Brigadiers, in the city
I like a place where they’ve put some effort into the decor and taken their own road, rather than following along with the latest identikit hipster trends. On the other hand, I’m not sure whether it’s very PC to enjoy the gloriously British-colonial club atmosphere at
Brigadiers. Well, at least “the Brigadier” who gazes down on the dining room is quite definitely an Indian officer of the Raj, with sad jowls and toothbrush moustache.
I’m not sure what he’d make of the food, though. It’s Indian street food meets modern barbecue, it’s all bloody delicious, and as usual I’ve eaten too much.
Smoked aubergine roti
Poppadoms and chutneys are okay. Smoked aubergine on tiny rotis with burnt corn is absolutely top-boss awesome, deeply smokey and ravishing. Beef keema with bonemarrow is rip-snortingly amazeballs, packed with flavour and humming with smoky cardamom goodness. Goat belly vindaloo samosas! The pastry is seriously crispy. Like, you could use these little triangles as shuriken! But the goat inside is velvety boss-level great, spankingly hot but elegantly so.
Oh, and it’s worth pausing to note that – like other modern Indian places I love – at Brigadiers they’ve paid a lot of attention to creating truly memorable alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages that go down nicely with all these layers of spice.
Gnarly ribs
The main event is a BBQ rack of pork ribs with a wild boar rajma. The rajma is a new one on me: textured like a dal but based on beans rather than lentils. Anyway. RIBS! These bad boys are just meltingly perfect meat. But wow oh wow… whatever devilry they have been basted in knocks my socks straight off my feet. As usual, I struggle to pick out the individual spices, but there’s a tripily bitter fruit flavour that I think might be amchoor mango powder…? Anyway, it’s straight out gorgeous.
No room for pudding, I sip my (beautiful) cup of chai slowly as possible but still have to waddle out onto the street. Stuffed again. You’d probably look at £25-£30 each before drinks for a proper stuffing. There’s massive flavour. I’d happily eat here a lot.
The Brigadier
