Mehek is one sexy curry house.

The Venue
From the outside the venue looks unprepossessing, the flame of the restaurant’s logo the only indication of its hot interior. Its long bar, balconied upper dining area, draped crystal chandeliers and bold red wall panels combined with muted lighting give the impression that you have just walked into a large club rather than a curry house. There’s no cliche in Mehek’s design, with the wooden fretwork panels the only nod to its cultural heritage.

The Atmosphere
This restaurant is in the heart of the City and the clientele is very much what you’d expect: young professionals looking to wash away the stresses of the day. Still, these customers have clearly left the boisterousness and the aggression that the City professions are notorious for in the office. Instead, the atmosphere in Mehek is warm and the restaurant resonates with joyful, but respectful, chatter. The fact that the tables are well spaced certainly helps. It’s at once intimate but bustling.

The Food
Mehek means fragrance, and this definition is certainly accurately reflected in its menu. The restaurant does all of the usual suspects but would do better to specialize in its unique and highly successful dishes. For example, butterfly king prawns in a crispy batter with mint and light spices taste bland, the prawn hard to discern above the breadcrumbs. On the other hand, the recommended Malai chops are stupendous. The yoghurt, ginger and cream cheese marinade is subtle but flavoursome and the meat juicy and yielding.

Along a similar vein an order of lamb pasanda is wholly uninspiring, insipid thanks to an overly creamy blend of coconut with cashew and ginger. The Boro Chingri Perdonashi (king prawns cooked Goan style), however, is exceptional. The dish is delivered to the table in a whole, green coconut that has been grilled in a hot flame. The hit of scent when the lid is lifted is appetizer enough. The prawns are perfectly cooked, and manage to hold their own in a mouth-watering spicy tomato and onion sauce. The coconut is also edible, and when combined with the prawns lends a luxurious sweetness to the dish, which only serves to enhance the acidity of the fresh tomato to delirious effect.

Side dishes of rare Indian vegetables are also superb. Jhinga is a member of the gourd family, and resonates well with the pickle, spice of a gherkin. The dish is steeped in garlic and the exotic vegetable manages to maintain an element of crunch, while yielding easily to each bite. Pohi tah, meanwhile is described as a night-blooming vegetable, and comes served with pink lentils and garlic. This makes it considerably harder to discern the separate taste of the vegetable, but the dish is fantastic none the less and a novel variation on a daal.

It’s true that after a feast of curry, pudding doesn’t immediately spring to mind, still a restaurant that is as creatively advanced as this should do more with its pudding selection. Pistachio kulfi is cooling and pleasant, but predictable.

The Drink
The drinks menu is vast. Every conceivable liquor and spirit is listed and, from a sweeping glance along the bottles lined up along the bar, stocked in abundance. Wines are also numerous, with a wide selection of whites, reds and rose. A bottle of the house Chardonnay is pleasant, fruity and able to stand up to the spice of the dishes without clashing on the palate. Kingfisher and Cobra form the mainstay of the beer selection, while the resolutely sober can choose from a tempting selection of lassis and fresh juices.

The Last Word
The delicious and creative Mehek definitely has the scent of success.

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