Chutney Mary

Below are my notes from a far happier meal in August 2010.

I have been to Chutney Mary many times over the years, but not recently. It is now 20 years since the restaurant opened, and so it seemed appropriate to return and see how the food was these days. Chutney Mary has spawned a group that includes Amaya, Veerswamy and the simpler but highly successful Masala Zone chain. Co-owners Namita Panjabi, Camellia Panjabi and Rangit Mathrani have prospered as a result, with the original Chelsea venue still pulling in the punters with its ambitious Anglo-Indian menu.

The main dining room is in a basement on two levels, though there is also a private dining room at ground level. Some years ago a conservatory was added, and that was where we sat tonight. The furnishings are smart and the conservatory is light and airy.

The menu has always been more ambitious than most Indian restaurants, and priced to match. There are unusual dishes like monkfish biriani (and I later noticed that the biriani was served, as it should be, with the dish sealed with a pastry case) as well as the classics of north Indian cooking.  The wine list is unusually serious for an Indian restaurant, with extensive tasting notes. Iona Sauvignon Blanc 2009 was £36 for a wine that costs around a tenner, the classy Chapoutier Condieu Invitare 2008 was £73 for a wine that you can buy for around £31, while Chateau Pontet-Canet 2001 was £93 for a wine that also costs around £31 to buy retail. 

Tokri chaat is a common Indian street food (snack mix served in a basket, priced here at £8.50) and was here served in a crisp straw potato basket, with its mix of pieces of potato, moong beans, tamarind, onion, coriander and spices with strained yoghurt and chutneys. This was tasty and nicely balanced (13/20).

Scallop malabar £10.50) was a pair of small scallops that were seared and served with a coconut ginger and saffron sauce.  The scallops themselves were very carefully cooked, the sauce perhaps with more saffron than I would have chosen but nicely spiced; even for a starter though, this was quite a small portion (14/20). 

My main course of four pieces of malai tikka (£16.50) had tenderised (marinated) chicken cooked in the tandoor, served here with fenugreek leaves, a little green chilli and coriander shoots as garnish; when the plate appeared the chicken looked a little dry around the edges, but inside was moist, the spices of the marinade having permeated the meat (14/20).  Tandoori prawns (£23.50) were carefully cooked when so often they are not, marinated in red chilli, tomato, ginger and palm vinegar, and again the spices were accurate (14/20). 

Pickled potatoes (£7.50) were shaped into patties and tasted a little of the vinegar and spices in which they were prepared, but the potatoes still retained some firmness of texture (13/20).  A yellow dhal (£5) was well made, with firm texture, though the bowl of rice that arrived was tiny (admittedly this was only £2.50). Garlic naan was quite supple in texture (13/20).

I often skip desserts in Indian restaurants because so few places actually make their own.  However I was pleased I tried the gulab jamun (syrupy balls made from flour, butter and milk, with sugar syrup).  So often these are dried out and hard, but the version tonight was genuinely superb, light and very moist inside, the syrup not overly sweet.  This is a tough dish to get right, and these were the best gulab jamun I can recall; these were garnished with little pieces of pistachio and served with a rhubarb ice cream (16/20).  Black cherry kulfi was capable, but merely very good by comparison (14/20). 

Service was attentive, and topping up of drinks etc excellent. The bill came to £63 a head, and that is really the only thing that rankles a little. The food cost for this kind of cuisine is not that high, and while I can understand that they want to be careful on the portion control of expensive ingredients like scallops and prawns, chicken is hardly costly, and to give such a silly little portion of rice just seems mean. Still, this is definitely skilled cooking.

Further reviews: 10th Apr 2011