Delhi-cious: Exploring London’s Indian food revolution

When I was younger, Indian food meant choosing a protein – meat or, at a push, frozen fish or prawns. Veggies, sorry mate, no such joy – and dumping it into a lava red sauce of your choice.

Entry level was a korma. So sweet it was like a milkshake. Or you could go one step up and snaffle a classic tikka masala. For those looking for a more authentic experience, perhaps a jalfrezi or exotic rogan josh. And if you’d just necked eight pints of Stella and a few sambuca shots down the pub, you would sweat through a vindaloo or phall, and prove to your mates that you really were hard as nails. Walls were heavily flocked and light was kept to a minimum, perhaps a cunning ruse to disguise the food?

Whilst I don’t begrudge the early days, it wasn’t until a trip to India on my gap year that I realised it was all a cunning lie. Culinary chicanery to relax us into a new cuisine. And that’s all fine. It was just pretty gross.

As our palettes became accustomed to the thick gravies, ghee and spices we yearned for more. Thankfully things moved on. Now we have actual Indian food that’s regional, and dare I say it, authentic. We have fine dining – there are seven Michelin starred Indian restaurants in London, Gymkhana being my favourite of them all. And we have modern Indian restaurants serving exciting dishes that have set the bar to new heights. Cocktails flow and cool oozes out of every small plate they serve.

Soho is getting it’s mitts on two new Indian restaurants. Tamarind Kitchen, the spin off from Michelin starred Tamarind in Mayfair, will open on Wardour Street, with beautifully tandoori food, and rich regional curries. And the latest pop up gone perm, Darjeeling Express, will hit Carnaby Street. Owner, Asma Khan, will cook celebratory meals, carefully chosen from her family's’ recipe repertoire.

Kricket, which started life in a shipping container at Pop Brixton, recently opened a new branch on Denman Street, Soho. They have redefined traditional Indian dishes and given them a modern spin – like their butter-garlic crab with the clever addition of seaweed papad or duck leg kati rolls and pickled cucumber.

Over in east London, Gunpowder, in Spitalfields, follows suit, with inventive modern fare and a killer cocktail list. Together founder Harneet Baweja and head chef Nirmal Save have created one of the most exciting Indian restaurants in London. Come for the crispy pork ribs, inspired by the flavours of Nagaland in the far northeastern corner of India, and stay for a double portion of their garlic and mint chutney cheese sandwich.

As with fashion, food trends go full circle, and we have Indian restaurants doing new-wave Anglo-Indian food. The ravishing Ravinder Bhogal has a selection of Indian-style scotch eggs at her restaurant Jikoni in Marylebone and Dishoom does one of the best bacon sarnies in town. Cinnamon Bazaar, in Covent Garden, makes an awesome chana masala hummus. Ok, not fully British I’ll admit, but hummus moved from welly warring Waitrose baskets to Tesco Express ones years ago.

John Gregory-Smith is a chef, cookbook author and food and travel writer. Follow him on Twitter @mightyspice and Instagram @johngs.