Review: Jamavar, London

Jamavar has recently had a change of chef at the top. I hadn’t realised, but it’s actually the first UK outpost of a small group of exclusive Indian hotels. The interior is very clubby, all mirrors and dark wood and little brass lamps. Comfy too. Service was decent and friendly.

We went all-in for the tasting menu, and two of us headed for the vegetarian version of it while two went meat n’ fish. I’ve gotta say, we were all underwhelmed. So… why?

Well, all four of us are serious afficienadoes of modern Indian cuisine as the best UK restaurants have been interpreting it. The Chilli Pickle down in Brighton, the Painted Heron in

Chelsea, the Cinnamon Club, Lasan in Birmingham. And all the street food places offering up big spices and lively chat bombs on the cheap. So while this was a very pleasant Indian meal stretched out over seven courses, there was absolutely nothing that really stood out.

The main courses in particular left us very meh. Butter chicken was… a good butter chicken. The prawn moilee was way too nervous, with none of the depth and punch a great moilee can have. The vegetarian mains, starring morel mushrooms and baby aubergines respectively, were no less meh. The tomatoey sauce with the aubergine was joylessly free of any clear spice, the morels were lost and wasted in a creamy sauce, bizarrely stuffed with peas.

Some of the earlier dishes were better. I enjoyed a really beautiful disk of paneer tikka, the cheese softer and silkier than I’m used to, surely homemade. There was a very good chicken tikka across the table, soft and succulent with sweet green flavours. Soft shell crab to start was crisp and oceanic, but the lobster idli wasn’t a great use of shellfish and the idli themselves were an uninteresting and starchy addition – it felt like they were there to lend a name to the dish rather than add anything useful to it.

Nice rasmalai to finish, sticky and soft and fragrant. I shouldn’t be over-critical. This was solid, classic Indian cooking, with dishes from across the country prepared with care, although perhaps a little too cautious in their spices. But I can’t call the £75 tasting menu good value on those grounds, not by a long chalk. I can’t see any reason to visit Jamavar when you can enjoy better for half as much. I wonder if they’ll keep the Michelin star with this chef?