Britain’s oldest Indian restaurant, established in 1927, it has benefited from being taken over a couple of years ago by the owners of Chelsea’s top class Indian restaurant - Chutney Mary. Unobtrusive entrance in Swallow Street, up the stairs and into a modern, 130 seat brightly lit restaurant with stylish decor of polished wooden floors, bright colours, glass and chrome with many side tables enjoying a superb view of Regent Street. The ambience shouts quality even before the lady at reception shows you to your table.

The menu is limited but perfectly balanced with quite sufficient vegetarian, fish and meat dishes, all of which are excitingly different and wonderfully imaginative. Just reading through the menu starts the saliva running. A £1.50 per head cover charge covers some crisp triangular popadoms and a couple of dishes of chutneys while you study the exotic things on offer. We started with oysters stir fried with chilli and spices (wonderfully flavoured with the tang of chilli for hotness but not enough to take anything away from the oyster flavour of the sea), and mussels cooked in coconut milk and Kerala spices (again, delicious and the coconut sauce like a soup after the mussels had been devoured. We spooned it up soup fashion unashamedly).

For our main course we had duck breast sliced and served with a tangy, fairly sweet and delicately spiced thick, concentrated sauce, and Achar Gosht (tender chunks of lamb perfectly cooked in a surprisingly light coloured pickle based sauce, well spiced with black peppercorns and superbly flavoured). The vegetable dish of Aubergine in a tamarind and peanut sauce comprised two whole small aubergines and was equally delicious. Both meat dishes came accompanied with rice (served in a separate dish and not on the plate). The Peshwari Nan was relatively small but nicely nutty.

What can I say? Each dish was sublimely flavoured, superbly cooked and well presented. Prices naturally quite high for such a location and for such excellence, but not outrageous (and can be kept to reasonable proportions by keeping to water rather than alcoholic drinks!) Portions modest but not as small as I was expecting and quite sufficient. As you would expect, the service was also excellent - although I do wish they wouldn’t rush up to top up your glass after every sip (and this is drinking Cobra beer!)

A really superb meal and although not a restaurant for everyday use (unless you are, like most of the diners it seemed, on business expenses or well heeled American or Japanese tourists) it is perfect for that special occasion.

Malcolm Wilkins - June 2002