Koyal

Koyal (“bird”) opened in a busy corner of Surbiton in the autumn of 2024. It is an offshoot of Dastaan, with its group executive chef Nand Kishor running the kitchen at Koyal when I visited just as the restaurant opened for business. The dining room has well-spaced tables and seats up to almost a hundred diners, plus up to a further thirty in a private dining room. The a la carte menu is unsurprisingly similar to Dastaan, but there were some new dishes here, such as Muntjac biryani and a Goan wild boar dish. There was a short wine list but I drank Asahi beer. 

A tandoori lamb chop was grilled over Japanese binchotan white oak rather than the typical cooking in a tandoor. The meat was cooked pink and had lovely flavour, the natural flavour of the lamb nice lifted by its spicy marinade and the gentle hint of charcoal from the barbecue (15/20). Bhajias were fritters made with potato, spinach and spring onion, served with a chutney of peanuts and parilla seed (16/20). Unlike so many bhajias in your typical high street tandoori place, this one was crisp and avoided greasiness, a really superb example of a how good a bhajia can be.

Chicken kohlapuri was a spicy chicken curry cooked with tomatoes, onions and a blend of spices including sesame seeds, coconut and red chilli powder. The chicken was cooked nicely, the sauce rich and with a lively kick of spice (15/20). Black pepper stone bass tikka was for me the dish of the night, served with a deeply flavoured spiced cherry tomato salsa. The fish was cooked with garlic and seasoned with pepper and had superb texture and flavour (16/20).Aloo with mustard seeds used French Ratte potatoes, a high-class product with a nutty flavour not usually seen in Indian restaurants. The potatoes kept their texture well and the mustard seeds flavour nicely enlivened them (15/20). 

Palak mushroom involved a creamy spinach sauce with the mushrooms, with a lot of flavour packed into the spinach (15/20). Makhani dhal was top class, dark and smoky and with rich texture, a classy rendition of the classic dish, cooked overnight (15/20). Garlic naan was particularly good, light and delicate, soft in texture and packed with garlic flavour (15/20). For dessert we tried pistachio kulfi, which had plenty of flavour and good texture (14/20). Kaala jaman was rather like a gulab jaman but cooked rather longer to a darker colour. It was rich and enjoyable (14/20).

A few days later we visited again and tried some different dishes. Vegetable samosas had good pastry casing and a lightly spiced vegetable filling, served with a mint chutney (14/20). Koliwada fried fish used a fish known as Pegasus (aka dragonfish or seamoth) in place of the tilapia that you might expect in this dish. The coating was crisp and the fish inside was nicely cooked with plenty of flavour, enlivened by the spices used (15/20). The dish originates from the Maharashtra region of western India. 

Wild tiger prawns were marinated with black pepper, garlic, chilli, ginger and kasundi (a Bengali relish) before being grilled over binchotan charcoal and served in their shells. The large prawns were tender and had a pleasing hint of smokiness from the charcoal (14/20). 

Chicken malai tikka was marinated with spices and cream cheese before being cooked in the tandoor. The generous chunks of chicken were very tender indeed, the spices of the marinade nicely lift8ng the flavour of the meat. This came with a very good side salad that had a mustard dressing (15/20). Bhangjeera chicken consisted of chicken thighs cooked with onion, tomato spices and perilla (shiso) seed. This combination worked well, the perilla seeds having a resemblance to sesame seeds (15/20).

Wild boar was supplied from Scotland, and here was made in Goan style, slow cooked with toddy vinegar and Goan spices. Wild boar has excellent flavour, and the sharp vinegar worked well to balance its inherent richness, the flavour brought together by the spices (15/20). Paneer makhan wala had cubes of cottage cheese cooked in a creamy tomato sauce with cashew nots and butter (14/20). Garlic naan was really excellent, hot and light and soft fluffy, with plenty of garlic flavour (pushing 16/20).

Service was friendly and the bill (for the first meal) came to £79 per person with beer to drink and enough food left over for a complete extra meal for two as a takeaway. Even though this was early days, the food here was already at a level most Indian restaurants in and around London can only dream of.