I can’t seem to stay away from the innovative food of Indian Accent, sister of the famous Delhi restaurant that is the only restaurant from India to appear on the infamous “Top 50 Restaurant” list. This list actually has 100 restaurants but never mind. Tonight at the Albermarle Street version of Indian Accent I tried a selection of the bar snack nibbles. Rawa prawns were cooked in a semolina batter, which provided an excellent crunchy texture that went well with the slight sweetness of the prawns, which were themselves quite boldly spiced – a lovely dish (16/20).
A sequence of five hollow puris each had crushed potato and chickpea inside, and was set on top of a shot glass containing flavoured water to be poured into the poori shell. The five flavours were green chilli chutney, tamarind, pomegranate, pineapple and yoghurt. The pooris were very delicate yet crisp and held together properly when their contents were poured into them (15/20). A trio of cornets contained smoked and spiced aubergine, methi chicken and duck khurchan, which literally means the scraping from the bottom of the pan after the meat is cooked over a slow fire. These were impressive, the cornets delicate, the chicken suffused with fenugreek flavour, the duck spicy and rich and the aubergine pleasingly smoky (16/20).
Dahi patata puri with wasabi peas was a thin hollow puri shell with a filling of peas that were flavoured with horseradish rather than true grated wasabi root. This was enjoyable, but it made me wonder how much better it would be with the silky texture and subtler spice kick of real wasabi (14/20).
I have written about the stuffed Kashmiri morels in walnut powder before, and they were dazzling as ever with their gorgeous Parmesan crisp garnish (17/20). Another favourite dish of mine here is the soy keema with quail egg and pau with kaffir lime. I think this was, if anything, even better than last time. The texture and flavour of this is a thing to behold, and it is a remarkable rebuttal to anyone who tells you that soy dishes are necessarily dull (17/20). Sea bass was baked and came with patrani butter and berry pulao. This is a parsi dish, the fish lightly cooked and its distinct flavour going really well with the herb butter, the rice on the side also well made (15/20).
Winter vegetable tart had a base of sarson kar saag, a Punjabi dish of spinach with mustard greens and spices, along with fenugreek and assorted vegetables including daikon and carrots, resting in a bed of a lightly spiced tomato based sauce. This was delicious, the pastry excellent and the fenugreek flavour really bringing out the taste of the vegetables (16/20). On the side I tried two of the best dishes served here: both the bacon kulcha and the butter chicken kulcha were gorgeous, exemplars of how delicious Indian bread can be in the right hands (17/20).
To finish we had barfi treacle tart, the Punjabi festival dish, served with vanilla ice cream, which I have written about in previous reviews (15/20). Service was excellent. The bill came to £103 each including drinks. This seems fair to me given the very high standard of the food here. I have now tried almost the entire menu here and the standard is remarkably high. Indian Accent, both in Delhi and here, is single-handedly redefining high end Indian cooking: long may it continue to do so.
Further reviews: 17th Feb 2020 | 26th Aug 2019 | 21st Dec 2017
Dean
As ever, a fantastic review, Andy!
alan fowle
Our second visit here , service was smooth and efficient, they seem to know Andy well and I chose some of his favourites -and ours -the kasmiri morels which as I did the first time I ordered twice and the soy keema -as good as Andy said , the naan a free nibble was perfect. not so perfect was the ghee roast lamb which was a bit like having the roast duck with pancakes - a bit one note equally less inspiring for my wife was the sea bream a bit crispy and lacking much flavour , treacle tart was fine . As we did our autopsy in the taxi we decided they are best at the small dishes where it is exquisite a bit less with major productions. we will return and stick to the smaller productions incidentally I had chosen the chicken malai tikka but was steered off by the charming manager who said the lamb was the most popular - I should have known better.
Peter Baker
Based on your recommendation we took lunch here recently. Service was good, great presentation and reasonable prices but the food was patchy. The miniature blue cheese naan and pumpkin and coconut shorba amuse bouche was excellent. But the pulled jackfruit starter was too salty and the flavours indistinct. The quail egg keema starter was bland and not what I was expecting from your description. The vegetable tart main was too heavy on spinach puree and not enough other vegetables, it was also bland. The sea bass however was excellent. The bacon kulcha was a big disappointment, too much bacon which made it very salty and could not finish it. The treacle tart was good and a bargain at £5 and the coffee was fine. The plates were not warm enough. In the narrow passage between tables and bar, our food had to wait for another table to be served and when it arrived it was not quite warm enough. So some quite nice things at a very reasonable price for Mayfair, but the seasoning and spicing were off the mark – mostly delivering neither a full-bodied profile of spices nor more subtle aromatics. I really cannot see how you could mark this higher than Jamavar or indeed Talli Jo.
Shane Gordon
Having had the lunch tasting menu on 22 January 2018 my wife and my experience did certainly not live up to the experience described in the reviews. We found the food unremarkable and unmemorable. Our meal at The Ritz the night before on the other hand was once again exemplary.