On the evening of England's World Cup demise, I took advantage of the quieter restaurant scene to eat at Lokhandwala and take advantage of a 50% off food deal. I had been craving curry and this was no ordinary curry house, which made it a little more exciting.
It didn't start off too well with my choice of drink the Holi (ginger tequila, mezcal, white chocolate, lime, cinnamon) being unavailable. How good does it sound? Instead I opted for the Star of India £12 which was a decent fruity gin drink but really none too distinct.
- Pata ata chaat (crispy spinach leaves served with sweet yoghurt & tamarind chutney) £5.5 - really excellent dish of fried leaves and chickpeas with the contrast of coriander sauce, yoghurt and sour tamarind;
- Lamb chops (marinated for 24 hours with spices, cooked in tandoor) £12 - remarkably tender even though cooked a bit too much until there was little pinkness. Had a nice spiced coating;
- Kurkure okra £3.5 - better than Dishoom's version. Crispy, flavoursome, great;
- Baked neeli (mussels cooked in lemon coriander butter) £9 - 4 good sized greenlip mussels tasted as expected from the description;
- Goan crab (baked crab cooked with ginger, garlic, chilli, cheese) £14 - a gratinated crab (with the occasional speck of shell - forgivable) that was quite good and moderate flavour. Ended up eating it by the spoonful;
- Chicken chettinad (cooked With 18 Different Spices) £13 - unfortunately the lobster curry wasn't available. The waiter recommended this as a stronger flavoured curry but the taste disappointed and was quite generic. The large pieces of chicken were cooked well though;
- Garlic naan £4 - expensive (at full price) and didn't have enough garlic flavour;
- Lokhandwala roti £4 - I'm not sure what the Lokhandwala part refers too. It was a whole wheat bread and so more dense as expected. There didn't seem to be anything else done to it to distinguish it from other Indian roti;
- Rice pudding creme brulee - can't remember the name but it was a cold dish with a thin crispened topshell.
Overall it was an adequate meal although despite it being marketed as Indian "tapas", I can't say there was overly many distinguishing features for the dishes. The prices are on the expensive side (at full price) and I don't think I saw enough to choose this over my other favourite curry houses.