Avi Shashidhara is the chef at Pahli Hill which is, for my money, the finest Indian restaurant in London. He can make the most unassuming of dishes into something epic – for example his chicken tikka with marinated cucumber. It is simply on a different level from any chicken tikka you have ever tasted. And don’t even get me started on the flaky flatbread…
So it is Very Big News indeed that he is now embarking on the path so ably furrowed by the likes of The Tamil Prince and opening an Indian food and drink pub in Shepherd’s Bush, where he has taken over the old Queen Adelaide pub on Uxbridge Road. The venue has been christened The Thalli Queen and it’s menu will have the charcoal grill and tandoor at it’s centre – so I’m thinking grilled meat and breads while supping a proper pint of Indian beer. And that is a thought I am liking very much indeed!
The Thalli Queen, 412 Uxbridge Road, London W12 0NR – The Thalli Queen
The next one is also a biggie – former chef at the legendary Mangal II, Sertaç Dirik is opening a new restaurant with restaurateur David Carter (of Oma, Agora and Smokestak). The new venue, called Kid, opens on Soho’s Frith Street this month. Kid will take inspiration from Dirik’s Turkish heritage and be the chef’s first standalone restaurant. The menu will based on Dirik’s native central Anatolian food. Expect pide bread, meze and salatas and çökelek cheese made in-house as well as içli köfte with aged ex-dairy beef, as well as well as braised goat kid. What should be a a wonderful meal can then be finished off withTurkish coffee and cherry and pecan baklava! You just know this is going to be a very big hit…
Kid, 53-55 Frith Street, Soho, London W1D 4SJ – Kid