Kanishka | London (UK)

Kanishka pushes the boundaries on what we know about Indian food.
By blending modern age swing with traditional Indian heritage!

We like Atul Kochhar’s food, as we experienced at Sindhu in Marlow and Hawkyns in Amersham. So we had to try Kanishka, which opened last March in London (UK). Based on Maddox Street in Mayfair, Kanishka focuses on the little-known food of the Seven Sister States (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura), which border China, Tibet and Burma in the far north-east of India.

Twice Michelin starred Chef Atul Kochhar earned his first star at Tamarind in London in 2001. Making him, together with Vineet Bhatia (from Kama), the joint first Indian chef to earn a Michelin star. Kanishka is Atul’s return to London, after he parted company with the Mayfair Indian restaurant Benares last year, following a Twitterstorm over a controversial tweet he made. Chef Atul Kochhar is an international and UK nationwide TV personality, featuring on Million Dollar Menu and Saturday Kitchen, as well as his own TV programme.

Head Chef at Kanishka is Shishir Sinha, who worked with Atul Kochhar before at Benares as sous chef (from 2008-2011). After that Shishir was sous chef at Zaza Bazaar in Bristol, UK biggest restaurant with 1000 covers! Most recently he was Chef de Cuisine at Caesars Palace in Dubai.

Kanishka is open 7 days a week for lunch and dinner. Besides à la carte menu, they offer a 7-course Tasting Menu (at £78). For lunch or early dinner, there is also a Set Menu (2 Courses at £28 and 3 Courses at £32)

We went for lunch last week Sunday and had Tasting Menu. 

Moist and light chickpea cake, surprisingly tasty. Beetroot fruit on top, popping sweetness to balance the spicy tamarind underneath the cake. Nice!

Naga chilli spiced scallop, nicely seared. Parsnip puree and pickled parsnip bringing different textures. Quite a bit of heat from the spinach and chilli oil, which lingers on the tongue. Not for everyone, but I like it! By the way, don’t call the dish scallops on the menu when you’re serving only one.

Tikka masala from the tandoori, wrapped in flaky puff pastry. Served with cumin scented berry compote and a tangy-sweet raspberry and strawberry sauce. Don’t taste the chicken in there, but very pleasant flavours.

When we saw these popadoms being served on all other tables, we asked for some as well. Which was no problem at all. Bit strange we didn’t get them in the first place. Mixed popadoms, including one from lentil flour and another from tapioca flour, served with nice mango & red berry chutney.

Grilled monkfish sitting on creamy coconut sauce, with a sweet and spiced gooseberry chutney. Some crispy kale and a pickled onion. Lovely dish. A modern take on authentic flavours. Pity that Joanne’s monkfish still had several bones left in it.

A very cold, blood orange sorbet. Plain and simple, but an efficient palette cleanser.

Beautifully cooked loin of venison with a spicy chocolate curry sauce. Delicious! Spice nicely countered by grilled apple puree, a yoghurt based sauce with beetroot and bitterness of the pickled endive. This dish works like a treat! Presentation could be more refined, especially when I compare it to the venison dish shown on Kanishka’s website.

Tender country goat, in a spicy curry sauce with garam masala, cumin, cardamon and black pepper. Quite a spicy cuisine overall, but I like it a lot. Served with fragrant basmati rice and excellent naan bread. And last but definitely not least: Kanishka’s signature black dal. Black lentils, cooked for 24 hours. Creamy with a thick texture, full of beautiful rich spices. Excellent!

Dessert was a rather hard peanut butter parfait. Texture was not silky, but almost grainy. Rice pudding with figs, was okay made, but not to my taste. Overall a bit boring. Least favourite dish for sure. Waiter don’t make any comments by the way, when he saw we left the dessert half-eaten.

The quality of the service was highly dependant on who was serving you. Fortunately, after the third course, we were only served by the front of house manager, who really knew what he was talking about and explained the dishes well.

We enjoyed the food at Kanishka, although some dishes need attention and the dessert didn’t work for us. The monkfish with that creamy coconut sauce, the venison and the goat curry were standing out in this menu. I like the amount of spice in the dishes as well. It’s just nice to explore new things and Kanishka pushes the boundaries on what we know about Indian food. While keeping it on trend and different, by blending modern age swing with traditional Indian heritage.