Tamarind is only the second of the five London based, Michelin starred Indian restaurants which I’ve eaten in, but I’d be pleasantly surprised if the other three can outclass the food I ate here, which was superb.

 

The restaurant is located in the heart of Mayfair and the décor reflects it’s affluent neighbourhood, gilt-edged with plenty of gold trimmings, although the huge vase of flowers in the centre of the room was a little incongruous.

 

 

The first dish of started as they meant to go on, with the pick of the three items the grilled scallops flavoured with mixed peppercorns. The oven roasted peppers the scallops were atop of had a real chilli kick to them, which somehow managed to avoid overpowering the subtle flavour of the scallop, which I was very impressed with. That’s not to say the potato cake with fried lentils not the crispy fried chicken strips with ginger, chilli & paprika were not good, because they were. Just not as good as the scallops.

 

Round two consisted of Tiger Prawns marinaded in garlic, yoghurt & pickling spices alongside lamb cutlets marinaded in raw papaya with green peppercorns with star anise & fennel. I have to admit, I wasn’t sure about how the fennel and star anise would go with the lamb, but it tasted sublime. The tender spicy meat was so good I had to restrain myself from sucking the last morsels off the bone, although managed to get more off than I would have thought humanly possible with my knife and fork, so there wouldn’t have been too much to suck on, anyway. The tiger prawns were equally spectacular, with the pickling spices adding layers of flavour I had not thought possible with such strong spices.

 

The main courses comprised of 6 dishes, plus rice and a couple of varieties of naan breads. Our waiter announced as serving that if we wanted more of any of the dishes, just to say and he’d bring refills, which needless to say, was music to our ears. As it happened, we took him up on his offer, with the boneless lamb with creamed spinach being my particular favourite. The spinach was so silky I felt as though I only needed to get my fork in the vicinity of my mouth for it to gently slide down my throat, although thankfully I managed to avoid to spilling any down my shirt! The slow cooked black lentils seemed to be the people’s choice on our table and I have to admit, it was an excellent dish. I didn’t think it was possible to get a vegetarian dish to have such a depth of flavour and taste so meaty.

 

The desserts weren’t bad at all and were quite thoughtfully matched, but didn’t have the wow factor of the previous courses. The petits fours, though, and in particular the frozen mint leaves in yoghurt were a fantastic palate cleanser and an excellent way to finish off a great meal.

 

Tamarind definitely surpassed my expectations, especially as I thought it cocked a snook at Benares, which is no mean feat at all. Expensive? Yes, but no more so than most other michelin starred restaurants. I keep hearing that Amaya is the best Indian in London, but if it can keep up with the quality of food in Tamarind, then it won’t be doing badly at all.