The menu at londoners is a mish mash of classic English and Indian dishes. Shrabasti Mallik checks in
You associate food with the name of the restaurant or hotel you are having it in. londoners, situated in Greater Kailash, has everything of a classy English bistro but the menu fails to impress. We imagined a classic English menu but were greeted with dishes like paneer makhni pie and tandoori chicken sword.
However, we did appreciate the manager’s admittance, “We wanted to make a place for all. Somewhere you can enjoy the taste of london with an Indian twist.” Taste of london or not, it was interesting to find the good old Canadian poutine in the menu. And we found no reason to not like the dish. Crispy fried golden yellow potatoes, sauted meat and copious amounts of cheese — we couldn’t complain the least.
The londoner’s dragon spicy rolls were equal amounts of crispy and mushy, outside and inside. But it left no staggering impression on our tastebuds. We tried their good ol’ aloo tuk with chilli tamarind mayo and it was surprisingly good. The blend of aloo and the chilli tamarind was the high point of this dish.
Chef Kamal suggested we try their prawn and chips and they were delectable, although there was nothing new in it. You might not want to dig in right away as they come to the table really hot. While few fusion dishes work out well, at londoners we realised that paneer makhni is better off paired with roti. We tried their version of the paneer makhni pie and it did not suit our taste buds.
The chicken clay pot that we had from the main course was a clear winner. This again, was not a london specialty. Claypots are an ancient cooking method where Chinese households dumped meat and root vegetables into a pot, topped with stock and cooked over slow heat over the fireplace. It was quite wholesome and was a meal in itself with steaming hot gravy stock, succulent meat pieces and well cooked rice. It was a perfect blend of vegetables and meat.
There are plenty of other dishes you can try out here, including a wide range of pizzas, burgers, fries and the classic English Scotch eggs. The drinks were everyday coolers and and the food a regular pub fare. However the Indian twist to the dishes were somewhat out of place. All in all, we would say, come for the drinks, have some london delicacies, stay for the music.