Masala Zone Soho Review: Consistently Good Cooking at London’s Best Value Indian Restaurant

What ever happened to the good old British curry house? I can recall so many of them in London, especially in the Soho area – but only a handful of them still exist in central London. Chicken tikka, rogan josh, butter chicken – all those favourites we love are now harder to find as the Indian food scene has transitioned to be more traditional and with a focus on fine dining. I’m glad of the quality change personally, but I do miss the old haunts. One restaurant which has been here for all that time and thriving is Masala Zone in Soho. The site opened on Soho’s Marshall Street back in 2001 and after becoming incredibly popular, Masala Zone is now a well recognised brand across London and guess what, they still serve up some of those familiar classics.

Kicking off our lunch proceedings here at Masala Zone we started with a couple of cocktails. A refreshingly delicious almond & rose sour and a margarita – both with their own Masala Zone twists. Even if you’re not thinking of coming here for dinner, come for drinks and nibbles at the bar – its great fun. We actually dined here during their special Kite Festival which made for an even more exciting visit as the restaurant was decked out with colourful kites. The symbolism of the festival is to show the awakening of Hindu gods from deep sleep and during this time the restaurant created some extra special, exclusive dishes to mark the occasion.

One dish which Masala Zone have always down well, is a good chaat. They really know how to get the balance just right and this special dish created for the kite festival of woven marwari kachori chaat just showed off even more of what they could do with what is essentially just a handful of ingredients. Tamarind chutney, spicy coriander chutney, cooling yoghurt, pomegranate seeds and mountains of crispy sev – all contained in a crunchy basket. If this isn’t the most delicious thing in the world, then I don’t know what is.

I absolutely LOVED the chicken soola lollipops and my only regret is not ordering a second portion of them. Succulent drumsticks of chicken with their bones cleaned up for easy eating and that glorious chicken marinated overnight in Rajasthani spices. A little spicy and a little messy – but utterly delicious.

Equally as good were the goli kebabs. Grilled lean mince lamb balls glazed with lots of chilli sauce. Juicy, full of flavour and rather spicy, but that’s why I love Masala Zone – they’re not afraid of a little bit of spice. Plus it’s the perfect excuse to order that second bottle of wine.

For mains, we tucked into what is probably one of my favourite Masala Zone dishes. Lamb rogan josh. It might be one of the UK’s best know curry dishes, but they’ve got it spot on. Succulent morsels of lamb, drowning in a sauce made of up Kashmiri chillies and 15 other spices which are slow cooked over 4 hours. The result? A spicy and intensely rich curry which goes perfect with a few too may sides. Order a steamed rice, the silkiest of black dal and baby spinach with garlic (saag). You won’t be disappointed.

We also tried one of the special festival main course called Undhiyo. This celebratory Winter dish is made up of nine different exotic vegetables such as aubergine, plantain and purple yam which are then slow cooked with garlic and fresh green herbs. I liked this dish a lot, but for me it felt a little more like a side dish rather than a main. That could just be my British mentality expecting it to come smothered in lots of sauce.

For dessert, we tucked into two. Indian food is and always has been my favourite, but what I will say is that the cuisine rarely surprises me with dessert. Mostly, even at the fine dining level its gulab jamun, gajar ka halwa, kulfi or something chocolatey – all given an Indian twist. But Masala Zone surprised me on this occasion with two I’ve never actually eaten before. Sakrant boondi with rabri cones was as colourful and as playful as ever and I loved them. As well as my favourite of the two – crispy edged bikaneri pancakes. I could have eaten mountains of these.

Of course in true Foodaholic fashion, we finished on an espresso martini as we gossiped the night away and ended what was an always lovely meal here in Soho. Masala Zone may be a group with multiple sites across the city, but it’s still the best of any restaurant group I know and such love, thought and care goes into the menus which change with the seasons and availability of ingredients. The food is punchy, has personality, traditional and most importantly it’s all very affordable. Plus the service is excellent. Would we come back? Absolutely!