Chicken wings in goop
So we have a lamb shank curry, and the gravy is a lip-smacking warm and earthy Indonesian curry that I could drink by the gallon, but the lamb shank is unexpectedly just that: a whole lamb shank. And even though I could drink that gravy by the gallon, we actually only get a few spoonfuls of it, quickly lost in the rice and the big dollops of (admittedly lovely) lamb that come off the bone.
To start with we have potato cakes, and I’ve always loved these as snacks, but it’s hard to elevate them to a “dish” and why is there too little of the sweet soy sauce for one of these cakes, let alone three of them? The butter chicken wings with salted egg and chilli sound really good but the gooey mix on the wings doesn’t really sing out with any particular flavour apart from butter.
Soft cod n torch ginger
The trio of sambals we ordered alongside are just eye-watering mixtures of fierce chilli. I found they added more pain that relish, even in tiny amounts. Even Maureen – who lives for chilli and coped just fine during the meal – reported after we left that her eyeballs had begun to feel hot.
So, nice to find a more inventive Indonesian restaurant having some fun with the flavours of the islands. But it’s not quite as accomplished as other south-east Asian favourites we love. Open for less than a month at the time of writing, though, so I do think it’s worth trying again once they’ve spent a while tweaking and settling the menu. £40 each before drinks is a bit much for the quality, but this is St James’s!
Mighty lamb shank
