Bombay Bustle
Initial impressions suggested that this restaurant was going to be a bit pretentious and expensive. It’s located in Mayfair, on the site of a previous eatery called Hibiscus (which was so pretentious that it closed down in 2016).
But as soon as I sat down at the bar and saw the cocktail list, I realised that they aren’t out to charge silly prices. There were cocktails under £10, and several wines at under £20 a bottle. Also the fact that the place was completely full on a Monday evening suggested that they must be doing something right.
And so to the food. They have a menu that features a selection of “sharing plates”, which we chose as our starter. These included Malabar Chicken Wings, Aidipoli Prawns and Mirchi Pyaz Bhajia (stuffed peppers and onion fritters). These were good and the portions were fine.
Our mains included Kolhapuri Spit Chicken (a whole chicken that they care at your table), Madras Chicken Curry and Chicken Tikka Makhani (a sort of Butter Chicjken variant). If anything we slightly over-ordered, but all the dishes were very good, if not particularly spicy.
I was the only one of us who made it as far as the dessert course, choosing a Malai Jalebi, a kind of cake that was nothing special.
The service was very friendly and efficient, and when the bill came it was far less than I had feared.
Worth a return visit for further research.