Chicken tikka masala is, to the United Kingdom, what cheese steaks are to Philadelphia and tacos are to Southern California—namely, their most popular takeaway dish. Indian restaurants are something of a way of life in London, which apart from being the most expensive city in the world, is arguably the most cosmopolitan, as well.
So when an Indian restaurant opens here advertising London-style Indian cuisine, we should stand up and take notice. Koh-I-Noor, the name of this new restaurant, is both Arabic for "ocean of light" and the name of a huge diamond Queen Elizabeth wears in her crown. Naturally, the restaurant does a mean chicken tikka masala and a number of other dishes that you'll want to eat more than once.
This is a modest place, boxy, spare and decorated with little more than saris hanging on the walls, but somehow it feels welcoming. Credit owner Divinda Grewall, who hails from Kenya, for that. Kenya has a large Indian community, but it was a lot bigger during the days of colonialism, and in the past few decades, the Indians there have decamped for the U.K. and U.S.
Grewall had an Indian restaurant in London for nearly 20 years before she landed here. When I asked her what London-style Indian cooking is, she waffled just a bit. "I grind all my spices fresh," she told me, "and use only 100 percent canola oil in my dishes."
That didn't strike me as having much to do with London, where old-style places such as Veeraswamy and Star of India still serve the cooking of the Raj, and where the newer ones such as Zaika and Tamarind serve creative, colorful fare so impressive that both have a Michelin star from the vaunted restaurant guide.
But canola oil is healthier than the corn oil used in most Indian restaurants (few use the traditional ghee cooking oil of clarified butter), so what you get here is surprisingly tasty food from a relatively simple menu that doesn't take too many chances. And you won't pay through the nose for the privilege.
As with all of our Indian restaurants, there is the obligatory lunch buffet, a good deal at $8.99 if you like to eat that way. It's not my preference, but one day I sampled it and it was bountiful, with both chicken and lamb curry (big pieces of chicken on the bone and hefty chunks of lamb), several vegetable dishes and two desserts: the syrupy cheese balls gulab jamun, and kheer, a creamy rice pudding stocked with slivered almonds.
I prefer to order a la carte, which is marginally more expensive at lunch but allows you the luxury of telling the chef to the degree of hotness you'd like your dish cooked and other instructions.
A case in point: bhindi masala, or sliced okra sautéed with tomatoes, onions and spices. I happen to like okra dry and crispy but most North Indian-style restaurants such as Koh-I-Noor do the dish wet with thick gravy. I asked Grewall if her chef could do it Bhuna style, as you get from roadside stands in her ancestral home of the Punjab. The chef, who happens to be Punjabi, complied perfectly.
His tandoori meats are also impressive. Tandoori meats are prepared in a clay oven, a cylindrical contraption that gets to more than 700 degrees toward the bottom, so meat is seared on the outside but remains juicy internally. The chef's tandoori chicken is crusted with spices and served a pale pink from a heady rub, not the toxic red of meats rubbed with artificial colorings.
Even better is seekh kabob, cylinders of spiced, minced lamb, cut into bite-sized pieces. Many Indian restaurants use beef, even though it is taboo to a Hindu. Not here. This one tastes, well, just like one you'd get in London.
You may want to start a meal with vegetable pakoras, small fritters consisting of onion, cauliflower and broccoli, all wrapped in garbanzo-bean batter and deep-fried. Another possibility is a samosa, a triangular pastry filled with curried potato and peas. Each appetizer is served with one of Koh-I-Noor's homemade chutneys, tamarind or mint.
Good vegetable choices include chole masala, whole garbanzos in rich gravy (the ideal dish for a vegetarian); an impossibly rich shahi paneer, bricks of farmer's cheese in a rich cream sauce; and malai kofta, cheese and vegetable fritters which split the difference.
Only two meats are prepared here, though Grewall insists she will expand her menu as her clientele grows. They are chicken and lamb, served in a number of variants such as chicken tikka masala, cubed tandoori chicken cooked in a creamy sauce with peppers and onions, and lamb vindaloo, a searing dish combining lamb, potatoes, vinegar and chili.
Wash it all down with a mango lassi, the closest thing India has to a milkshake. When the kitchen has it, try ras malai—soft, white, cheese patties in sweet cream—for dessert.