Since reading about The Great Indian everywhere in January, from restaurant news site Hot Dinners to Observer critic Jay Rayner’s column, it’s been firmly on the must-try list.
Surjan Singh, otherwise known as the Jolly Good Chef, is the award-winning consultant (and MasterChef India judge) behind this foodie new N19 boozer on Marlborough Road, although it’s actually run by Aman Dhir, whose Hackney takeaway bears the same name.
The subtitle to the menu is “a journey through India”, and to illustrate this, he has drawn from “extensive travels across India, from North to South, East to West,” to curate food inspired by the diversity of regional cuisines. The aim is to “fuse flavours with a gastropub feel while honouring my Indian roots.”
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And – spoiler alert – it’s a resounding success. Especially as its location is brave, with almost zero footfall in the hinterland between Archway and Finsbury Park. Although the contemporary dining room – dimly lit, its ceiling adorned with fake foliage – was almost empty on our Sunday afternoon visit, it had happily filled by the time we left, at around 6pm. So word, it seems, is most definitely out.
To begin with, however, service felt a little vague, and distracted, despite the few customers: house wine (a not-too-bad £24.50) took a torturous while to arrive, and only just made it before the fantastic crunch of the poppadoms, smoked and served with tiranga – or three-coloured – chutney.
That was when the party started. Thereafter, the hits ramped up swiftly: mammoth tiger prawns, which slipped easily out of their carapace, were pert and fleshy, liberally strewn with a zingy salsa verde-style sauce of coriander, herb, mint and garlic; and lamb roti tacos proved one-bite umami wonders, the slow-cooked meat yielding a satisfying depth of flavour.
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It’s always worth trying a classic chicken biryani: here it was as cardamon-fragrant as we needed it to be, caramelised onion clinging to chunks of tender thigh, garlic yoghurt adding a necessary tang.
The standout main was arguably the rich Malabar seabass curry, pictured below, a South Indian dish from Kerala pairing the fish with coconut, tamarind and spices like cloves and cinnamon. It was served with uttapam, or soft rice pancakes. With these we wiped the bowl clean.
My advice? Walk there, and walk it off back – wherever you live: this fusion of elevated Indian cooking and rebooted local pub is unique, and almost defines the word destination. Starters £5.50-11.50, mains £11-23.50, The Great Indian, 139 Marlborough Rd, London N19
