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You won’t need to shell out, and it’s now the place to be Zeen in
Matthew Lewin laments the passing of the eccentric Lawrence Corner, but says Drummond Street is still an authentic and cheap place for a curry
WAS there anything better than browsing through the weird and wonderful stock at Lawrence Corner?
Didn’t everyone walk out with half a pilot’s uniform, some brass buttons or perhaps an old donkey jacket for a fiver?
Alas, Drummond Street has lost some of its charm and romance since Lawrence Corner closed, but it is still one of the capital’s meccas if you are looking for Indian food.
It is to our benefit that Indian restaurants are finally beginning to realise that they need to stand out from the crowd if they want to get our attention and particularly, as in the case of Zeen, when the restaurant is actually in the basement.
There is not much to see from the road, but as soon as you descend the stairs it is clear that someone has given a lot of thought to decoration. It’s bright and friendly, although it has to be said that my Chief Culinary Adviser wasn’t that keen on the bright orange décor. I liked it.
It turns out that Zeen is the creation of Zeenat Harnal, daughter of Sir Gulam Noon, the Indian entrepreneur famous for bringing Indian cuisine to British supermarkets – and for donating large sums of money to the Labour Party. And she has come up with a cracking menu.
You don’t often see soft shell crabs in Indian restaurants, or
sophisticated dishes such as steamed fresh mussels in a ginger and coconut sauce, or whole fresh crab, or tandoori stuffed squid. And all beautifully presented.
While we waited we over-ordered papadams and chutney (forgetting that I would get some with my main course), and we enjoyed the little half-crown-sized papadams with a really good, spicy chutney.
My advisor started with some simple chicken tikka, which was simply brilliant.
The meat was lusciously tender and succulent, and served with some fascinating, slightly
pickled onion rings and a variety of sauces on the plate.
I had no starter since I had opted for the Zeen platter, a whole meal in itself including little papadams and chutney, butter chicken, a lamb cake with potato, aloo gobi vegetables, dal, pilau rice and a baby naan – for just £11.95. They were happy to
substitute a nicely fiery madras chicken for the butter chicken, and I was very impressed with the whole ensemble. Except perhaps for the naan, which was dry and just a little boring when it needed to be hot and fluffy and full of flavour.
My adviser’s main course was the tandoori stuffed squid which, we learned later, has been featured on Masterchef. This was a generous dish of four small squids, which had been filled with a mixture of fish and tandoori spices. It was served with spicy crushed (rather than mashed) potatoes. Very good indeed, and they were happy to pack up the two squids she was too full to eat.
Indian desserts are almost always much too sweet for us so we called for the bill and got a nice surprise: it was just over £30. Add a glass of wine and some service and it was still only £18 a head. There are one or two other very interesting looking Indian restaurants in Drummond Street including quite a few vegetarian ones that were impressively full of people. But if you want a sure bet, Zeen is your place.
SUMMARY
Seriously good food and presentation, and lots of new dishes.
Open Monday to Saturday . £17-£22 for three
courses, before drinks and service.
All-you-can-eat buffet lunch on Thursdays and Fridays.
Rating: 3/5
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