Hawkyns | Amersham (UK)

Indian cuisine with a modern British influence in a creative yet restrained way.
A very recommendable restaurant with great value for money!

Restaurant Hawkyns sits inside the Crown hotel, a traditional 16th-century Elizabethan coaching inn, in the quintessentially English market town of Amersham (UK). The inn was thrust into the spotlight when it featured in Four Weddings and a Funeral as the backdrop to the romantic tryst between Andie McDowell and Hugh Grant.
The restaurant interior has been thoughtfully brought up to date with up-cycled chunky wooden tables and cream walls, which make it feel warm and rather cosy and fits well into its country chic setting.

Twice Michelin starred Chef Atul Kochhar is best known for combining Pan-Indian cuisine and British flavours. That’s what you find on the menu at Sindhu in Marlow and also here at Hawkyns. The restaurant opened it’s doors on January 15, 2017 and is appropriately named after Sir William Hawkins (also spelt as Hawkyns), commander of the first East India Company ship to anchor in Surat (India) in 1608. He basically pioneered in bringing Indian food to England.

Head Chef, since September 2017, is Arbinder Dugal. Born in Chandigarh (India) and now living in London, Arbinder formerly worked as Head Chef at Madhus and as Jr Sous Chef at Le Pont de la Tour (both in London) and is a former finalist in the Roux Scholarship.

Hawkyns is open for dinner from Tuesday to Saturday and for lunch on Saturday and Sunday. Besides à la carte, they offer Weekend Lunch Menu (2-courses at £17.50 and 3 courses at £22) and a 4-course Tasting Menu (at £38), which also comes in a vegetarian and pescatarian version.

We had dinner on a Friday two weeks ago and booked with a Red Letterdays Voucher. The voucher included a 3-course dinner with a glass of prosecco for two and costed just £40. We basically got the Weekend Lunch Menu to make our choices from.

No bread and butter (of course), but papadums and two different dips were waiting on the table. Nice nibble with the glass of prosecco, which was included in our voucher.

First to arrive was a complementary bite from the kitchen. Lentil dumpling with tamarind chutney. The dumpling had nice taste and texture. Lovely bit of coriander and a nice kick to it. Lightly sweet chutney adding additional spice.

Tandoor cooked minced lamb of quality meat. Fragrant mouth-watering kebabs, perfectly spiced with cumin coming through nicely. Spicy kick to it as well, enhanced by the coriander pesto with some peppers. Excellent!

Grilled chicken supreme, juicy with cream cheese, cardamom and a touch of lemon in the seasoning. Same punchy coriander pesto that came with the lamb. Beautiful!

Pan fried sea bass, beautifully cooked, with a rich, fragrant and creamy coconut moilee sauce. Accompanied by a masala potato mash. The mains were served with cumin pulao rice and black lentils. Love the authentic flavours. This is not like your standard Indian takeaway!

Biryani of spiced basmati rice with diced lamb, again beautifully spiced. Cucumber raita to go with it was not needed to put out fires as the biryani was mild. But it added additional flavour.
On the top left are the black lentils that came with the mains. A bit weird when tasted on it’s own. Quite dark, earthy flavour. But worked well with the rice.

We added a bread basket with garlic naan and peshawari naan. The naans were really flat, like pancakes, and not puffed up like you would expect. Garlic naans even seemed a bit under-cooked. The second batch we got was a lot better. 

Tandoor grilled pineapple with coconut sorbet. The sorbet was quite grainy with bits of coconut. Felt like sugar crystals and not nice mouth feel. pineapple wasn’t grilled much, so just tasted like pineapple. Choco crumbs underneath to add some texture. This dish needs some attention and refinement.

Steamed yoghurt cheese cake with bits of confit mango that stuck to your teeth. It was more a mousse than a cheese cake, but nice taste with the raspberry. Enjoyable dessert.

Service was courteous, informative and helpful, without being intrusive. A very enjoyable dinner with great food. Harmonious combinations, with a good balance of tastes, textures and spice. Spicing is judicious and used to add a lively flavour rather than heat. This is Indian cuisine with a modern British influence in a creative yet restrained way.

And on top of that, it’s great value for money. Even without a voucher! A very recommendable restaurant. We certainly will be back!