During this 50% soft opening period, the service was a bit haphazard. The waitress didn't really know the food well - the thought the pork ribs was for only 1 rib, didn't know what a shrikhand was, and didn't know much about the drinks available. It took a little while to get attention (which is what soft openings are for) but once ordered, the food came out very very quickly.
- Porzhi okra fries £6 - better than Dishoom by a distance. Thin, reasonably crisp but coated in a great flavour of spices;
- Gunpowder aloo chaat £6 - potatoes with yoghurt and dressing. Not bad but could have used more spices on the potatoes;
- Spicy venison & vermicelli doughnut with fennel & chilli chutney £5 - delicious fried ball with crisp batter and warming mince meat inside;
- Chettinad pulled duck served with homemade oothappam £5 per piece - a disappointing dish with strange dry bread that cracked and broke when trying to handle (and so the duck fell out) with meat that didn't have any special flavour;
- Maa's kashmiri lamb chops £7.5 per piece - silly expensive (if full price) but a wonderfully soft and most ridiculously tender lamb chop coated in a spiced seasoning that didn't have/need much salt. Better than Dishoom and Tayyabs;
- Nagaland house crispy pork ribs with tamarind kachumber £9 - I thought Nagaland may mean naga spicy but it wasn't. The sauce was a little sour and a bit sweet and was cooked reasonably, but overall just didn't do much for me. Maybe it was because the lamb chops were eaten right beforehand;
- Karwari soft shell crab £9 - excellent texture and flavour with the lime cutting through the fry nicely;
- Saag with tandoori paneer £12 - expensive for 3 pieces of cheese in mild spinach sauce;
- Steamed rice with Gunpowder butter £3.5 - the waitress recommended Aunty Sulu's rabbit pulao but then told us unfortunately they had run out of serves. This inferior alternative was a large serve for 2-3, although one had a decent amount of butter and the other too little. I didn't feel the butter added much to the dish since it was eaten with strong curry;
- Old monk rum pudding £7 - there wasn't much rum to taste in the dense base and the icecream was vanilla. The extra shot of rum £2 would have been good;
- Dark chocolate & cinnamon with passionfruit shrikhand £7 - dense smooth heavy chocolate slab with some kind of nougat on top.
I really enjoyed the meal, with the caveats above. I'd really want to get those lamb chops again but full price just seems a bit too much. I'll have to seek out the cookbook now to make it myself. But overall would match Dishoom in my eyes.