehak Kansal brought this bricks-and-mortar operation to Mayfair in October 2020. ‘Bindas’ – Punjabi for without limitations and inhibitions – here translates into eclectic decor and a varied selection of street food. No feedback as yet, but they must be doing something right, as a second site is on the cards.