152-156 Shaftesbury Avenue,
Covent Garden,
London,
WC2H 8HL
0872 148 4058
The ViewLondon Review
Dining in the West End can be such a chore.
Unless you book weeks in advance, most of the celebrated (and by that I mean award-winning or those blessed with frequent complimentary coverage) restaurants are more difficult to get into than Kylie’s dressing room. If you do manage to get a table at the last minute chances are that you’ll end up on the table in the corner, or next to the loos.
Not so at Mela! This Shaftesbury Avenue favourite opened a couple of years ago, and has been receiving rave reviews ever since. They won the Moet & Chandon Best Indian Restaurant in 2001, and Chef and owner Kuldeep Singh (who also owns Chowki) has managed to maintain (or even possibly surpass) the high standard they originally set. I popped by midweek with a chum to see whether or not Mela could deal with a pair of considerable appetites!
Mela is situated along the section of Shaftesbury Avenue east of Cambridge Circus, which has undergone something of a renaissance recently. The restaurant itself is bright and attractive, with a large glass-fronted aspect. We were comfortably seated within seconds of our arrival, and a pair of admirably-mixed Bloody Mary’s arrived within seconds.
The menu is very different from your common-or-garden Indian restaurant, mainly because it comprises a selection of authentic Indian food! There are examples of dishes from all over India, and a number of cooking techniques are employed. As well as traditionally cooked curry-style dishes, the menu also features meat and fish cooked in the tandoor (charcoal oven), or on a tawa (a concave hot plate), which is a popular style of street cooking.
I started with Bathak Ka Samosa, which were samosas stuffed with duck, spring onion, coriander and spices, with a sweet dipping sauce. These were incredibly tasty, and distinctly different from the oversized samosas I used to buy from the sandwich shop at school! Combined with some crunchy vegetables they formed a pretty much perfect starter. Ben opted for Taweli Jheenga (spiced prawns cooked on a griddle, flavoured with curry leaves and mustard seeds), which he proclaimed to be devilishly good.
For my main course I chose Burra Champ Madiri. This was rum-soaked lamb, cooked over charcoal, and flavoured with garlic, chillies and fenugreek seeds. Accompanied by a bowl of saffron rice, it was spicy and refreshingly different from usual “curry shop” fare. Ben’s Tawe ki Bathak was a fine breast of duck, which had been pot roasted with coconut, coriander and cumin, and sprinkled with mint and coriander on the plate.
He was impressed at the flavour of the duck – not overspiced (despite the chilli icon on the menu!), the flavours were sophisticated and complimented the meat without disguising it in any way. We shared a naan bread, which was much lighter than I’m accustomed to, and perfect for mopping up excess sauce!
I decided to follow this with Matka Kulfi, which is a traditional Indian dessert made with milk, almonds and pistachios, flavoured with saffron and cumin. It was similar to desserts I’ve had in Morocco, and was a pretty much perfect end to a great meal.
As we mused over a pair of espressos, the main observation we both came up with was how different this kind of Indian cooking was from the usual. Obviously there are similarities in terms of the spices employed, but the sauces we encountered were all entirely different from each other, the meat cuts were much better than you usually encounter, and the general impression was of a serious international cuisine.
With starters at under £5, mains at about £10 and wine around the £15 mark, it’s great value too. If you’ve become disenchanted with dining out in the West End, give Mela a go – I’ll wager you won’t be disappointed!