Having once called Covent Garden ‘home’ in my days as an art student, located a few streets up on Charring Cross road it would have been a pleasure to have Lotus, a new Indian fine dining restaurant a few streets along in the neighbourhood. Lotus offers an authentically brilliant Indian menu that you would not expect to find amongst the chains of Bella Italia’s and Spaghetti Houses which are saturated with the tourists who populate the area.
Service is definitely something that does not lack at Lotus. Attentive and detailed with a sommelier throughout it warranted an effortless evening cherry topped with the pleasure of a personal meet and greet with the charming head chef Bhaskar Banerjee. A comfortable but smart venue the polite, minimalist décor of the modern restaurant is a host of subtle grey/black and paisley like textures with dark bevelled mirrors with textured grey wood adorning the walls.
With an evening filled with a lengthy timeline of dishes and wine pairings the sophisticated menu offers a multitude of traditional Indian dishes. As we are all more than aware, the UK has embraced Indian food fully within a special British place of our hearts, but at Lotus the offbeat menu endeavours to offer diners alternative Indian delicacies further from the ever loved chicken korma or tikka masala. The choice of meats, fish and seafood dishes we found tough to filter through and therefore opted for the kitchen to choose to serve the dishes they felt appropriate for us instead. Easing our taste buds into the Indian swing we began the evening with the assortment of poppadums with a selection of intriguing homemade chutneys such as mango and apricot and red chilli and green tomato. We moved onto Masala Prawn, Duck Eggs and Green Lentil Wraps which was distinctively exotic, followed by a Rabbit Kheema, Potato Chaat with Chickpea and Yogurt and Corn Chaat Golgappa. For the kebab course we were presented with a Duck Seekh and pickled onion, orange dates and chilli dip and Rump lamp chops with garlic pickle and Indian onion.
Decision had to be made ourselves when the main course came around. With the pressure to choose appropriately from the significant cross-section of the menu we caved for seafood, tempted by the Lobster with ginger, curry leaf and coconut curry and the Soft Shell Crab with hand cut potato chips and pickled turmeric. In my opinion the crab was the highlight of the evening, light but meaty and gently battered it lived up to expectation but maybe not one to choose for anyone with squeamish tendencies, presented proudly whole, legs and all. In complement of our seafood options we also had some vegetarian options including the Baghare Baigan Bharta with roasted aubergine and peanuts and Dal Maa Dumpukth which is made up of black lentils cooked lovingly overnight in garlic, tomato and cream.
Concluding with dessert and an after dinner drink Lotus is an Indian restaurant I am pleased to have cross paths with and somewhere I would definitely not recommend overlooking. This new, charming Indian establishment really does improve the average of quality Indian food, fine dining and great wine pairings in the notorious area frequented by tourists. And despite this, close proximity to the West End theatres makes Lotus a handy pre-show dinner and I would recommend with loved ones who want to a taste of Indian with a difference.
Address: 17 Charing Cross, London WC2H 0EP / +44 (0) 207 839 8797 / www.lotus.london
