Sanjay Dwivedi (pictured right) came to London from India some years ago as a chef, but was horrified at the quality of the food in Indian restaurants in London at the time, so he turned his back on them and decided to work in some of the best French and Italian restaurants in town. For the past eight years he has been one of the chefs in the team of the Cuisine Collection, headed up by Claudio Pulze, working in various restaurants in the group, but since 2005 he has made Zaika his own.

 

Zaika is an India restaurant with a difference. Here, the subtle spices of the east are combined with a search for some of the finest ingredients that can be sourced in the UK, for example, Loch Duart salmon, Goosnargh chicken and Herdwick lamb. There are also Indian versions of classic French and Italian dishes such as pizza, foie gras and crème brûlée.

 

The restaurant is housed in a former bank - indeed rumour has it that before it was a bank it was some kind of Indian temple. Certainly, the wood-panelled walls and high ceiling give off the air of an old colonial tea planters' club where one would expect to be served by bare-footed waiters in white gloves. It's certainly the sort of place you could easily have a power lunch; in fact one was going on at my lunchtime visit - papers spread all over the table, but the table was large enough and well spaced away from other tables to make it all feasible.

 

The lunch menu consists of 6 starters, all at £6, 6 main courses, all at £10, and 3 desserts, all at £3.50. Many of the dishes are also on the main à la carte menu but the portion size is cut down for lunch, which is probably just as well. Presumably, if you only want one course you can have one, but in the evening you are obliged to take two courses. There is also a 4 course no choice tasting menu at £19.50 which is available at lunchtime.

 

A starter I liked was the Goan crab cakes - two balls of fried mustard seed stuffed with crabmeat and served with a lemon and ginger chutney - subtly flavoured and very lightly fried. Other interesting starters were a chicken naan 'pizza', a garlic naan topped with chicken tikka and masala cheese, drizzled with green chutney; and chatpate aloo - crispy new potatoes laced with sweetened yoghurt, tamarind chutney and vermicelli. My main course was the coconut king prawn, four tandoori king prawns marinated in ginger, poached in coconut, chilli masala and lime leaves, served with plain steamed rice, perfectly cooked and bland so as not to interfere with the delicate flavour of the coconut and chilli masala. There was also a chicken salad in a chilli dressing with an interesting salad of tomato, cashew nuts and pomegranate. My dessert of pine kernal cashew and pistachio brittle with a silky chocolate mousse was a little on the dry side, but the pistachio ice cream that accompanied it was very flavoursome.

 

The à la carte menu is extensive and there are side dishes of various types of naan bread and vegetables, but what is also interesting are the two tasting menus - one regular (6 courses) and one "Gourmand", which is 9 courses and a considerable upgrading of quality of ingredient. Each of these menus can be accompanied by a selection of wines by the glass to compliment the dishes chosen by the restaurant manager and wine buyer, Luigi Gaudino.

 

I tested the 9 course "Gourmand Menu" one evening. It looked a bit daunting, but I was assured that the cooking was light and I would easily be able to walk away from the table at the end and not feel too stuffed! And that was right. The courses did start off very small and got bigger as they went along, but well within one's capacity to finish all of them.

 

The first course was Crab Shorba - a crab and coconut milk soup in a tiny cup topped by a tiny crab dumpling and "Indian Caviar". Nicely spiced without being too hot. Incidentally, this dish is given to all who take the à la carte as a pre- starter. A Wild Mushroom and Truffle Samosa with a pear and clove chutney followed. It was also accompanied with a small dollop of a spicy garlic and parsley mash. The chutney was very delicate, the mash very spicy which was a good set-off, but the samosa itself was a little disappointing as the truffle certainly wasn't very obvious (although there were some tiny pieces there) and the samosa was a little overcooked. The next dish was called Scallops Seared and Poached. Here we had two scallops - one seared with sesame and onion seeds and the other poached and covered in a trendy lime leaf "foam". The spicing was good, but the quality of the scallops were not - they were small queen scallops and were overcooked. Both dishes were accompanied by a glass of Louis Roederer Brut Premier N.V. which went rather well.

 

 

Following on appeared Tandoori Salmon and Prawn. Again, two small separate dishes; the one with the salmon (which should be eaten before the prawn) was succulent and very delicately marinated in mustard and honey, whilst the prawn (a big one!) was steeped in rosemary and ginger was very well spiced indeed. The wine for this was a glass Dobogó Furmint 2004 from Izabella Zurack in Hungary. A good match. After this came the best dish of the evening - Masala Foie Gras. This was pan fried foie gras, dusted with Masala spices and served on a small wild mushroom naan, with some mango chutney. Delicate sweetness, the foie gras perfectly cooked and the accompanying glass of Moscato "La Betia" 2004 from Villa Alessi in the Veneto, slightly heavy and not too sweet, was the perfect match. Next came Tandoori Lobster - quarter of a lobster tail marinated in saffron and spices, served with cauliflower with sour spices and cocoa. Good spicing again, but once more the lobster was cooked a little too much which had dried out the flesh a little. Here, a glass of Bolgheri Rosato 2004 from Michele Satta, went well with the dish.

 

The last three dishes kicks off with what could be described as the main course - a triptych of Lamb, Chicken and Spinach. The lamb was diced and cooked slowly in coconut milk tempered with mustard seed, the chicken simmered in a buttery tomato sauce and the spinach flavoured with cumin seed and garlic, which certainly took off the "iron" taste of the spinach. A nice contrast was achieved here - the lamb was spicy, the chicken sweet and the spinach garlicky - they were in separate dishes and were certainly not designed to be all put on the same plate. Accompanying these was some delicately curry flavoured rice. The wine with this dish, Torre Galatea Cabernet Sauvignon 2000 from Castillo Perelada, in Spain, was a little rustic and probably a bit past its sell by date. It certainly didn't enhance the excellent dish. After this, the Lychee Granite topped up with a little Champagne was very refreshing. The final dish was another good combination - "Rose Crème Brûlée, Chocolate Samosa and Indian Tiramisu". Here, a perfectly executed crème brûlée, delicately flavoured with rose water and vanilla was set off by a samosa filled with an oozing chocolate ganache and the "Indian Tirimisu" (made with coffee and saffron on a cardamom biscuit. And a dollop of rose water ice cream to boot. The accompanying wine, though, Mount Horrocks Cordon Cut Riesling 2005 from Clare Valley, was too weedy to take the richness of the chocolate, in particular - perhaps a PX or a Malaga might have done a better job. All in all, though, a good effort at matching wine with some difficult flavours from this ambitious menu.

 

Which brings us to the wine list. It is quite obvious that Luigi hasn't compiled this list out of a book. It is very extensive, with the main emphasis on French and Italian wines which account for more than 50% of the list. But the wines have obviously been chosen with care and with the type of cuisine in mind. Luigi tells me that when he first arrived, the wine list consisted of a number of Gewurztraminers and not much else and the restaurant was selling a lot of beer. Now people do beat a path to his door for the wine list, which is no mean achievement for an Indian restaurant. Luigi is not necessarily going for all the big names either, and there are certainly some excellent wines here; for example, Condrieu from a little-known estate, Antoine & Stéphane Montez, who are real stars. The only thing that would worry me is how many people go for the rather long list of southern Italian wines which are little heard of in this country which could leave him with a turnover problem. Still, these chunky wines do go well with the food (I had a glass of Fiano di Avellino with my coconut crab at lunch which went terribly well), so I hope that all of you who are reading this will help him out!

 

Service is unhurried. You can tell that each dish is being cooked to order and the waiting staff are certainly up to the job.

 

Whilst the many cheap and cheerful Indian restaurants in London have adapted their cuisine to suit British tastes (pint of lager and a Vindaloo, please), here the adaptation has been achieved with finesse and whilst the restaurant is not particularly cheap (although it's a London bargain at lunchtime), the quality stands shoulder to shoulder with the best from other countries in London.

 

 

Restaurant Ratings...

Food 45

Winelist 16

Service 9

Ambience 5

Value for Money 13

Total 88

 

Zaika 1, Kensington High St. Lonson W8 5NP. Tel: 020 7795 6533. Fax: o20 7937 8854

www.zaika-restaurant.co.uk  

Open for lunch Sunday to Friday, 12:00 to 2:45, dinner all week, 6:00 to 10:45 (9:45 on Sundays). Closed, Lunch on Saturdays and bank holidays.

Credit cards: Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Diners

Fixed price menus: £39 for 6 course Tasting Menu plus £21 with wines for each course, £58 for 9 course "Gourmand" menu plus £31 with wines for each course. Lunch menu - £6 starters, £10 main courses and £3.50 desserts. 4 course set lunch tasting menu £19.50 without wine.

There is a 12.5% "discretionary" service charge added to each bill.