Camden

Chai Thali Indian Street Food Bar & Restaurant

March 13, 2017 by Adrian

Chai Thali Indian Street Food Bar & Restaurant Camden

19 Mandela Street, Camden, NW1 0DU

Indian street food is definitely having a moment. I loved Chef Vivek Singh’s Cinnamon Bazaar in Covent Garden where the chaats zing with flavour (see my review) and just when you thought things couldn’t get any more exciting along comes the recently opened Chai Thali in Camden. Owners Raj, AJ and Neil have scoured the subcontinent to create a menu that brings together kerb-side snacks sourced from the Punjab to Kerala. And with a drinks menu that includes cocktails, lassis, turmeric lattes, kadak chais, Indian beers there is lots to investigate; so I was really pleased to be invited to sample some of the highlights from the menu.The interior crosses over the street food ‘shack aesthetic’ with a contemporary London twist to create a vibrant interior that is a great showcase for the food.And there’s even a private dining room for business or private parties. The restaurant boasts a team of Punjabi chefs gleaned from from the kitchens of the Taj and Ambassador hotel groups and has a dedicated Tandoor Chef with all the meat being strictly Halal.But before we got down to the food it was time for cocktails (£8.50). The Chai spiced Mojito was a sweet dark mojito made with Captain Morgan spiced rum, mint leaves, lime chunks, Chai tea bags and syrup with soda. It was great to try the mint and lime with dark rum. The Goan Bay is a cool fruity blend of vodka, passion liqueur, watermelon liqueur, passion and cranberry juice. My favourite was the Chai Thali Mary, a grown-up blend of house whisky, Southern Comfort, guava and pineapple juice, tabasco, Angostura bitters and Chat Masala with a salted glass rim.If you’re on the wagon a Mango or Cardomom and Pistachio Lassi (£4.50) gives a rich, creamy base for the upcoming spice.Appetisers started coming thick and fast. Kurkuri Bhindi were thinly sliced slivers of okra fried in gram flour batter sprinkled with chilli masala. An exercise in crispy salty goodness.A mini papad basket came with mango, spicy tomato, tamarind and mint and yoghurt chutneys – perfect with the cocktails!Paani Poori were wheat puff balls filled with masala potatoes which you fill with tamarind water. Down it in one shot for a mouthful of crunchy sweet and sour goodness.Then it was time for a selection of starters. Punjabi Samosas had a delicious wheat pastry and were filled with peas and potatoes.Spicy grilled Lamb Ki Chaampe chops came marinated in spices and were served with kachumber.Maharaja Prawns were probably my favourite of the dishes – fat and juicy King prawns marinated in spices and cooked in the clay oven.Salmon tandoor was the best tandoor fish I have eaten coming crisp and lightly spiced out of the oven.I love chaat and Samosa Chaat, mini samosas laid flat on a bed of of chole, yogurt and chutney was an explosion of textural and flavour pleasure. A Fondue of a creamily mild mashed vegetable curry came served with grated cheese and a brioche bun for dipping. Mains included Tandoor chicken tikka curry slow-cooked and garnished with cream and a Daal Fry – assorted lentils cooked dhabba style.I didn’t make it as far as desserts but a pistachio Kulfi ice-cream, Gaajar Halwa, carrots slow cooked in milk topped with ice cream and pistachio nuts, and a Mango Mousse flavoured with safffron & cardamom rass malai all sounded like the perfect way to end the meal.

I ate and drank far too much at Chai Thali purely in the interests of research. My conclusions dear reader are that if you love small plate dining/sharing and want to try out the latest in Indian street food trends as well as some classics then Chai Thali is an affordable and fun place to do that.

El Parador – Review

January 12, 2017 by Adrian

El Parador Camden

245 Eversholt St, Kings Cross, NW1 1BA

020 7387 2789/elparadorlondon.com

I had heard rumours about El Parador in Camden for a while-that it is a little hidden gem, a family run tapas restaurant running for 30 years with a lovely garden and a favourite of celebrities and politicians. It’s the sort of place that you don’t tell people about because you want to keep it for yourself…So I was pleased to be asked to review it to find out what the fuss was about…After an initial glass of a deliciously nutty Fino (£4.70) we dug into Pure de Habas (£4.80)-broad bean, confit garlic and rosemary which came with some very serviceable bread. It was a warm coarse purée spiked with the garlic and rosemary flavours-rustic and gutsy flavours.Salteado (sautéed) de Solomillo were tender and richly flavoured goujons of steak marinated with garlic and black pepper and pan-fried with roasted yellow cherry tomatoes, port and butter. For the non-meat eaters Salteado de Calabaza con Espinacas (£6.50) was a luscious Mediterranean plateful of butternut squash roasted with oregano and and garlic oil then pan fried with spinach, feta and toasted sunflower seeds. It had that crunchy/squidgy thing going on and made me forget about the cold, winter weather outside. We were drinking a Guy Allion Sauvignon Blanc Touraine £27.50, a steely, grassy white with a hint of lime that was robust enough to stand up to the food.Goujons of tuna with asparagus, chilli, garlic and Madeira (£8) were seared to the point that the fish fell to pieces in your mouth (in a good way) with a hint of sweetness coming from the Madeira. I love the way the Spanish use fortified wines in their cooking. Salteado de Chipirones (£6.80)- a dish of baby squid marinated with chilli, garlic and coriander and fried in olive oil was as good as a similar dish I tasted in La Boqueria market in Barcelona. It had deep, rich flavours that created great memories of one of the world’s great food destinations.Salteado de Hinojo Asado (£6.20) were Fennel hearts roasted with garlic oil and honey and pan fried with roasted red chillies and cherry tomatoes. The fennel was a sultry, aniseed sensation-slow cooked veg in olive oil makes my life better.For dessert a dense almondy Tarta de Santiago with cream (£5) was an obvious choice but I couldn’t resist the selection of cheeses (£8). A mature Manchego was rich and creamy, there was an earthy Garrotxa the Catalan goats milk cheese, a poky Picon blue from Asturias and a soft, nutty Mahon Cows milk from Minorca-a great way to end the meal.Service is friendly and relaxed in a room that is cosy and warm and perfect for convivial gatherings or earnest chat. This is clearly a restaurant much loved by its Camden clientele and when I’m in that part of town it will become my local too.

Inamo – Review

January 11, 2017 by Adrian

Inamo Camden

265 Hampstead Road, Camden NW1 7QX

reservations@inamo-restaurant.com

I’ve been aware of the Inamo restaurant group for a while now-there’s one in Covent Garden and the original in Soho. Somehow the self-styled ‘Space-age oriental fusion restaurant didn’t appeal conjuring up images of spacewalking waiters serving up little tubes of mashed sushi goo-extra wasabi anyone?

So when asked along to review the new Inamo in Camden (handily over the road from Mornington Crescent tube) I was forced to confront my prejudices. It turns out that you utilise a tablet to order your meal and can use your interactive table surface to choose your virtual tablecloth, view the chefs at work on ‘chef cam’, play games, & much more. Fiona and I went for lunch and in the daylight the interactive table was a bit pale to be much use but in the evening it could be a lot of fun. As we were sitting next to the kitchen the chef cam was a bit superfluous but the tablet ordering was easy and worked well.

Because I wanted to test my theory that lunchtime drinking is a very good thing we kicked off with cocktails. Mulled sake (£7.95) was seasonally spicy and warming whilst a Lychee Martini (£8.95) elegantly balanced the tropical sweetness with the alcohol.

Seaweed salad (£4.45) was a savoury and refreshing blast of nutrients to counteract the alcohol.

But after the seaweed it seemed important to have something deep-fried… Crispy vegetable tempura (£9.95) was hot from the fryer with a properly light and dry batter covering a interesting selection of vegetables. Perfect.

Honjozo sake (£11.50) was deliciously warming and a great match for our dishes.

Sushi donut (£12.45) was much bigger than it looks on my photo. The sesame seed covered tuna, salmon, prawn and avocado lay on a bed of rice to create a good looking and tasting dish.

The eye-catching Dragon Roll (£11.95) was a construction of crunchy tempura shrimp, topped with creamy avocado and a touch of mayo. This would make a great sharing plate.

I first tried Black Cod in spicy miso (£24.95) at Nobu and then at Hakkasan. It has since become a staple on pan-Asian menus. This version was beautifully cooked allowing the sweetness of the fish to come through and a generous serving for the price.

Fiona loved her Hot stone fillet (£19.95). The tender English fillet tail came with three dipping sauces, Nam Jim, Teriyaki & Korean BBQ. You cook your own meat on the provided hot stone to your taste. Our waiter thoughtfully replaced the stone on a regular basis so it was always at a cooking temperature.

We had planned to have a light lunch but sometimes the best laid plans…and there was no room for dessert which meant that the exciting sounding Baked Alasparkla went untried. Inamo would be a great place for a fun date or an outing with family, friends or work colleagues. The food isn’t over-complicated and delivers really well at the price point. It’s well worth a space walk over to Mornington Crescent.

The Art of Fugue at The Forge

May 15, 2015 by Adrian Leave a Comment

The Forge Camden

Follow @Hedonisttweets

3-7 Delancey Street, London NW1 7NL

www.forgevenue.org/

The Forge is a music venue with an attached restaurant in Camden that I first reviewed a couple of years ago. It was opened in 2009 by musicians Adam and Charlotte Caird and since then has presented a mix of classical, jazz and world music as well as running a variety of club nights. When I visited the restaurant was operating as a mid-priced brasserie with a fairly extensive modern European menu. This has now been changed with a more focussed choice of three small and four large plates at dinner as well as a burger menu.So I was interested to asked back to review and this time I was also able to catch a show in their bespoke music space.

The feel of the Forge now is more local arts centre than posh restaurant but the bar staff know how to mix a cocktail and the unnervingly named Pink Mojito (£8) and Mango Tango (£8) were actually really well-blended and not too sweet.

For our starters we ordered the Roasted Mushrooms with goats cheese (£6) which came stuffed with thyme, garlic, mushrooms and topped with caramelised onions. It was rustic but well-executed.Gravlax (£7.50) came with a rather too robust horseradish cream and good granary bread. Both dishes would be great either as a pre-show snack with a drink or as a starter. For mains we had Salmon en Croute (£12) with crushed new potatoes and spring greens which had a good pastry and moist salmon, and a moreish Macaroni Cheese (£8) that I shouldn’t have finished but did.

After dinner I moved into the intimate music space with a glass of house white to enjoy the Arensky Chamber Orchestra performing Bach’s Art of Fugue and Strauss’ Metamorphosen. The Bach composition is the pinnacle of Baroque contrapuntal writing here rearranged for solo strings and it was a delight to hear the fugal subjects and their development separated out to individual instruments. Strauss’s Metamorphosen also has contrapuntal compositional elements but the Arensky’s managed to draw out the intensity of emotion in this memorial for bomb-destroyed Munich.

I really like the ethos of The Forge and I think it plays a really positive role in Camden’s cultural mix. It’s a space that musicians want to play in, a space that allows for innovation and experimentation away from the more commercial constraints of many other venues and alongside the art you can get a decent plate of food and a killer cocktail. What’s not to like!

Review-Namaaste Kitchen

March 5, 2013 by Adrian Leave a Comment

Namaaste Kitchen Camden

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64 Parkway, Camden, London , NW1

www.namaastekitchen.co.uk/0207 485 5977

There seems to be a new generation of Indian chef/patrons who have spent time behind the stoves at London’s more progressive top-end Indian restaurants and are now opening their own places showcasing a lighter approach to the food. I can think of Manoj Vasaikar’s Indian Zing in Hammersmith and now Sabbir Karim at Namaaste Kitchen in Camden. Sabbir is also the owner of Salaam Namaste in Bloomsbury which has a more traditional approach.

Parkway is the main food hub in Camden. It is a pulsating thoroughfare full of restaurants, pubs and clubs.

Namaaste Kitchen sits about half-way down and the interior is an oasis of calm in brown and white after the hurly-burly of the street.

Fiona from London Unattached and I are met with freshly cooked poppadums and home-made chutneys (£!.20): Mango and pineapple , Tomato and finally a garlicky Coriander. These are some of the best I have tasted and I hope an indicator of what is to come.

While we are looking at the menu the kitchen sends out Panni Puri, little crunchy puffs of unleavened bread with a potato and spice filling and sitting on top of a deliciously sour shot of Tamarind water. In a sense the story of the restaurant’s food was in this little dish; intelligent spicing, a lightness of touch and intense flavours.

For our starters we ordered Spicy Soft Shell Crab (£5.95) and Tandoori Aatish-e-Jingha (£5.50).

Spicy Soft Shell Crab

Deep-fried in a semolina batter and marinated in a green peppercorn and lemon sauce, the crab was tender and brilliantly flavoured with a fig and prune sauce adding spice and depth to the combination of flavours. A great dish.

Tandoori Aatish-e-Jingha

Tandoori Aatish-e-Jingha was a construction of King prawns marinated in English mustard, yoghourt and spices, cooked in the Tandoor oven and served with aubergine compote and balchao sauce (a Goanese curry). The marinade managed not to overwhelm the prawns and gave them a surprising depth of flavour.

Choosing wine for rich spicy food is really hard and often I get it wrong. For this meal we went with a bottle of 2011 Musar Jeune (£21.50) from the Chateau Musar Bekaa Valley vineyards in Lebanon owned by the Hochar family. It is a mix of Viognier, Vermentino and Chardonnay with herbal and fruit notes and worked really well in context.

Whole Baked Sea Bass marinated in raw coastal spices

The restaurant specialises in grilled food so for my main course I chose the Whole Baked Sea Bass marinated in raw coastal spices (£12.95). This was a great hunk of a fish, stuffed full of herbs and grilled to within an inch of its life. Chunks off flesh suffused with flavour were falling off the fish with added excitement coming from the spice crunch of the skin. This was fish eating at its most butch…

Pan-seared Monkfish Tail

Pan-seared Monkfish Tail with tomatoes, lemon sauce and basmati rice (£12.95) was succulent and tasty with a tangy tomato and lemon sauce.

Stir Fry Okra with raw mango

For our sides we chose Stir Fry Okra with raw mango (£3.50)-a deliciously sticky blend of okra, onion, tomato and rice and…

Sesame Baby Aubergine with mustard and curry leaf sauce

Sesame Baby Aubergine with mustard and curry leaf sauce (£3.50)-a squidgilly unctous curry combo that brought joy to my heart on a cold February day.

These were wiped up with a date and ginger Nan (£2.50), light and fresh from the oven.

Coconut Ice Cream

For dessert we wanted something light. I ordered the Coconut Ice Cream (£3.50)

Tandoori Pineapple with Coconut Sorbet

and Fiona the Tandoori Pineapple with Coconut Sorbet (£4.50). The sorbet turned out to be ice cream but still went well with the burnt sweetness of the pineapple.

I’m really impressed with Namaste Kitchen. It really isn’t necessary to go to Mayfair or Chelsea to get fantastic Indian cooking. You are better off heading for Southall, Hammersmith or now Camden. There is a self-confidence to this restaurant that shows in their approach to the food and the way it is presented. Flavours are intense but not overly hot, everything is freshly prepared, service is friendly without being creepy and the prices are very reasonable. Go!

Disclosure: The Hedonist was a guest of Namaste Kitchen