On Monday we headed up to London for my mum's birthday, celebrating the evening at the theatre seeing Aladdin on the West End. It's a show we've wanted to see for ages and we couldn't wait to finally see it. However, everyone knows that before a show you have to have all the food to get you through it! Luckily, the lovely people at Lokhandwala invited us down to try their Indian tapas menu and as someone who is a huge fan of Indian food, I was very excited to visit!
We were so early this evening so that we could make the theatre show, so we were the only people in the restaurant at the time, however it was still a lovely, cosy atmosphere with the ornate and warm decor. The service was prompt and friendly.
My mum had a glass of champagne (of course) and said it was absolutely gorgeous, even though the waiter had said that it would be a little warm because the delivery had just shown up it was completely chilled!
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Tom went for an espresso martini which he said was nice but didn't have quite as much coffee in it as he would have liked.
Then came the food...
First up was the garlic naan and oh. My. God. I am still dreaming of this garlic naan. It was everything. I mean, the best garlic naan I've ever tasted in my life. It was all kinds of perfect.
We ordered two curries for the table: the chicken makhani for my mum and Tom (I'm a pescatarian), that they both thoroughly enjoyed and said was delicious!
I went for the vegetarian paneer makhani which was seriously good. Lovely chunks of paneer that were the perfect flavour cooked in a beautiful, rich tomatoey sauce. This with that naan bread was just incredible.
Of course we had to have some rice on the side!
From the tapas menu we ordered the amritsari fish served with hand cut fries. This was absolutely incredible and I could have honestly eaten it twice over! The fish was deliciously tender and perfectly flavoured and the chips were pretty damn good too! Gotta have my potato products.
We also ordered the Dosa cone with masala potatoes, coconut chutney and Sambhar. This was probably our least favourite of the main dishes, but it was still pretty nice by all standards. We preferred dipping the cone into our curries as opposed to the dips that came with it.
The lovely people at Lokhandwala very kindly sent out a little dessert for my mum for her birthday, complete with birthday candle!
Now I have to say, from experience I have never enjoyed desserts in Indian restaurants. I'm sure some people do but they have never done it for me, and so I didn't have very high expectations for the desserts here, despite the incredible food we had just had.
The birthday dessert was actually a kind of chocolate brownie thing, but with a really mushy texture that tasted good but just felt all kinds of weird in the mouth.
Tom went for the goji berries dessert, which was served with a whole ton of caramel sauce and...wait for it...NOODLES. It was all very odd. I can't say it was very good, but maybe someone out there would like this kind of thing. The chilli chocolate ice cream was good!
Overall, I would highly recommend Lokhandwala for their incredible Indian food (still thinking about that garlic naan), but I would definitely avoid dessert, just stick with those amazing mains and tapas. I know I'll definitely be heading back next time I'm in London and you should too!
The prices here were also quite reasonable and the tapas dishes are such a good size that it would be the perfect place to stop for a light lunch.
Let me know if you've ever been to Lokhandwala! x
Our dinner at Lokhandwala was provided complimentary in exchange for a review but all opinions are my own.
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