Veeraswamy, London
I was on my way to NYC for holiday. I stayed with “daddy” (thanks for the host and fun out as always) at London for a night because there was no train between Cambridge and Gatwick. I had enough, or I should say lost faith, in European high-end restaurants in London, therefore, I booked an Indian restaurant as our evening activity.
This restaurant apparently has been open in London for 99 years, soon 100 years. One of the managers actually mentioned they are looking for a new location. The restaurant is currently located in the very central of London, Regent St. We only got a table around 9pm. We had a relaxing walk in the Spring evening across London, which was very joyful. The decoration inside was very colourful. Although it was packed with many items, possibly collected from years and years, Veeraswamy maintained a level of modern table setup. The tasting menu here was short, in fact, with only 4 courses.
Menu
After a small soup, we got “Hazrat Malai Chicken Tikka”. It was impressive. Unlike many normal Indian restaurants in U.K., the curry actually tasted of layers of flavours, a proper curry. We got a bit of sweetness, a bit of chilli, a bit of spicy. The chicken was in fact not dry and still very tender. Although I am not an expert, cooking food in curry could lead to extremely dry meat. There were some drizzle nuts on top to add crunchy bites and as a “refreshment” or a pause from the overwhelming of flavours.
Hazrat Malai Chicken Tikka
The main curry set was equally impressive and interesting. Although there was a common base-flavour amongst the four plates, they all had their own variant curry flavours! Lobster had the lighter taste, and the lamb had the stronger and richer taste. The pineapple was slightly too sweet to me; however, it was a really nice bite after all the savoury meaty plates. The rice and, especially, naan were great paired with the curry. The naan was not very flat but actually had some volume to absorb the curry sauce.
Main set
I enjoyed the evening! The food was simple and of a very home feeling. I had questions on how authentic the food here was, because all courses did not have very intensive seasoning. Nevertheless, they certainly suited the general audience in London, especially, for high-end customers, who do not want to be embarrassed by the strong spicy. The second reason I enjoyed the dinner was, as always, dining with daddy. We certainly had no filter on the conversation topics, which were probably spicier than the food here. At some point, we were even discussing and checking out on one or two cute waiters here; the table next to us probably was able to hear our spicy comments.
🐼 Score: 4/5
