This is yet another recent exponent of “modern Indian” cuisine to have popped up in London over the last few years. The restaurant is long and narrow, and the lighting is quite dim. It is on the site of a previous Indian eatery, Lucknow, which I guess must have run out of luck.

Manthan offers a choice of set menus – vegetarian and non-vegetarian. On this occasion not everyone wanted to share the same set menu and the waiter said it was not possible to mix and match – i.e. either the whole table had the set menu or we all went a la carte. In the event we chose the latter option, but this does seem rather silly (if there were two adjacent tables with two people on each I’m sure they wouldn’t make this restriction).

So we picked a variety of starters to share including Shami Kebab, Jackfruit Uthappam, Ghatti Masala Prawns, Beef Bone Marrow and Ram Laddoo (a dish made with lentils and dates). Our main courses were more conventional, including their two chicken dishes (Sarson Chicken and Methi Murgh) and their take on Osso Buco.

Deserts included their flagship Narangi Chocolate and Classical Trio, the latter being a not entirely successful mishmash of dishes that included Gulab Jamun.

The standard to the cooking was very high and the food was consistently tasty. Needless to say (being “modern Indian”) there wasn’t anything that was remotely spicy, but I’ve learned to expect that by now. The food was not as good as nearby Bibi (q.v.) but the bill was considerably less.