Veeraswamy

1 Review of Veeraswamy the UK’s oldest Indian Restaurant

By the very nature of fashion & trends, restaurants come & go; that’s what happens in the world of hospitality. So today, it’s a unique experience to review a restaurant that’s been on the planet at the same address for 97 years. Today we are reviewing the UK’s oldest Indian restaurant, the Michelin-starred Veeraswamy.

My late grandparents ate at this restaurant in the 1950s. For me, it’s my first visit, and I feel rather late to the party. I intend to make the most of my visit to this very British institution.

History

Veeraswamy was opened in 1926 by Edward Palmer, an Anglo-Indian army officer, and a businessman named Abdul Yaseen. The restaurant was named after Yaseen’s father, Veeraswamy Yaseen.

In the early days, it gained popularity with locals but also visiting Maharajas who would make a beeline to the restaurant as soon as they arrived in London. The restaurant was pivotal in popularising Indian cuisine with the British public.

Throughout the 1900s, the restaurant remained extremely popular and attracted the rich & famous, including Winston Churchill & former King Edward iii.

Veeraswamy has undergone various transformations in its long history & In 1996, it was taken over by its current owners and still remains a family business. In 2016 it attained its first Michelin Star, which it holds today.

Restaurant

As we mentioned Veeraswamy has spent 97 years in one location on Regent Street based on the 1st Floor. 

The entrance is Swallow Street; you are greeted by the smartly dressed doorman who shows you to the lift.

Once you enter the restaurant, you are in a different world to the hustle & bustle of Regent Street below.

The decor is brilliantly 1920’s & it can’t help but make your mind wander to what it was like 97 years ago. The restaurant was completely renovated during the COVID lockdown; the result is a stunningly stylish nod to the past, subtly using the colours of India within the dining areas.

I must also mention that the tableware, glasses & serving dishes all matched the decor theme perfectly.

Menu

The menu is seasonal & changes frequently; however, two dishes have been on the menu since 1926. They are old favourites, Mulligatawny soup and Hyderabad biriani.

As well as being seasonal, the two main features of the menu are that the regions of India are clearly defined on the menu & local produce adds some exciting twists to classic dishes. We tasted a few of these, and  I will cover them in the review section. Judging by the menu the food providence of the ingredients is very important.

Authentic regionality is paramount, as I was told that Veeeraswamy employs chefs from the region to ensure that the dish is authentic in taste and spicing. This is an expensive way to run a kitchen but very much part of delivering true regional dishes.

 When you consider the size of India, it would be alien for a chef from the North to cook a dish from the South as spices, flavours & cooking techniques are different.

Because of the seasonality, you will not find a menu online, just a sample menu, so once at the restaurant, it was good to see many of the signature dishes but also some lovely surprises. We leaned on the expertise of our waiter, who was very happy to talk through the menu.

Review

Ok, we have talked about the history, but ultimately, we are all here for the food, so let’s get on with our review. Before I start, I should mention that  we were dining at lunchtime & luckily, we had a very light breakfast as we determined to try as much as possible (we still had  to request a doggie bag)

My companion today at Veeraswamy was Mrs Mayfair Foodie, Leigh

Starters

First, we both wanted to try the Tandoori Green Prawns, and a dish of  Scottish Grilled Scallops served with coconut & mango salsa. I have always been a big fan of meat-filled dumplings, so we ordered the Chicken Momos. Finally, we were recommended to try the Beetroot Croquette.

The prawns we beautifully presented & served butterflied. I loved the classic combination of mint, coriander & chilli. 

The scallops were so lightly cooked & served with finely diced Mango & Coconut, a lovely starter. 

We both enjoyed the Momos, Leigh is not usually the biggest fan, but these had been fried off to give a crispy texture to the dumpling which she enjoyed.

Finally, the surprise dish was the Calcutta Beetroot croquette; it was served with green chilli oil and an English stilton cheese sauce. Earlier in the review, we mentioned uniquely using local ingredients & I can confirm the Stilton sauce work perfectly with the earthy flavour of the beetroot and spice of the chilli oil. The resulted in a great starter.

A couple of dishes caught our eye, but we had ordered too many already, the Crab cake, also the Raj Kachari described as Regal street food, a wheat puri filled with goodies & splashed with chutneys. We should have asked what the goodies were, but guessing the fillings change regularly.

Main Course Dishes

We agreed to a longer break with the waiter as we wanted to savour the flavours that the starters delivered & build an appetite for the main courses.

As recommended by our waiter, first on our plates were the fish-based dishes, sea bass served in a pandan leaf & crab biryani.

It was a good call to recommend starting the mains this way as both fish dishes were delicate flavours and avoiding overpowering the fish with strong sources is a good idea.

The sea bass was cooked to perfection with the skin off, and the presentation looked stunning. The crab biryani was served with the crab shell top cover. I’m guessing, as I have never tried to cook biryani, that it is a difficult dish to get right, let alone like this one which was perfect. For the life of me, I have no idea how they cook the rice so light & fluffy with delicate spices and flavours of cardamom. All worked perfectly with white crab meat. It was a sublime dish. 

So far, so good, but we were excited to move on to the meat dishes, which are both signature dishes & we had picked out in advance of our visit to try.

Paffala Shashi Roan Encroute, the description read on the menu, describes the dish perfectly.

“Maharaja of Patlia recipe-welsh lamb shank slow cooked for 6 hours then wrapped in delicate pastry & grilled in a tandoor oven.”

One omission from the description is that it is served in a small jug of gravy of bone marrow & spices.

The other dish is Chicken Makhani au vin, a classic makhani sauce made richer with red wine (Bordeaux, no less). The darker colour of the Makhani sauce gave a clue to the inclusion of red wine. The inclusion of wine works perfectly & with juicy chicken, it more than lived up to our expectations.

Ok, hands up; who would have considered adding red wine to a curry sauce? Not me, but I’m happy to add it to Coq au vin. It is an inspired inclusion & something I will happily copy next time I have friends over an Indian meal. Will I claim it was my idea, of course!!!

On to the Lamb Shank Encroute, firstly, how do we get into it? Luckily our waiter was on hand to help.

Remove the shank bone and break open the pasty at the top, leaving a perfect pastry serving dish; even better, it’s a dish you can eat.

Six hours of slow cooking had left the lamb soft & succulent; it was perfect. The addition of the bone marrow gravy completed the dish; we loved it.

A quick word on the sides…

We ordered Pineapple curry and three-colour seasoned carrot Thoran (a dry vegetable dish from Kerala). Naan bread buttered & lemon rice.

The pineapple curry was refreshing, and as someone slightly sceptical about its inclusion enjoyed it, much to the displeasure of Leigh, who loves all things pineapple. The three colour carrots (red, black & orange)  also added a different texture to the table, and being lightly spiced worked well as a side.

I don’t know why more Indian restaurants serve lemon rice; it works perfectly with spice. 

Desserts

Again another break before desserts. Again we had one dish in mind: a flambe pudding made from black carrots. Appearance-wise, like a small Christmas pudding. We also ordered fresh mango and a rice pudding spiced with nutmeg, cardamom and rose. The rice pudding was topped with strawberries.

There is also something special about having food flambeed at the table, the waiter spooned on brandy, and the pudding covered in a blue flame. The theatre aside, the pudding was deceptively light & lightly spiced and not overly sweet. We both enjoyed it.

I love a spiced rice pudding. Again the inclusion of the strawberries gave nice tarte notes to compliment the sweetness.

The mango was ripe & refreshing and went well with the two puddings.

Drinks

Pre-dinner, Leigh ordered a glass of Chapel Down sparkling from  Kent & I went for White Rhino Indian Beer.  With the meal, we both had a glass of German Riesling.

Conclusion

Veeraswamy, a restaurant, is steeped in tradition & history. The food is beautifully presented & the service lives up to its Michelin star rating. However, it’s clear to me that the restaurant is not going to rest on its laurels; in terms of menu, it’s pushing the boundaries of regional Indian cuisine by focusing on the quality of the food, layers of spicing, along with a few local twists.

Eating out is always about the overall experience, and the recently renovated 1920’s themed dining room only enhances the overall experience. 

As we left by the lift, we saw pictures of yesteryear & the many famous people who have frequented Veeraswamy over the years. The restaurant will continue to push the boundaries by providing the exceptional cuisine we experienced today.

I hope you enjoyed this review for more reviews of Mayfair restaurants go to our review section.

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