Amjadia Indian Tandoori Restaurant

Amjadia Indian Tandoori Restaurant 15 Picton Place London W1M 5DE Tel: 020 7935 0885 Fax: 020 7486 3858

Amjadia is located just off Oxford Street towards the Marble Arch end. It is in a café bar area sharing space and customers with a number of other places including pubs, bars and many restaurants. That evening I was particularly keen to have an Indian meal, which I tend to do when in London in the evening on a business trip. Somehow I tend to feel less conspicuous as a lone diner in an Indian restaurant than I would in some of the more trendy café bars and bistros.

Amjadia is somewhere I know from previous visits, although not for a couple of years. It is a relatively bright and busy restaurant which must draw plenty of its trade from visitors as well as locals. It was busy the night I went in and I was lucky enough to get a seat on the last or last but one remaining table in the front of the restaurant. I didn’t check for certain, but it appeared there was additional seating at the rear of the restaurant too.

The menu was fairly standard, although it appeared a little expensive for such standard fayre. I must remember that this was central London of course, that makes a difference and as I don’t dine there as regularly now as I used to, perhaps I am out of touch?

I ordered poppadums and pickles and a drink (Cobra or Kingfisher, I have forgotten after the event) as appetizers. I ordered a mixed tandoori starter and lamb dhansak with pillau rice and a nan bread for the main course.

The starter arrived and was an assortment of chicken tikka, lamb tikka, sheek kebab and tandoori chicken wings. It was served on a large plate surrounded by an extremely generous salad. So even though the mixed tandoori had plenty of content, it was a little overshadowed by the size of the side salad. In fact I ate all the starter pieces but had to leave a lot of the salad as it became just too much. I suppose I shouldn’t criticise more rather than less, but perhaps it is more to do with presentation than portion size or quality.

Another drink was ordered and the main course arrived. It consisted of a lamb dhansak with rather more sauce content than I had expected. Fortunately there was plenty of good tender lamb in the curry and so it was not a problem. The sauce was rather robustly spiced and wasn’t as sweet as served in some restaurants. I found it quite palatable. The rice was well prepared and tasty and the nan bread was very good, but perhaps a little economical in portion. Unusual really, because the portions of starter and main course had been very good. The taste was good, a little thin and crispy in texture rather than plump and bready, and scatterted with sesame seeds to add favourably to the flavour.

I couldn’t manage any dessert after such a large meal. The bill for the meal was £27.50, which I think was still a little on the steep side. I would have expected more individual or inspired dishes on the menu to justify a price premium.

Overall, the food and portions were good but value a little indifferent. A tentative recommendation given that central London is not the cheapest place in the world to eat.

Phil.