The Times
Resuming her campaign to prove how variously and well we eat today throughout Britain – and not just in London – Charlotte Ivers followed up a reader’s tip to try out what was other strangely recommended as the second-best Keralan restaurant in Leamington Spa (after Kayal, since you no doubt wondered).
It is a homely spot with a bar like a thatched cabin and lots of green and gold and twinkling lights, giving it “the air of the passion project of an ageing eccentric”. And with a “frustratingly” long menu – all of it vegetarian – Charlotte entrusted the waiter to guide her choices.
The best dish, he said, was paneer pollichathu – apparently a Christian dish (do dishes profess faiths?) of semi-sweet, slightly sticky paneer and coconut milk curry, steamed in a banana leaf. “It’s warm, subtle, unlike anything you’ll have eaten in a traditional British Indian restaurant,” Charlotte reports. Also excellent was green papaya in a sauce of mustard, curry leaves and coconut: “Fruit in a curry brings some people out in hives, but the papaya is so savoury, the sauce so light and fresh, it’s a revelation.”
Charlotte Ivers - 2024-12-15
