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The Review - FOOD AND DRINK - RESTAURANTS
Published: 28 May 2009

Curries at Elephant Walk

‘Wallflower’ cuisine is no shrinking violet

IN culinary terms, Sri Lanka is India’s wallflower cousin. While everybody is familiar with the balti, how many Brits can spot an ulundu vadai at 20 paces?
Elephant Walk in West Hampstead has been quietly showing people what they are missing since 2006.
Its owner, Kannan Sivanathan, quit his accountant’s job to run the restaurant with his wife, Deepthe; and the couple’s passion seems to be paying off with awards across the board.
Egg hopper (£3.25) – a crispy rice flour pancake eaten with an ìsambolî paste of coconut, chilli and lime – is moreish finger food and Mung dahl with spinach is fresher and lighter than the standard curry house equivalent.
Appetisers of savoury lentil donut (ulundu vadai), tuna cutlets and minced lamb rolls are also served with the restaurant’s recently launched afternoon teas.
A Sri Lankan chicken curry (£5.95) had similar notes to an Indian curry and devilled lamb is a dry dish of crispy fillets marinated in ginger, garlic and green chillies (£6.50).
King fish in tamarind (a traditional way of preparing fish in the north of the island) was eclipsed only by its southern reply: a white curry with cod cooked in coconut milk and lemon grass.
For dessert, cashew vattilappam (£3.25) was a coriander crème caramel, the sugar and cream replaced with jaggery (a type of sugar cane) and coconut milk.
In the unlikely event none of that appeals, Indian classics are also executed with aplomb.
SIMON WROE

• Elephant Walk, 98 West End Lane, NW6. 020 7328 3308. Home delivery available within a three-mile radius

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