Lotus

Simply amazing service & great food. I would recommend 3 course theater menu. I would say not traditional Indian good but very well done.

Lotus, Charing Cross — in the middle of the theatres and scurrying tourist, would a fine Indian meal cross your mind? It didn’t to me. Anywhere in the region of Leicester Square is likely to be a tourist zone. So, I thought, why would Lotus be any different to other restaurants? It did not appear to be until recently, when I was invited to dine with them. The invitation was for a food and wine pairing menu evening. Looks like it is getting better. A full on with amuse bouche, taste tinkers, pre-​starters and kebabs even before we even get to the main courses. Luckily I didn’t have a theatre to catch!
Lotus is small but not to the extent that it was elbow touching. It has its own genteel, sophisticated service, a gleaming polished bar, suave table layout, but still feels like the regular local Indian with its leathered chairs and black colour coordination.
And remember theatre land? It also offers a three course theatre menu with a glass of house wine at £22.75. The drinks menu is quite large for an Asian restaurant and Lotus takes quite a lot of consideration in pairing the wines with their food. Quite a few at high end (£50.00) but mostly are in the region of £30.00++. Certain foods have special wines recommended but the wine list, a combination of old and new world wines, is thoughtfully put together by wine consultant, Jimmy Smith Awe and their in house sommelier, Debbie Henriques.
tomato, garlic, curry leaf rasam — like a warm gazpacho, quite watery and a hint of spice.
rice, potato, finger millet poppadum’s with mango, apricot, mint, red chilly and green tomato — I didn’t think I could stop with the poppadums and quite honestly, I could have finish all of them, but restrained myself.
corn chaat golgappa accompanied with jaljeera (Torrontes Riesling, Amalaya, Salta Argentine 2014) — a pre-​starter. This is a popular street food snack in India, and you are supposed to eat it in one mouthful. Once the coriander water filled the corn chaat, I was not as sure that I could do it. The corn chaat alone was crispy, and with the different textures of the corn, was quite lovely.
pigeon masala dosa, coconut chutney (crozes hermitage ‘beaumont’, David Reynaud 2012) — the dosa was delicious but not tangy enough and I thought that the spice has masked the gameyness of the pigeon.
Sweet potato, beans, chilli samosey, date and tamarind chutney (Valpolicella, Allegrini 2013) — by this time it was confirmed that Lotus chefs can do delicious pastries. A lovely finger food.
duck seekh kebaba, pickled onion, orange, dates and chilly dip (Garnacha Joven, Vina Zorzal, Navarra Garnacha 2013)
paneer tikka, chickpea masala, sundried tomatoes (weissburgunder, Bender, Mosel Pinot Blanc 2013)
salmon, queenies, ginger, curry leaf, coconut curry (Domaine Saint Hilaire, Silk Trilogy, 2007)
venison roganjosh, aromatic gravy of onion, tomato, select spices and herbs (punto final mendoza malbec clasico, bodega renacer 2013)
bread basket, green peas pulao, lentils and potato
gold dust, dates, almond kheer (sauternes, Château delmond)
mango srikhand, fruit salad, jaggery, coconut cream (Botrytis Semillon, Peter Lehmann) — looks horribly sweet but the taste was very well balanced.
With the little knowledge I have about wine and spice I find that the wines paired with the meal were all very nice individually and I am just much too happy to drink the same one throughout. Lotus was my first fine dining Indian style and oh wow, it was a feast fit for a maharajah!

A centrally located Indian restaurant in Charing Cross that you could easily walk past without noticing. The menu is not your average Indian, which matches the vibe (authentic up market Indian), with a few noticeable dishes including pigeon dosa, venison curry and duck kebab. To be honest after all the spices and sauce you couldn’t appreciate the different meats used so therefore didn’t add much to the dish but nonetheless it was all tasty. I tried a lot of the extensive menu along with wine pairings (I really prefer beer with my curry) — all the wines were delicious and well paired and there were a few dishes that stood out — pigeon dosa, potatoes and paneer curry. I would recommend anyone going for an occasion where they didn’t mind splashing out a bit however I won’t be back as there was nothing that wowed me.

For a start I must say we were paired with different wines for each course and were welcomed with great staff so we knew we were in for a treat. In terms of a 8 – 10 course taster menu I was treated to the following:
— An appetiser of… tomato, garlic drink was refreshingly tasty. Could make that soup it was nice.
— A taste tinker of… rice, potato, finger millet poppadum’s with mango, red chilly, chutney sauces.
— A pre starter of… corn chaat golgappa (pour the jalijerra inside).
— A starter of… Pigeon Masala Dosa. There’s no need for the Coconut chutney on side in my opinion, but the pigeon hidden inside was cooked and spiced to perfection. My fav dish. Also liked the element of surprise in the way the (soft layer) dosa tower was presented.
— A starter of… duck seekh kebab w/​dip. Nice. Would like it piping hot to get the true spice, but maybe that was us taking too long with
— A starter of… sweetpotato, bean, chilli chutney somosa. Nice with the tamarind sauce.
— A starter of… paneer tikka, chickpea masala and sundries potato.
— A dessert of… gold dust, dates, almond kheer. The kheer was warm and had a lovely filling and could have eaten by itself!
— A dessert of… Mango Srikhand, fruit salad, jaggery & coconut cream.
All in all it’s not your usual indian local and it’s not trying to be. It’s in a part of town trying to reintroduce some fine dining that is experimenting with your usual tastebuds and contemporary presentation.
Duck, venison and pigeon intrigued me and I liked these interesting additions. Not withstanding some fantastic wine pairings to go with (the Malbec is great!)I really enjoyed the wine selection.
Very distinctive flavours too and added a bit of what you would find in Mayfair to this often and tourist part of Leicester Square. All in all a different yet welcome addition to this part of town.

So gourmet Indian food is foreign to me.
I grew up not doing Indian food at all, since my mother either didn’t like it or didn’t know about it (still not sure). I got into it in college where I did lots of take-​out. You know, hastily made curry and chicken tikka masala. Nothing amazing.
So then I was invited down to try Lotus. And I loved it so much, I went back again for a work meeting. And I’ll probably go back again again, since it’s great.
This is a new addition to the Charing Cross scene, and you might even walk right by it, since although it’s on the main road, it’s a little tucked back. But don’t. Go. The food is just so good.
As we were told, this is the same experience you would get if you were in a upscale restaurant in India. The menu is fantastic, and filled with items that they say you can’t get anywhere else in London — rabbit keema and pigeon dosa being the two we tried.
They also have a lamb that comes wrapped in edible 23 karat gold, so that’s something worth taking a picture of (and I did!)
The menu is reasonably priced, the staff is on their game (greeting as soon as you walk in and well taken care of the entire time.) The decoration is a little dark but it doesn’t matter since all you’ll be looking at is your food. And tasting your food. And enjoying your food.
My god, that food…