Pravaas

Pravaas (“journey” in Hindi) opened in December 2023 in South Kensington. The head chef and owner is Shilpa Dandekar, who has worked previously as a sous chef at Quilon, having originally trained with the Taj Group of hotels in India. She previously set up Pure Indian Cooking in Fulham. The restaurant is quite small, with around two dozen seats plus a private dining room, but is very smartly decorated, with good lighting and comfortable seating. Indian film music played in the background at out visit, but at a low volume.

The menu was a little more ambitious than a typical curry house, with a tasting menu available at £72 as well as full a al carte choice. The wine list had 59 labels and ranged in price from £34 to £375, with a median price of £ and an average markup to retail price of 3.8 times, which is simply outrageous. The current average in my database of 27 wine lists is a markup to retail of 3.06, with 3.8 times landing Pravaas firmly in the most expensive decile of my database. Sample references were Picpoul de Pinet Selection Cave de l`Ormarine 2022 at £41 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £11, Tenuta Aquilaia Vermentino Maremma 2022 at £51 compared to its retail price of £13, and Domaine Chante Cigale Chateauneuf-du-Pape 2021 at £97 for a wine that will set you back £34 in the high street. For those with the means there was a (misspelt) Puligny-Montrachet Louis Latour 2020 at £240 compared to its retail price of £89, and Dom Perignon 2009 at £375 for a wine whose current market value is £242. White Rhino lager was also available at £5.95 for a small bottle.

We started with some popadoms, which came with both tomato chutney and mango chutney. There were four different popadoms and they were fine in themselves, but they were unusually small. Given that there was a separate £4.50 charge for these, it seemed odd to serve miniature popadoms, given the low cost of these to make. 

I started with chicken chops (£18), a pair of generously sized chops fried in almond and onion paste along with rose petals. Alongside was a spicy coriander chutney, which went well with the chicken. This was the best dish of the meal, the chicken being tender and having nicely absorbed the flavours of the marinade (14/20).

Mixed vegetable tokri (£12) was essentially tempura of five different vegetables: padron peppers, onions, aubergine, asparagus tips and baby corn, served with tamarind chutney. The batter was crisp and you could taste the different vegetables distinctly, though the tempura skills of the chef would not land them a job in Tokyo (13/20 at best).

Chicken Malvani (£18) consisted of slices of chicken in a spicy paste. Malvani cuisine is a region of Goa and Maharashtra in western India, and although the menu did not specify the details of the dish, this cuisine typically uses coconut, red chillies and assorted spices including cumin, coriander, garlic and ginger. The chicken was fairly tender though it had limited flavour, but the sauce was pleasant, with a gentle kick of spice (13/20). 

Tandoori prawns (£23) were marinated in Kashmiri chili paste, lemon juice and Kasoondi mustard from Bengal, then cooked with garlic, capers and beurre noisette. There were three very large prawns, two of them quite well cooked (though one was a tad overcooked) and having absorbed the flavours of the marinade nicely (13/20).

Bhindi anardana (£11) was a fairly classical okra masala using cumin but with the addition of pomegranate seeds (the anardana) for freshness. This was enjoyable, though the okra was a touch on the soggy side to my taste (12/20). Better was lasooni palak (£11), a spinach curry with brown garlic and dried fenugreek leaves. This had plenty of spinach flavour, and the fenugreek flavour came through well (13/20). Saffron rice was fine though the saffron was of barely detectable levels, and a garlic naan (£4) had pleasingly soft texture but, like the popadoms, was unusually small in size (13/20). A pomegranate raita was £4.50.

Service was genuinely good, our manager and the waiter that looked after us being attentive, patient and friendly. The bill came to £84 per person, but there was an oddity. Instead of the usual service charge of 12.5% there was a service charge of 7.5% and a separate 5% “brand charge”. This goes directly to the restaurant, bypassing the staff. The restaurant claims that it goes into staff training. This appears to me to be a way to increase the profits of the restaurant at the expense of the staff, and I added an additional cash tip to more than make up for this. If you do decide to visit this restaurant then please bear this in mind when paying the bill. This aside, Pravaas was an enjoyable experience, with an interesting menu, charming staff and competent cooking.