Zaika and Tamarind

[ithinknot]

While I am on about recent enjoyable meals I have to mention Zaika, Claudio Pulzes venture into 'Indian Food'

The cooking here has a lightness of touch that I have encountered nowhere else in London Indian restuarants.

You have to try it. Though it will cost more than you might expect to pay for a RUBY.

For just over thirty quid they do a 'Jugalbandi Menu'

Dhungar Machli Tikka / Murghabhi Seekhe Platter of minced duck roll & tandoori

smoked salmon flavoured with

mustard and dill

Kale Murgh Ki Khichidi

Indian risotto with red onion and

coriander topped with black chicken

Teekhe Machli

Pan-fried sea bass, upma-Indian cous

cous, raw mango and turmeric sauce

served with carom seed nan

Koh-E-Roganjosh/ Roganjosh

A classic Kashmiri dish cooked with

lamb shanks in a rich onion and tomato

sauce Served with saffron rice and

baked mushroom

I have cut and pasted this from their site.

The food is sensational and is a real treat.

I am diabetic and usually have to be very cautious with 'Indian' everything here has a very light and healthy touch, there are no heavy rish sauces.

[Archana]

Would like to try one of these, but not sure which to try first. I'm taking my parents [they're both Indian] so it's a bit of a challenge to get them to try 'new-wave, read: overpriced' indians.

thanks in advance for your suggestions.

[jayrayner]

No contest. Zaika. The chef who won tamarind its star has gone and though he is about to open a new place, he will take some time to bed in there.

Ate at Zaika on monday night and it was extra-ordinarily good. Light, balanced and within a remarkable udnerstanding of the way spices work.

Possibly the bestr meal I've eaten this yera (though not for reveiw)

[Steve Plotnicki]

Jay - You are making me slot in a meal for Zaika on my trip to London next month. My meal there last year fell well short of the finish line. But I'm going to go again based on your recommendation.

[Archana]

Thanks for that Jay. Tried this new type, plated Indian last year - Cinnamon Club - was not overly impressed with food. Decor was impressive though.

[Tonyfinch]

The Cinammon Club is hopeless. I've not tried Zaika but I'll also give it a go based on Jay's comments. I had a nice meal in Tamarind a couple of years ago but I really couldn't see why it got a star and several others did not, at least in terms of the food. I preferred Bombay Brasserie, Chutney Mary, Cafe Spice Namaste and Vama.

[Bapi]

Archana.

I know what you mean? My own dear ( Bengali) mother is straight out of the "Goodness Gracious Me " TV sketches where the woman protests that she "Can make it home" for half the price, usually with aid of a "nice baby aubergine" and copious amounts of garam masala. I.e.. my parents never usually have Indian meals out willingly.I will however, be taking them to Mela when they venture down to London soon.( God help me)

Zaika sounds like an excellent option though. I remember AA Gill singing Vineet Bhatia's praises, quite a while back, and at his previous restaurant, before he moved to Zaika. Definitely one I want to try.

Jay- what do you recommend from your visit there?

[jayrayner]

The sweet lobster on a lobster jus with a puff of bitter, earthy cocoa powder; the spice encrusted scallops; the chunk of smoked tandoori salmon; the duck samosa; the butter chicken; the naan with wild mushrooms and truffle oil or spices and saffron; the saffron lassi shooter; the pistachio and fresh coriander ice cream; the sweet and salty Indian creme caramel; the white chocolate samosa...

What can I tell you? Courtesy of chef Vineet Bhatia we had a tasting menu and - not being on duty - I didn't make a full list. But it was some of the most distinctive food I have eaten in a very long time. THe day after I could still recall these curious and exqusit flavours.

Wow!

I hope those of you who try it have as good an experience as I did. .

[Tonyfinch]

Sounds lovely. Is the tasting menu normally available for riff raff or was it specially laid on for your esteemed party?

Edited April 10, 2003 by Tonyfinch (log)

[Mrs Woman]

Has anyone tried Utsav, new place in Kensington? Think the chef there was at Zaika also...

[jayrayner]

Sounds lovely. Is the tasting menu normally available for riff raff or was it specially laid on for your esteemed party?

Well... clears throat... this was laid on for us. but they do tasting menus. Five and eight courses as I recall.

[Bapi]

Blimey - that's sounds fantastic Jay. Especially the lobster dish. I may have to reconsider the Mela meal now.

Mrs Woman- I think that the Chef at Ustav was the one that Jay referred to earlier as having upped and left Tamarind to set Ustav up. Or is that bobbins?

[jayrayner]

the chef from tamarind is atul kochar and his new place will be called benares.

[Bapi]

Ooops, it was bobbins.

I bow to your sage like omniscience- Sire

[jayrayner]

Just build an alter to me in your kitchen and everything will be fine. Candles and incense optional.

[Bapi]

Sorry Jay

Mrs B wouldn't allow it as I already have an altar dedicated to Kylie and she doesn't allow turn-ups in the flat either. Just kidding sir.

have a gander at this http://www.zaika-restaurant.co.uk/

[Gareth]

I agree that the Cinnamon Club disappoints - not that its bad, just that the hype, style and - especially - the bill, create expectations of standards the kitchen never quite delivers on.

For my money, (and as a 'umble public servant with no access to high falutin' expense accounts, it *is* my money...) Quilon up the road in the St James Hotel on Buckingham Gate is much better value. In fact, I preferred it to Tamarind even when whatisname was the chef there...

[Tonyfinch]

Well based on one visit I thought Cinammon Club was actively bad Gareth. The food was pre plated picture on a plate stuff but was seved tepid .

Unless a dish is meant to be otherwise then Indian food needs to be served up HOT IMO. Room temperature is just no good.

Presentation also took precedence over taste. This was no doubt the blandest Indian meal I've ever eaten. I'm not confusing blandness with subtle spicing. It was all tentative and hesitant, as if designed for people who had never eaten spiced food before.

Then there were all those coulis and puddles and purees. PLEEEZE. If I want to eat that stuff I'll go to a French restaurant where they know how to do it properly. Or I'll buy tins of baby food.

This was an Uncle Tom of a meal. All the character and punch of a top Indian meal had been deliberately taken out in favour of a watered down Frenchified rendition for people who want Indian food to be French.

And it was very expensive

And it was packed.

Jay, tell me Zaika isn't like the Cinammon Club, please.

[jayrayner]

No Zaika isn't like Cinnamon Club. I too didn't think much of CC. But I did like Zaika.

[Beachfan]

I went to Zaika and Tamarind almost back to back in September.

Tamarind was very good, but cleary falling short of the fabulous magic being performed at Zaika.

[Tonyfinch]

Finally got to Zaika last night. First thing I noticed was that there were Indian families and couples eating there-not something I can say I've noticed particularly at other "upmarket " Indian restaurants.

I enjoyed the meal and the evening. It knocked Cinammon Club into a corner. The lobster dish Jay described above was outstanding, as was Roganjosh-a lamb shank and pieces of lamb in a rich dark, onion and tomato sauce. A "duck platter" starter was less successful-the duck was dry, a pointless quality in duck. A trio of scallops was a touch bland.

Spicing was generally subtle and complex,coming through on the palate giving some of the dishes a "long finish" as per wine.

I can't say I feel as effusive as Jay. I think I just have a problem with this genre of Indian restaurant. Why Frenchify? Why call the tasting menu "Menu Gourmand"? Why describe a sauce as a "jus"? Why have pointless streaks of colour across a plate? Why have an "amuse" (a frothy coffee cup of coconut and pistachio-tasty but a bit sweet for an opener)? Why call something a "risotto" instead of a pullao (not French, I know, but part of the same thing)?

I'm quite willing to accept that this is my problem as its obviously the way Indian restaurants are going and I can but keep trying. But despite enjoying it I still say give me New Tayyab anyday.

[Paul Bell]

Re-visited Zaika on Sunday night, (the last time we went was three years ago? when it was situated on the Fulham road). We were not totally impressed then but always thought we should go back.

The space is a bit of a barn and does not seem to have changed much since it was L'Anis, apart from the addition of sime Indiam statuary.

Dawn and I both had the Jugalbandi menu (the smaller of the two tasting menus) and the children had butter chicken and mustard chicken respectively. (Aplogogies for any imprecisions regarding dish titles which follow).

We started wih an amuse of coconut and pistachio lassi which was tasty yet delicate, very refreshing.

Dawn and I then had a starter of tandoori smoked ssalmon, duck roll and scallop with a saffron and cocnut sauce. The salmon was fantastic, one of those memorable things that stand out in any meal, full of flavour, succulent, really good. The scallop was in a creamy coconut and saffron sauce, this was also very good, quite sweet, good depth of flavour, the duck roll suffered by comparison in that it was minced duck rolled in herbs, quite enjoyable and a pleasant meaty contrast to the other dishes.

We followed this with wild mushroom rice with tomato cream, this was a small dish of, in effect a basmati rice muchroom risotto with a ball of tomato ice cream on top (Dawn loathes tomato ice cream, but smallest child is quite impressed). The taste of the mushroom rice was excellent equal to any or most mushroom risottos, however the rice was rather mushy and overcooked, I suspect a nice idea, but not the rice for the job. The ice cream was fine but a liquid sauce would probably have complmented the rice more.

We then had roast sea bass with couscous and a saffron sauce. Sea bass was excellent perfectly cooked, a very well sourced ingredient, the couscous was more like wet polenta rather than the drier larger grains I am used to, the sauce was quite good, not especially memeorable.

This was followed by chicked roated with coastal spices, coconut and steamed rice. This was excellent, moderately hot with a high degree of layered spicing, and notes of coconut in the sauce.

Of the main courses the children had, the butter chicken was OK, it came in a tomato sauce, with saffron rice and more tomato ice cream, so youngest child liked it, the rest of us thought rather bland. The mustard chicken was also really good (only got a small bit) but again good depth of flavour, very nice.

To finish we shared some Indian ice cream which was very enjoyable (not a lot else to say about it).

The wine list was pretty good, lots in the £18-30 range, we had a decent languedoc sauvignon, that went well with everything. Service was very good throughout.

Overall this was a really enjoyable meal, and we were very glad we went back. I find it quite difficult to assess, as it has few comparisons, and being an Indian restaurant it can be difficult to get away from preconceptions of what such a thing is. It does sometimes fall between being an 'indian' restaurant and a 'michelin starred' restaurant, (the wild mushroom rice) at other times it hits heights that certainly make it worth visiting (the smoked salmon).

Paul

[Suzi Edwards]

jack and i went to zaika last night. it was a sort of serendipidous happening really as i've wanted to eat here for a while and as i really early for our show i went for a wander and noticed it. they could fit us in, et voila.

so i wander back to meet jack and then remembered that we're detoxing. indian restaurants are better known for retoxing. but i called them up and they were so incredibly helpful about accomodating our requests i was reassured.

there was some confusion when the menus came and i explained our situation, but the maitre d pointed out which things we could have. i'm not convinced that everything we ate was diary free, but i'm not going to complain as what we ate was so delicious i've decided not to care.

we started with an amuse of cauliflower soup that made me realise that i was probably too hard on the soup at latium, as it also suffered from a flouriness. the kitchen promised us that it was made with coconut milk, but the flavour wasn't there for me. things got better with two exceptional starters - tandoori smoked salmon for me and tandoori prawns with cumin and chili with pickled prawns for jack. the salmon was served as three delicious chunks and the smoking still came through the spicing. jack says his prawns were the best he's ever eaten. his only complaint was that there were only two of them. this is high praise indeed from jack. our mains were the lobster dish that others have described on here (and it was as delicious as they all say, but the surprise for me was how good the brocolli risotto was) and a pickled chicken masala. this was so good i swapped half my lobster for less than half of the chicken. the spice was perfect and the sour flavour really did it for me.

bhatia has a real understanding of texture, something i usually don't find in indian restaurants. this, for me, was a really enjoyable meal, despite feeling like puritan twins with our bottle of water and anxious questions to the serving staff. my only complaint was that the chair were far to comfortable and there was no turnip on the menu.

Edited February 7, 2004 by tarka (log)

[robyn]

For what it's worth - Zaika - along with several other "new wave Indian restaurants" - was written up in Travel & Leisure in the December 2003 issue. Robyn

[marlena spieler]

lunch yesterday at cinnamon club:

warm pickled beef on a soft ricey pancake, one of the most wonderful things ever: tangy, spicy, meaty, yet light.........desert island dish divine.

tandoori-ish quail starter also fabuloso.

smoked lamb was wonderful too: not too heavily smoked, the lamb was so succulent and delicately smoky, as if it had just bopped smartly through a parisian cafe before being marinated and roasted and arriving on my plate.

also the mash that came with it was amazing: potato? sweetcorn (yes). something creamy and cheesey? (Perhaps).

my chicken alas, my blackfoot chicken should have kept its little black feet on its chickeny body and avoided the kitchen completely....

a fabulous spiced rice came with it though: moist rice with the fragrance of rice, and also of spice: star anise, cinnamon, cardomom. light rather than buttery. yum.