Indian Accent Restaurant Review: Exciting Indian Cooking in Mayfair

Many years ago, I might have been able to eat my way around the central London Indian restaurant scene in a year and start all over again. Feasting on nothing more than chicken tikka masala or butter chicken, accompanied but a rather safe side of flavourless Bombay aloo and a greasy onion bhaji. Thankfully, all that has changed – even if we don’t like to admit our love of a good old British curry house after a night on the town.

The Indian dining scene in London has over the last 10 years gone from cheap and easy, to refined, exciting and one of the capitals most exciting. I’m a huge fan of Indian food and so right now, I’m completely in my element – discovering new dishes every day. Indian Accent is one of London’s most recent additions, serving up Inventive Indian food full of intrigue and a touch of spice.

Inside it’s looking rather fabulous, with plush interiors decorated with gold accents, green velvet to-the-touch chairs, a stunning bar and lighting to make anyone look glamorous.

As we settled in, we started with a buttery glass of chilled Champagne and a small amuse bouche which was a naan, stuffed with blue cheese. Rich, oozing and delicious. This really got the palate excited and went very well with that Champagne, cutting through the oil.

First of our dishes to arrive from the smaller plates option on the menu was the potato sphere chaat with white pea mash. The chaat was the right side of crispy, smothered in lashing of yoghurt, tamarind and coriander chutneys. It looked great and that unusual spicy pea mash really worked, adding yet another twist to this classic Indian staple.

The prawns. I can still recall them now and even thinking about them makes me want to return. Five or so large, succulent tiger prawns cooked to sheer perfection, smothered in a rich spicy sauce and served with, sago fritters and an Indian sorrel chutney which was the stuff of dreams. A dish not to be missed.

The cooking of everything here is spectacular. Not once did we tuck into anything which was overcooked and instead just juicy morsels of meat, seafood and vegetables. All that can be said for the tandoori Scottish salmon with lemon and black garlic cream. Incredibly succulent yet again, the perfect balance of spice and the fish itself was infused with so much flavour you couldn’t help but fall in love. An extra morsel of fish wouldn’t have gone a miss for the price, but still lovely as ever.

One of my favourite dishes was one I can only suspect is a signature of Indian Accent. Ghee roast lamb with roomali roti pancakes and a selection of chutneys. This was essentially an Indian version of the Chinese “crispy duck with pancakes” and I was blown away. The richness of that meat, the fluffy roti’s, spicy chutneys – it was such an explosion of flavour in the mouth. Price wise for the size it was completely out of sync in my opinion and needs to come by down a few pounds, but this dish is excellent and well worth trying.

Make sure you order some sides too, especially the garlic pepper potatoes and wild mushroom kulcha with truffle oil from the Indian Accent bread bar. The potatoes were very good, but the kulcha was a revelation. I’ve not had one quite so rich and oozing before. Absolutely delicious.

We finished up on a dessert of cardamom cheese cake with summer berries and a sweet mango ‘aamras’ puri. I’m a huge cheese cake fan and this didn’t disappoint, with the mango adding a lovely refreshing touch to it all.

I really loved our meal at Indian Accent in Mayfair and both Chef Manish Mehrotra and the team here are really contributing on taking the London Indian dining scene to even newer and exciting heights. The restaurant is gorgeous, the food is exciting and whilst prices are very high, the execution of everything in my opinion makes it worth every penny. Would we come back? Without a doubt.

NB: My meal was complimentary. All views are as always, my own. My views are not influenced by anyone other than my own palate and slightly poor eyesight.