There are few places I would expect to walk into on a Wednesday night, early evening and find busy. Let a lone busy during the second week of January, when everyone’s starting to count the cost of Christmas, and wince at their credit card bills.
So myself and my date were pleasantly surprised to find that we can add Indian Tiffin Room on First Street to the list. The discovery also made us doubly glad that we’d booked in advance – there would be few things more saddening than standing at the desk, senses invaded by scents of spice and heat, and having to walk away again.
From a visual point of view, the space is light and bright, despite the dark skies outside. There’s plenty of colour, and the centre piece is the kitchen – bright blue and if you have the perfect vantage point, like I did, you can quietly watch the hustle and bustle of the chefs. There’s nothing more fascinating than watching people at work – moving food on skewers into and out of the tandoor ovens, plates awaiting collection on the pass. I could watch for hours.
But we were here to eat and drink. And despite the classic (or lazy) pairing for spice being beer, we opted for cocktails first.
The Calcutta Green with its mint, cucumber, gin and elderflower was exactly as described – light, fresh, sweet, and the All Spice in a Jar (no, don’t think of the aftershave) was sweet and sour concoction, awash with applewood smoke. As with Mughli, Asha’s and Ziya Grill, their cocktails are definitely worth a sample.
But enough drink, into the food.
My choices were easily made, but my date who has a wheat allergy, took a little longer to decide. Indian Tiffin Room offer a number of gluten free options, but tracking them down can be a challenge. Rather than indicators on the menu, if you have an allergy you are given an extra sheet for cross checking. Whilst comprehensive, this added a little time to our decision making while we checked and cross checked.
Thankfully the nature of the food in ITR means that you still have a lot to choose from, so the sweetly spicy chilli paneer was first on our sharer, the spicy crisp lollipop chicken second, and finally – because not all the pastry here uses wheat – the ravi masala dosa.
Rich spiced potato, crisp dosa pancake, and a selection of chutneys – including a personal favourite, coconut chutney. It was hard not to be happy faced with such delights in front of us, and we chatted and ate happily.
Onto mains and we both opted for fish. My date selected the Keralan fish curry.
This was probably the most disappointing dish we experienced. Thin and watery, the fish was barely there and it was just a bit, well, meh. I’ve had (and made) richer and more interesting curries using fish, and this one was definitely having an off day. Not unpleasant, but definitely a step down from the flavours we’d enjoyed as our first course.
On the other hand, I struck gold. Despite my love of heat and spice, I was craving prawns and the jumbo prawn masala called to me. Full of fat pink juicy prawns, the sauce was thick, rich and layered with flavour – a perfect match for the soft chewy naan I had to accompany it. One I will definitely be revisiting.
Though our tummies were groaning, I couldn’t ignore the desserts. There’s something special about Indian desserts – intensely sweet and perfumed – they’re often small and perfectly formed hits of sugar that finish off a meal beautifully. So whilst my date sipped his black coffee, I indulged in the syrup soaked Gulab Jamun.
Deep fried milk dumplings dipped in sugar syrup flavoured with rose extract and sprinkled with pistachio, they manage to be light and fluffy despite their syrup soaked nature.
I’m not an expert in Indian food – I’m still very much a learner. But I know what I enjoy, and I think I know what I should expect. And what we had here (fish curry notwithstanding) was delicious, authentic and something I’d be more than happy to sample again and again.
Any chance I could get the recipe for that prawn masala please?
This meal was paid for by ourselves.