This review was first published in May 1999

Fulham Road may seem like another cast-iron location for restaurant success but various businesses have dwindled at the address which opened last week as ZAIKA. Restaurateur Claudio Pulze has bought the site which was formerly Chavot - Eric Crouill?re-Chavot having moved off to be chef of The Capital hotel - and installed Indian chef Vineet Bhatia who faithful readers will remember was reviewed favourably in these pages in February when he opened an eponymous restaurant in Hammersmith.

Claudio Pulze, who has shares in Memories of China as well as The Canteen, Spiga and others, has long wanted to open an innovative Indian restaurant and who better to achieve that with than Bhatia who, with the encouragement of Reza Mahammad, found his style at the flamboyant Star of India in Old Brompton Road.

In culinary terms Bhatia extends boundaries without flouting them. Using the tandoor to home-smoke salmon is a typically enlightened idea. The natural oiliness of the fish is turned to distinct advantage and the flavour of mustard seed anchors it to India. Paneer, Indian cheese, marinated in spices and sandwiching mango chutney, comes glazed from the tandoor making an interesting first course from a commodity most often left to bob in a stew of peas or spinach as a side dish. Using the description risotto is perhaps going a bit far but jhinga khichdi, translated as Indian style risotto with crispy prawn, is an excellent assembly.

Notable among the main courses are crab masala; murg hariyali, which is chicken in a vegetable and herb sauce soured with tamarind; a lamb biryani steamed inside a flaky pastry crust; the use of smoked chicken flavoured with honey and mustard on smoked aubergines; a classic Kashmiri roganjosh. The problem of presentation is overcome to some extent with the use of pretty tin-lined copper bowls.

The problem of the premises - two rooms divided by a long, apparently impenetrable wall with one room being obviously preferable - is not completely overcome by the use of sari-style curtains, carved mirrors, bright silk cushions, and earthy, muddy ochreous colours on the walls but they help, as will the rush of customers the restaurant deserves. Yves Sauboua, who first impinged on London's wine lovers when sommelier at Joel Antunes's Les Saveurs, is consultant on Zaika's wine list, a short and admirably to the point compilation.