There are multiple factors affecting your own view of the best Indian restaurant in London. Out of every London Indian restaurant, for instance, there are examples of different places cooking different cuisine from different parts of India. Plus every London Indian restaurant has its own style – some are extremely high end, where you get what is effectively modern cuisine served with an Indian twist; while others are incredibly basic, nothing more than a corner café with a couple of plastic tables – but which happen to serve the best Indian food in the area.
There are, of course, certain elements that separate the really good Indian restaurants in London from the merely great. Fresh ingredients, authentically used; real Indian chefs rather than Europeans who have been trained to cook Indian food; and a focus on the dishes of just one region. Certainly the first two of these traits can be attributed to everyone’s version of the best Indian restaurant in London – the third is true up to a point, though there are some good London Indian restaurant examples where food from all over the continent is brought together on the menu.
Atmosphere can play a big part in any dining experience, and the London Indian restaurant is no different. In the right surroundings, a superb meal becomes an earth-shatteringly good dinner. You get not just extraordinary food, served buffet style over three levels of a soaring atrium – but you also get to look at real pam trees growing up through the floor.
Or you might head over to Regent Street, where, down a little side alley near the art gallery, you’ll see a prestigious London Indian restaurant on the second floor of a Georgian building. This is one of a pair of really good Indian restaurants in London (the sister restaurant is over in Chelsea), which takes authentic Indian cuisine cooked by top chefs, and turns it into something delightfully modern.
Don’t expect vindaloos and other standard British curry dishes here. The best Indian restaurant in London, whether its high class or street food special, will serve authentic dishes cooked properly; or high end takes on authentic Indian flavours. In both cases, there isn’t a phaal in sight.
One of the most delightful elements of some of the really good Indian restaurants in London are the side dishes and between course dishes. There is, for example, a genuinely wonderful Indian drink, designed to cleanse the palate, which is served to all guests at the start of a meal in the aforementioned Chelsea based location. Warm, both in terms of temperature and spice, this tomato-based drink wipes the palate sparkling clean in preparation for the meal to come.
Then of course there are the Indian desserts. Done properly, in a really good London Indian restaurant, these will complement your curry perfectly: finishing off a fine dining experience in the style to which it should always be accustomed.
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About Author: Georgina, being a food connoisseur, pays a regular visit to the best indian restaurant London as well. At the present day, she is blogging for realindianfood.