WOODLANDS. 37 PANTON STREET

One of a long established small chain of four restaurants in London (W1, W4, SW1 and Wembley) serving southern Indian vegetarian food. In addition to the London branches I understand they also have branches in Indian, Singapore and Los Angeles serving the same food. I recall having an excellent meal in their Marylebone Lane branch some years ago and have more recently used the Panton Street branch – just a stone’s throw from Piccadilly Circus and Charing Cross Station, which is the basis for this report.

The restaurant is relatively small, seating a little over fifty at plain, wood topped tables fairly closely set together. The menu lists all the south Indian specialities such as Dosa, Uthappams, Chaats and a variety of vegetable dishes. The notable and gratifying thing is that the menu lists 71 items and those which can be found on a standard high street curry house menu can be probably be counted on one hand (and that includes pillau rice, samosa and chappati !)

As well as a selection of ten starters (Idlis, Vadas, Upma etc) there are six varieties of Chaats – the snack type food from Bombay of which Bhel Poori is probably the best known. We started with a plate of Sev Poori (small, crispy puris topped with onions, yoghurt, tamarind chutney, spices and fresh coriander leaves), which was wonderful – tart tamarind, tangily spiced and absolutely delicious. To follow we had two sizeable Dosas from the list of nine varieties - one traditional Masala Dosa (a crepe made from fermented ground lentils and rice filled with spiced potatoes, onion and peas) while I had Onion Rava Masala Dosa, which was the same only cooked with sautéed onions and chillis. To accompany this was chose a Vegetable Korma (totally different to the high street rather creamy and sickly Kormas but cooked in a lightly creamed sauce thickened with roasted cashew nuts) and a pillau rice. The Dosas were accompanied by a small bowl of sambar and one of coconut chutney.

The food was first class, and for anyone who is a vegetarian the what better place is there than one that serves food from southern India. For those who like desserts, (which doesn’t include me I’m afraid so I can never comment on them) there is a good selection (seven varieties) of real Indian desserts. Good portions and good service. Prices very fair for the location and food, although a service charge of 12½% is added which bumps it up a bit. What also bumps it up is the beer, and probably my only minor complaint, as it is not listed on the menu (so no indication of price) but a large bottle of Cobra cost a whopping £5.25. I know Cobra is a good quality beer and expensive in restaurants, but £5.25 is probably the highest I’ve seen it at the time of writing.

All in all excellent and I certainly look forward to going again, but next time I’ll drink water.

Malcolm Wilkins - July 2003