Indian Accent

This is the third Indian Accent, the first two opened in Delhi and New York. The link is owner Rohit Khattar and chef Manish Mehrotra. Mehrotra has returned to London after a decade’s absence, making this Mayfair branch the flagship.

Indian Accent is so polished you could be forgiven for thinking the menu will be tame. Not a bit of it. Mehrotra’s taken plenty of offbeat ingredients and turned them into thrilling dishes that push the boundaries of modern Indian cooking. Amla is a wild tree fruit containing 20 times the vitamin C of an orange, inedibly sour when raw. But cooked into a fruit confit, mixed with pomelo and cashew, it’s served as a toothsome chaat (snack or appetiser). The humble dosa, a crisp pancake that’s breakfast for south Indians, is here turned into a cloche-like cone that lifts to reveal a spicy melange of water chestnuts and enoki mushrooms, layered with spices. Mishti doi, a Bengali dessert of sweetened yogurt, cleverly replaces ricotta in Sicilian-style cannoli.

VERDICT Brilliant cooking of a standard rarely seen, slick service and prices that aren’t grasping: book now while you can still get a table. Guy Dimond

HOURS

Mon-Sat 12-2pm, 5.30-10pm

PRICE

Three course dinner for two with wine around £140

CONTACT

16 Albermarle St, W1S 4HW; +44 (0)20 7629 9802; indianaccent. com