Kutir, London

Chelsea,
London
SW3 2TS
Hey, Foodwala’s…. welcome to another tale of the travels of Alfie Foodwala.
I had a profound thought the other day whilst I was driving to Kinloch Rannoch to judge the 5-star Dunalister hotel for the Prestige Hotel Awards… that’s right I also judge restaurants and hotels for various top awards companies in the UK.
I was driving down the same road that is featured in the James Bond Skyfall the stunning beauty of Glen Coe literally stopped me in my tracks or rather stopped the Mercedes I was driving in its tracks and I got out. I was absolutely over overwhelmed by the beauty and shared the moment by taking a photo and sending it to Goblee Foodwala in Dubai and Mokee Foodwala in Aberdeen.
Now you must be thinking what is the point of this story and how it can possibly relate to my latest restaurant escapade. Bear with me and all will be revealed.
So I was in the middle of this stunning valley and I thought to my self how did I come to this point, how did I get to go to the most amazing restaurants and hotels and meet the most wonderful people and eat the most amazing food.
And to put it simply, I read the book called The Secret, in the book it said visualise in your mind’s eye what you want, what you really really want and whether it’s your dream house or dream car or your dream job and the brain is so powerful it will lock in the picture, then subconsciously it will start influencing your decisions in your everyday life until you start to achieve what you started dreaming about.
In my case it was having an amazing family, driving a new Mercedes and traveling all of the world eating at the best restaurants and staying at the best hotels and my dreams are coming true.
i was reading the other day about the Michelin star Chef Rohit Ghai, he was the head chef in Jamavar and his dream was to open his own Michelin stared restaurant, his dream came true when he open Kutir.
Larry Foodwala and I decided to venture into deepest darkest Chelsea to check this restaurant out.

Kutir is located in a townhouse in a side street in Chelsea, its decorated in muted greens and with beautiful murals on the walls.
We kicked off the proceedings with some popadoms and dips

We felt that the poppadoms were slightly stale, which is very surprising for a Michelin star restaurant.
The dips and chutney were delicious particularly the pickled onion chutney.

The salmon was seasoned en pointe so that the natural creamy salmon flavour was still evident and the masalas were play homage to the hero of the dish. The mooli and creme freche raita was wonderful.

The Tandoori Supreme of baby chicken was again lightly seasoned, however, we felt it was a wee bit under seasoned and the breast meat was a little bit on the tough side, which again was unusual for a breast of baby chicken.
The ginger pickle lent itself nicely with the chicken and the bed of Puy lentils.

Chicken Tikka Masala (top)

The Seabass Kokum was delicious, the coconut cream infused Jus was so well balanced that the delicate flavour of the sea bass was enhanced.
The Chicken Tikka Masala, which was incidentally first created by Mr. Ali at the Shish
Mahal in Glasgow was a little raw in its execution, the chicken was cooked perfectly, however, the spices felt less nuanced as compared to the rest of the meal.
My stand out element to the meal was the Kaali Dal, it was creamy and buttery in its execution however the lentils still had a nice bite to it.
Bhappa Doi
The Bhappa Doi was brilliantly executed, the steamed yogurt fudge was creamy and flavorsome, the honeycomb lent itself very well with the Bhappa doi

I loved the homemade Pan Kulfi, the rose golkund and fennel was subtle as it was delicious, the pista kulfi was less of a hit, it was lacking in the tasting notes.
In Conclusion, London has some absolutely stellar Indian Restaurants, like Gymkhana and Indian Accent, however Kutir, as delicious as it was fell in my opinion short of the two i mentioned, however, it was on par with Kahani.
We are very well looked after our by our very knowledgable French Waiter, Quentin
Kutir
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7.5/10
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8.9/10
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9.5/10
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8.3/10