I’ve been going to Masala Zone for a while now. It’s a small chain of Indian restaurants — four in total — from an impressive stable that includes the Michelin-starred Veeraswamy and Amaya, and the equally impressive Chutney Mary, which, for some inexplicable reason, has never been awarded a Michelin star of its own.
Anyhow, needless to say, Masala Zone is a very good group of restaurants, and my personal favourite is the one in the old Criterion building — a genuinely stunning space to eat in. The original ceiling still remains and the team at Masala Zone have done an amazing job creating such a special place to dine in.
So I was only too happy to return, this time to sample a limited-edition themed menu built around the Grand Trunk Road: a 2,500-kilometre route running from the North-West Frontier all the way to Chittagong, near the Bay of Bengal. This historic highway and trade route passes through many regions and just as many cuisines. (I know a lot of you enjoy a little historical detail, so I’ve added an abbreviated history of the Grand Trunk Road at the end of this review.) The menu runs for just 12 weeks, so I was keen to take this culinary journey through the food of the subcontinent while I still could.
It’s such a good idea, and a lovely way to be introduced to unfamiliar dishes — some of which, I suspect, may well earn a permanent place on the main menu once their 12-week stint is over. So, the scene is set. On a beautiful sunny evening in Piccadilly Circus, we arrive with high expectations, ready to journey along India’s Grand Trunk Road.
Food & Menu
I should say that the Grand Trunk Road menu runs in addition to the regular menu, so those who prefer can still enjoy their Masala Zone favourites while also trying something completely different. For us, though, it was Grand Trunk Road or no road. My guest was my nephew Ben who, despite his tender years (well, compared to his uncle), is a veteran of many a good Indian restaurant and the ideal companion for an adventure like this.
Regular readers will know I lean heavily on the advice of the team looking after us, and today was a case in point — the new menu is full of unfamiliar dishes. No need to panic, though: we were looked after perfectly. The team serving the food is a feature of every visit to Masala Zone, and they proved as knowledgeable as ever.
Sharing side plates
We were advised to start with a few dishes from the sharing small plates section of the menu. First to arrive were the Delhi Bhalla Papadi Chaat and the Chittagong Fish Croquettes — one cold dish, one hot.
The chaat is a classic piece of Delhi street food: soft lentil bhallas (dumplings) and crisp papadi crackers, layered with sweet yoghurt, tangy tamarind chutney, fresh mint chutney and a sprinkle of aromatic spices. It’s exactly the sort of well-balanced mouthful that Indian street food is famous for, with contrasting textures and flavours held together by subtle spicing — something I’ve enjoyed on previous visits to Masala Zone, and which says so much about this kitchen. The fish croquettes, meanwhile, were outstanding: served with a kasundi sauce best described as a mild mustard mayo, a perfect foil for the fish.
Two more starters followed: Benarasi Aloo Matar and — because it was frankly impossible not to order — Old Delhi Fried Chicken. If you like fried chicken, you’ll love these bite-sized morsels of loveliness. The aloo matar was deceptively light and fresh, the ideal partner to the chicken.
Mains
For mains we ordered four dishes to share: a Dhaka Prawn Curry, a Patiala Saag Murgh, a traditional Lucknowi Lamb Biryani and, finally, a Khyber Pass plate-sized kebab.
That last one deserves a word of explanation. A signature dish of the Khyber Pass region, the chapli kebab is spiced minced meat shaped by hand into a thin, flat patty — the name ‘chapli’ is said to come from the word for a slipper, on account of the shape (or, less charmingly, the notion that it looks as though it’s been stepped on). Served here on a small naan, it’s destined to be a star, and I’d wager it finds its way onto the main menu before long.
The two curries were a delight. The lightly spiced sauce of the prawn curry didn’t overshadow the prawns themselves, while the saag murgh, by contrast, was full of powerful flavour — rich with spinach and slow-cooked mustard greens.
Biryanis are not easy to cook. Done badly, they’re dry and bland; done well, they’re moist and fragrant. Ours was cooked perfectly, and served with a refreshing raita.
We’d chosen well — or rather, as I’ve already confessed, we’d listened well — and I’d recommend ordering your mains with sharing in mind. You get a far better sense of the Grand Trunk Road that way.
Desserts
For completeness, I should mention that we did partake in dessert — two, in fact. There are no ‘Trunk Road’ puddings as such, so we chose from the standard menu (and, once again, shared): a Gulab Jamun with ginger ice cream, and a Mango Shrikhand fruit cup. Indian desserts are, by nature, generally very sweet, but neither of these was cloying. The ginger gave the ice cream a gentle, warming kick, while the mango cup delivered a big, fresh burst of fruit.
A Short History of the Grand Trunk Road
As promised, a little history for those who like that sort of thing — and the Grand Trunk Road has history in spades.
Start with the when, because it is genuinely ancient. This is one of the oldest and longest roads in Asia, and for well over two thousand years it has tied Central Asia to the Indian subcontinent. It began life as the Uttarapatha, the ‘Northern Road’ of the Sanskrit texts, and was formalised in the third century BCE under the Mauryan emperor Chandragupta Maurya, who modelled it — rather grandly — on the Persian Royal Road.
The why is simple enough: an empire is only as strong as its ability to move things across it — armies, tax, trade goods, messengers and pilgrims. A single great artery running the width of the subcontinent meant grain, silk, spices and soldiers could all travel the same road. Chandragupta’s grandson, the emperor Ashoka, grasped this and made the road humane as well as useful, planting shade trees, digging wells and building rest houses for travellers — arguably the world’s first motorway service stations, and a good deal more civilised than the ones on the M25.
The road we’d recognise today owes most to Sher Shah Suri, the 16th-century ruler who rebuilt and widened it, lined it with trees and studded it with caravanserais — roadside inns offering weary travellers free food and shelter every few miles. He called it the Sadak-e-Azam, the ‘Great Road’. The Mughals kept it up as the Badshahi Sadak, the ‘King’s Road’, and it was the British, in the 1830s, who metalled the route from Calcutta through Delhi to Kabul and gave it the workmanlike name it still carries. Rudyard Kipling, who knew it well, immortalised it in Kim as a ‘river of life’.
As for the where: from Kabul in Afghanistan, up over the Khyber Pass, then down through Peshawar, Lahore, Amritsar and Delhi, on to Kolkata, and finally to Chittagong on the Bay of Bengal — some 2,500 kilometres, gathering up the flavours of every region it touched. Which, when you think about it, is precisely what Masala Zone has done here. Those roadside dhabas the menu takes its cue from? Direct descendants of Ashoka’s rest houses and Sher Shah’s caravanserais. The more things change.
Conclusion
So, was the journey worth taking? Emphatically, yes. The Grand Trunk Road Odyssey is a clever, generous idea, beautifully executed — a genuine tour of the subcontinent’s regional cooking without ever leaving your table (or, indeed, Piccadilly Circus). The cooking has the balance and confidence I’ve come to expect from Masala Zone, and a handful of these dishes — the fish croquettes and that chapli kebab chief among them — deserve a permanent home on the menu.
A few practical notes. The menu runs for just 12 weeks, so this is very much a catch-it-while-you-can affair. Order with sharing in mind — you’ll travel further that way. And if you’re the sort who likes a souvenir, Masala Zone has thought of that too: returning diners can collect stamps in a rather charming physical ‘passport’ as they work their way across the regions, with prizes ranging from a complimentary dish to a supply of Kingfisher, no less.
Ben and I left having eaten our way from the Khyber Pass to the Bay of Bengal in a single sitting — full, happy, and already plotting a return to tick off the dishes we missed. High praise, and thoroughly deserved. Consider the road well and truly travelled.
Where to Find It
We ate at Masala Zone Piccadilly Circus, in the historic 1873 Criterion building opposite Eros. The Grand Trunk Road Odyssey is a limited-edition menu running for just 12 weeks, available at lunch and dinner across all four Masala Zone locations:
Soho — 9 Marshall Street, London W1F 7ER (nearest station: Oxford Circus)
Covent Garden — 48 Floral Street, London WC2E 9DA (nearest station: Covent Garden)
Piccadilly Circus — 224 Piccadilly, London W1J 9HP (nearest station: Piccadilly Circus)
Earls Court — 147 Earls Court Road, London SW5 9RQ (nearest station: Earl’s Court)
