After Istanbul, our first stop was London. Just before we left Sydney, we asked Ajoy Joshi of Nilgiri’s and Tellicherry if he could recommend any Indian restaurants in London and he came back with three!
1. Quilon
2. Rasoi
3. Benaras
So, we started off with the first one on the list: Quilon. Quilon is actually a Michelin starred restaurant. It is located near Buckingham Palace and St. James’s Park and the whole place is decorated with artwork created for Quilon by an acclaimed artist; Paresh Maity.
Chef of Quilon, Sriram Aylur, is a good friend of Ajoy’s. So we mentioned that we were actually sent there by their chef’s good friend from Sydney to our waiter, Mr Aylur came out toward the end of our dinner to say hi which was very nice of him.
The menu at Quilon is based on South-west coastal region of India which sounds incredibly traditional however, everything is created with a contemporary flair while keeping the foundations intact. It may still sound like the whole focus would be on fish and seafood but If you let your waiter/waitress know, their chef is more than happy to put together a tasting menu which is designed to cater for your requirements. In our case, it was a vegetarian tasting menu.
Let’s begin with starters:
Mains:
Crispy okra thinly sliced okra, batter fried, tossed in onion, tomato and crushed pepper.
Asparagus and snow peas sauteed with mustard seeds, curry leaves, green chillies and grated coconut and potato and cauliflower with crushed cashew nuts potato and cauliflower florets cooked with onion, tomato, roasted spices and crushed cashew nuts.
Raw Jack Fruit Pulao (raw jack fruit, lentil dumplings with herbs and spices cooked with basmati rice served with fruit pachadi).
Bebinca. It is a traditional pudding from Goa. Not many Indian restaurants make it. In Sydney, there was only one place where they did bebinca which is shut down. This was a real treat for me because I LOVE my bebinca!
John’s dessert.
Masala chai
Quilon
41 Buckingham Gate
London, SW1E 6AF
Phone: +44 (0) 20 7821 1899
Website