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Five to try: Restaurants for Diwali
29.10.08
Festival of Lights: Veeraswamy
Vegetarians can splash out: Cinnamon Club
Look here too
Celebrate the triumph of good over evil at one of these five top restaurants for Diwali...
VEERASWAMY
99-101 Regent Street, W1 (020 7734 1401) £40
A Festival of Lights in the shape of suspended jewel-coloured glass lamps is a constant here. Chef Uday Salunkhe, previously working at Amaya, is offering a £25 three-course Diwali menu, which includes the all-important Mithai Platter (sweetmeat assortment). Crisp and crunchy Raj kachori is a perfect first course. Murgh safed salan, chicken in a creamy sauce, is made memorably piquant with cardamom, melon and cucumber seeds. Lakshmi, goddess of wealth, will appreciate the wine list.
SITAARAY
167 Drury Lane, WC2 (020 7269 6422) £38.
A Diwali menu at £24 (£17 for children under 12) is being served at this Bollywood-themed restaurant on 8-10 November. Generosity of spirit informs the experience of eating here. If something doesn't appeal, not to worry — staff, who seem unflaggingly good-natured, soon bring along other items, more kebabs. The tinsel and tack of the décor suits the overall concept, one that can be enjoyed most satisfactorily at mezzanine level (stipulate when booking).
WOODLANDS
77 Marylebone Lane, W1 (020 7486 3862) £30
This group of Southern Indian vegetarian restaurants — other outlets in Piccadilly, Hampstead and Chiswick — has its origins in India, a factor that contributes a considerable measure of authenticity to the cooking. A Diwali menu will be served throughout the five-day festival, which began yesterday. If you have never tried idli, uppama, uthappam or dosa — none of those correctly translated by the flat words pizza and pancake — here is the place to start.
CINNAMON CLUB
Old Westminster Library, Great Smith Street, SW1 (020 7222 2555) £62.
With some Indian restaurants you have to put out of your mind that phrase ethnic food. Here you pay what you might for an haute cuisine Anglo-French or Italian meal. The Diwali menu, offered until 1 November, includes tamarind-glazed partridge and braised lamb with green chillies. Vegetarians can splash out with ravioli of wild mushrooms and tomato/morel broth. Cinnamon Kitchen and Anise Bar opens soon in Devonshire Square, EC2.
MELA
152-156 Shaftesbury Avenue WC2 (020 7836 8635)
136-140 Herne Hill, SE24 (020 7738 5500) £30.
Mela means festival, so these good-value outlets are fitting places to celebrate this important date in the Hindu, Sikh and Jain calendar. Until
30 November, a Royal Rajasthani menu is available which includes sabut machli, char-grilled marinated whole sea bass, and katti batakh, pot-roasted duck breast. When royal cooking is not the issue, the cooks are known for a country-style approach.
Prices estimate the cost of a Diwali meal with wine for one.
