"The shops around Regent Street may chop and change but above them, Veeraswamy stays put. The high-end Indian restaurant has been there since 1926 and in, many ways, is the blueprint for white tablecloth curry houses around the UK. There are hyper-amenable waistcoated servers, conference-size tables of colleagues ordering beers, and curries that all land on the sweet side. You don’t come for the food, you come to sit in a crushed velvet time warp. Like most classics, there’s something unquantifiably wonderful about Veeraswamy. A handful of rose petals sit on your table and the wallpaper looks like it’s come from a Cath Kidston surplus sale. The kitschy chandeliers are refreshingly unironic. Do the table of regulars young and old care? No, they’re too busy tucking into an egregiously priced lobster malabar. photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch It’s easy to have a laugh here. Especially if you’re in a big group or sat looking out onto bedraggled shoppers on Regent Street. That said, without the set menu, it’s hard to say that the food stands up to the price. There are a few solemn faces on Veeraswamy’s plush velvet seating that look unforgivably betrayed by TripAdvisor. This is a restaurant with almost 100 year’s worth of mulligatawny soups under its belt. That should be commended, even if the tasting menu is subpar. Veeraswamy can’t resist a twist sometimes. A glug of burgundy in its chicken makhani, a rogue bit of stilton. Order safe. Order something saucy. And you’ll be alright. London is blessed with much better Indian food than this, but there’s an old-school swagger about Veeraswamy that’s impossible to replicate. Food Rundown photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch Anglo-Indian Mulligatawny Soup One of Veeraswamy’s signature dishes, this has been on the menu since day one. It’s a simple yellow soup with flashes of cumin and ginger. They got a bit heavy on the lemon here, but it’s still a nice starter. photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch Tandoori Green Prawns A juicy fat prawn covered in a coriander rub, with an array of mint, coriander, and chilli sauces. It’s a little charred on the edges and all the better for it. This is a winner. photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch Malai Chicken Tikka You know it’s gonna be something when your chicken comes wearing a gold leaf hat. This isn’t bad and the chicken is moist, but it’s rolled with a slightly off-key almond paste in the middle that’s more boulangerie than anything else. photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch Four Curries With Lemon Rice & Naan The tasting menu involves a crescent of mini portions of signature Veeraswamy curries. They’re not bad, but all of the meat has a strange softness to it, and the inclusion of burgundy in the chicken makhani au vin is weird without being totally offensive. The naan is decent, if a little bread-y. The camparan lamb is the best of the curries, and the lobster malabar is probably the worst, if only for an insipid sauce. photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch Chocolate Ganache A ghost of wedding dinners past, this chocolate ganache has got it all. An aura of recent refrigeration, a chocolate tuile, a honeycomb tuile, and some raspberries with a bit of gold leaf. It’s totally fine." - Jake Missing
