Hoppers is opening its fourth site next week, in the former Lyle’s premises in Shoreditch’s landmark Tea Building – and this time with a shift of focus onto the food of South India as well as Sri Lanka.
Part of the JKS restaurant stable, Hoppers launched 10 years ago in Soho, spearheading a surge of popularity for Sri Lankan cuisine in Britain. Further sites opened in Marylebone in 2017 and King’s Cross in 2020, followed by a six-year lull until now.
Founder Karan Gokani is himself from India – although he says he’s “madly in love” with Sri Lanka, and honoured to be flag-bearer for it – and believes the two neighbouring cuisines can sit naturally together on a menu.
Most of his kitchen team are from South India, and together they did a lot of research in the region, developing dishes such as a Keralan-style chilli chicken chop; a biryani from Dindigul, near Chennai, using short-grain instead of basmati rice; and a Bangalore-style benne dosa, which Karan says is a “huge craze” in India at the moment: “Bombay has it now. Delhi is getting it now. Everyone’s talking about the benne – it literally translates as white butter.”
Finally, there is a crab kari omelette served with flaky parotta (paratha) bread, inspired by the street food of Madurai, an ancient city in Tamil Nadu. “It’s a city which I think is one of the most underrated food cities in South India. They do the best street food I think I’ve ever eaten. It’s just the culture; the street food is wild.”
Hoppers Shoreditch opens next Wednesday 4 February.
