Wow just looked at the Sitaaray website and even A A Gill liked it (more than one can say for poor Hawksmoor). From Monday to Saturday it has an unlimited kebabs and curries menu for £18 until 31 July (normal price £22.95) and that is what, dear reader, I tried for you a couple of weeks ago. And can I firstly say *ooof* and next *yum*, for that is what I came away with.
Sitaaray is a shrine to Bollywood– photos of Bollywood stars adoring every space, music pumping out, even the cocktails are named after the Bollywood films, and I noted with excitement that their opening exhibition was inaugurated by Aishwarya Rai. It is gorgeous and decadent inside AND allowed me to be nostalgic about the best.time.ever I had in India – seeing a Bollywood film in Rishikesh, hundreds of excited people, SCREAMING when the heroine came on, in slo-mo, hair swooshing and launching into an impromptu dance by the lakes of Kashmir that had nothing very much to do with the plot, LAUGHING hysterically when the hero carried out dastardly practical jokes in the manner of Benny Hill oops I’ve just pulled the chair out so you fall on the floor when you sit down. And that music, so catchy and dancy and happy, from the latest hit movie playing out of every radio from Kovalam to Manali. I’d come back to Sitaaray to reminisce alone.
It is right next to the New London Theatre which reminds me I MUST GO TO WAR HORSE soon and before the film comes out next year. I would have seen it recently if someone hadn’t come to London and got their equine-based plays mixed up and said “oh but I’ve already seen that play what Harry Potter gets his thingie out in” and so we didn’t get tickets. MOTHER!!!
Anyways, after a vodka martini at Kopapa round the corner – sweeet (see above) – I started with a pink Awara cockatail and then the food came, and then it kept on coming for a very very long time. Sitaaray is one of the few Indian kabab (Grill) restaurants in London and it was these grills that it excelled in. Seriously tasty, perfectly cooked, delicious. And, dare I say it, at times better, more delicately done, than the lovely Dishoom round the corner.
We had samosas and lamb kababs and chicken tikkas and juicy chicken in marinade and grilled fish tikkas which were incredible. The chicken and fish kababs were especially amazing, melt in the mouth and I also LOVED the veggie kababs (see bottom piccie below) – the tandoori cauliflower was amazing as was what tasted like a curried sweetcorn fritter.
The only downside, and I have to be honest here, was that the curries didn’t work for us. Chicken tikka massala and dahl tasted odd to me, as if created on a Heinz tomato soup base, and the veggies were as if they were from a tin. You know what Sitaaray, just scrap ’em – your kebabs are so amazing you don’t need the curry – we were far too full by the end to eat them anyway.
I’d definitely recommend you go for a giant feast and Bollywood night out, and if you have a spare ticket to War Horse, seriously, then let me know. The Chef and I were guests of Sitaaray and thank them very much for filling us up and being so friendly.
The Happiness Project London 