Kensington, Indian Restaurant Guide

2024 Review: “Fragrant and tasty dishes” win approval at this cute Indian hidden away in a Kensington backstreet. Its siblings in Little Venice, Barnes and Kingston get very little notice from reporters.

“You’ll almost always find a queue of people waiting for a table and a palpable energy of excitement in the room” when you visit these “vibrant” and “exotic”-feeling Indian favourites, which “whisk you to Bombay and back”. Cousins Shamil & Kavi Thakrar started in Covent Garden in 2010 and their growing group has become the most commented-on business in our annual diners’ poll, complete with seven London branches, three outside town; their ‘Permit Rooms’ spinoff brand, and turnover of over £100m. The interior design, a homage to Mumbai’s Irani cafés, absolutely slaps – “wherever you sit it’s quirky” and even though the busy scene can become “a bit of a zoo”, it’s all so upbeat that “you leave feeling good about your meal and yourself!”. Dishes are “bursting with flavour” and served by “efficient” waiting staff “who know their stuff”. The menu is “deliciously different”, although so many Londoners have now sampled it that once-arcane items like the “legendary black dahl (so rich and filling!)” are now part of London’s culinary canon. And what better way to start a new day than with an “unbeatable bacon and egg naan roll” – a high watermark of dining out invention of the last 50 years that’s core to their “game-changing breakfasts” (“you will never want an English bacon roll again”!).

“Fabulous Indian food is served in a lovely setting” at this “solid” fixture in an elegant converted banking hall opposite the entrance to Kensington Palace. (“My Indian brother-in-law rated it very highly and introduced us to new dishes” that are “not your average Indian cooking, but everything has the right flavour and spice”). Originally a rival to Tamarind in Mayfair, it is now part of the same group.