Muttar truffle kachori
I’m not a social issues blogger, though, so I’m going to chicken out of that conversation and talk about Kachori, one of the glossy modern restaurants here. It’s a big place, loads of covers, but comfy enough and they didn’t want to flip our 7pm table. There’s plenty on the menu, a mixture of more modern Indian street-food inspired stuff and curry house classics.
Bikaneri kachori
We had some good and not so good mains. My goat varuval was a dark and earthy dish, chunks of flavoursome meat in a dry sauce full of warming spices. Maureen’s Cod Malay Meen could have been re-badged “Cod in Cream of Tomato soup” as the smooth orangey sauce was terrifically mild in flavour to the point of being quite unappealing. But then, we had a very good tadka dal on the side, packed with garlicky and smoky flavours. The cauliflower side also had good flavour but was a bit over-salted.
Desserts were very worthy. My mango and cardamom kulfi was exactly right, plenty of perfume but not over-sweet. The salt caramel, jaggery and peanut parfait was exactly as good as it sounds, like an extremely elegant and fragrant Snickers ice cream.
You’d probably pay £45 each for food before drinks, so this isn’t a cheap meal. On the whole Kachori feels like a decent option for modern Indian, but it doesn’t sit at the top table of spice-driven restaurants with the ones I return to regularly.
Mango kulfi
