Soho, Indian Restaurant Guide

“My daughter in law (born in Delhi) says it reminds her so much of Bombay food – and that is really high praise!” These “high energy” replicas of Mumbai’s Parsi cantinas are “quite exceptional” for a chain, with Indian reporters feeling “nostalgia for my childhood… the noise, the bustle, the products on display in the loos!” “The evening queues are deeply tedious” (“you can only book for 6 or more”) but the payoff is “exceptionally flavoursome Indian street-food with a difference”, “a fun cocktail list” and “a real buzz”. “Breakfast with a twist” is another option and it’s easier to get a table. Top Menu Tips – black dhal, or, for breakfast, their “reinvented bacon butty” – “a bacon naan with spicy ketchup is a great start to the day!”

“Living up to all the rave reviews… and then some!” Rik Campbell and Will Bowlby’s “fun dive, off increasingly gaudy Shaftesbury Avenue” (the Soho successor to the wildly popular Brixton prototype in a shipping container) is “a whole new ball game!” offering “a great experience, even if it’s mad and rushed”. The “design is simple but sophisticated”, with much of the seating on stools at a long counter; and the “profoundly original dishes” – “derived largely from Mumbai street food but either elevated a notch or transformed imaginatively” – is “spicy without being overpowering” and “quite exceptional”.

Limited but positive feedback on this walk-in, late 2016 newcomer in a small Soho basement: fans say it “deserves to be successful, delivering the best biryani in a long time” (cooked in a heavy pot, the ‘dum’ and with a pastry top).

From supper club star, to pop-up favourite (at The Sun and 13 Cantons), Asma Khan’s Darjeeling Express has finally found a permanent station atop Kingly Court in Soho, serving an array of north Indian dishes that are “generous, interesting and so delicious”.

On the big Soho site of Imli Street (RIP), this “semi-casual” spin-off from posh Mayfair Indian, Tamarind, lives up to its parent’s stylish looks. On limited early reports, one diner had a couple of mixed trips, but all other feedback is upbeat about the cooking’s “sophisticated Asian flavours”.

“Still excelling after all this time”, say fans of this long-established Soho North Indian, whose contemporary looks postdate a fire a few years ago. But while it’s consistently well-rated, the volume of feedback it attracts is quite low these days.

2014 Review: An “authentic” Indian, in the traditional sense of the word, hidden-away in Soho – still probably the West End’s top old-style subcontinental.