New to Gray’s Inn Road is this Indian establishment, firmly in the Dishoom vein of ‘hip Indian’ and bearing a chic’n’cheerful menu of mains, sides and small plates. The street-food section was great for starter nibbles, the bhel-puri chaat (bombay mix wrapped in a cone of flatbread) in particular. The classic-with-a-twist cocktails were excellent too: a darjeeling mojito had a lovely cardamom fragrance, while a jewel thief – their take on a lychee martini – rang with the cool hum of turmeric.
Mains weren’t quite so glorious. The centrepiece option is the build-your-own ‘urban Indian bowl’, clearly aimed a daytime takeout crowd. Here, you choose curry or stir-fry, and then pick a protein, grain, sauce and spiciness. Sadly, the stir-fry wasn’t up to much: the noodles were overdone, the prawns scant, and the chillies unevenly scattered, so that one mouthful was heatless and the next practically nuclear. A Keralan fish curry from the specials list was better.
Don’t go at the weekend as we did: both the area and restaurant were deserted. It’s clearly best as a lunchtime destination – somewhere to go if you can escape the office for a full hour. Or perhaps a bit longer: those cocktails were very, very good.