Namaaste Kitchen Review

Best for: Post Euro 2012 football analysis; father-son bonding.

Great: Contemporary Indian cuisine.

There are few places that can rival the pub in providing a suitable setting for ruminating on the failure of English football teams. A steady stream of beer fuels the half-baked opinions of your inner-pundit, allowing you to chunter on well into extra-time on whether Wayne Rooney was match fit, how Ashley Young was allowed to take a penalty, and whether there was any point in booking Stewart Downing’s easyJet flight.

It has its shortcomings though. In any pub, there is normally some lonely soul by the bar staring at a pint of mild through his Jim Bowen tinted glasses, trying to escape the tedium of his life as a mini-cab driver. Without his usual captive audience of elderly women en route to Morrison’s, he is desperate to regurgitate what he heard “that Stan Collymore” say on TalkSport about the virtues of Tiki-Taka. He’ll hijack your conversation at the earliest opportunity and then proceed to talk at you for the rest of your evening.

Keen to avoid this fate, my father and I opted for a curry instead and ventured to Namaaste Indian restaurant in Camden to mull over yet another ignominious England exit from a major tournament. Like a pivotal England penalty, the weather outside was predictably tosh, so we eschewed the outside seating in favour of a table by the bar. Being a Friday night, it was busy and in their desire to satisfy Camden’s curry-craving hoardes, the restaurant’s management had tried to squeeze in one too many tables.

I’m not normally one who demands privacy when I’m dining. It’s not like my father and I are Tony and Gordon, about to make some sort of Granita pact. At a push we may have negotiated the ownership rights of my father’s World At War DVD box set, but nothing more than that. However, I did find it a little invasive being sat next to an irritating long-haired child who was crashing various items together, with all the charm of Cristiano Ronaldo remonstrating with a referee. I was consoled by the fact that, if needs be, I could land one of my elbows on his face and legitimately claim it was an accident, before winking at my old man.

Namaaste is one of those thoroughly modern Indian restaurants. No floral wallpaper, or faded seventies photographs of the Taj Mahal. It’s all exposed brickwork, leather seating and space-age lighting. The poppadums even came folded into quarters, with an array of exotic dips far superior to the gloopy mango chutney and toothpaste provided as standard at most other Indian restaurants in London. As a supplement to the traditional menu, the chef also provides a specialist menu, each month exploring a different region. And so we eagerly opted for the theme of South Indian cuisine, to experience something out of the ordinary.

My shallow-fried kingfish was slightly over-cooked although the accompanying fresh coconut relish was excellent. It was, however, inferior to Dad’s rasam soup, a rich combination of lentils, tomatoes and spices, which was strong and peppery on the palate.

I followed the kingfish with a travancore chicken curry while my father opted for the adipoli erachi mulagu. The chicken was cooked perfectly, where often it can be a little dry. But, while the tomato sauce was rich, I tend to like quite spicy dishes and would have appreciated a bit more depth of flavour. Accompanying my chicken curry the sag aloo and tamarind rice were fantastic, but the tarka dahl was a little on the bland side. All of our dishes were extremely well presented and delivered with the sort of friendly level of service that makes you feel like a regular visitor.

It was, on the whole, an excellent evening and I would heartily recommend Namaaste to those Indian loving aficionados who are keen to try something a little different.

Having not yet masterminded England’s route to World Cup glory in 2014, we stayed for one further drink, following which we were still none the wiser. Although the old man did make a very convincing case for playing Adipoli Erachi Mulagu up front on his own. Hang on a minute… ...read more

Patrick Evenden 17 Jul 2012

Customer Reviews for Namaaste Kitchen

Average (based on 1 votes): 1 Atmosphere: Value: Quality:

The following customer reviews are not endorsed by Fluid London and are simply those of users who wish to publish their independent experiences of Namaaste Kitchen.

“This is a superb restaurant with amazin food, decor is urban modern,”
Atmosphere: Value: Quality:
Mark, London (2 years 5 months 10 days ago)

Additional Information

• Cuisine Type: Indian
• Group: (Independent/Freehouse)