Oudh 1722

This restaurant, sister of Opheem, opened in early May 2026, near Borough Market. The dining room is spread over two floors, seating up to 80, with a bar upstairs. The cooking is inspired by the royal court cooking of Lucknow. Back in 1722 the Mughal (Mongol) province of Awadh (aka Oudh) was established in northern India in what is now Uttar Pradesh. It remained independent until its conquest by the British in 1856. The name of the restaurant is therefore a reference to the establishment of that province. The building itself is listed, Devonshire House originally being a Hatters shop dating back to the 1850s. 

The menu of Oudh 1722 is a la carte, and will expand to more dishes in due course. The head chef here is George Cooke, working with executive chef Aktar Islam. Both were present on the evening of my visit. There were 13 chefs in the kitchen tonight, with around twenty chefs in total working at the restaurant. 

The short but quite wide-ranging wine list had 53 labels and ranged in price from £35 to £219, with a median price of £99 and an average markup to retail price of 3.3 times. Sample references were Castello Banfi Centine 2023 at £49 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £15.60, Peter Schweiger Zweigelt 2023 at £66 compared to its retail price of £19, and ArmAs Uru Uu Reserve Karmrahyut from Aragatsotn 2015 at £90 for a wine that will set you back £32 in the high street. For those with the means there was Summer Dreams Pinot Noir "Stargazing" 2021 at £219 compared to its retail price of £115, and the excellent Jermann Vintage Tunina at a hefty £212 for a wine whose current market value is £62. There were orange wines, ports, wines from Japan, Canada and Armenia, so the list was quite adventurous.

A nice touch at the start of the meal was the offer of proper hot towels, rather than those unpleasant compressed towel tablets that pop up when hot water is added, but feel synthetic and slimy. We began with popadoms and chutneys (£8). These were made in the kitchen and the four offered were coriander chutney, mint-tempered yoghurt, roast tomato and tamarind chutney and also mango chutney. The latter two in particular were both excellent. Morel shorba (£6) had peas and asparagus as well as the mushrooms, and the soup had lots of flavour but was delivered lukewarm. It was objectively very good (15/20) only if I ignore the temperature, which was problematic. 

Mushroom kebab (£16) was served with an excellent romali roti. This dish won’t win any presentation awards but the flavour of the kebab was good and the roti had lovely, soft texture (14/20). Murgh malai was a whole leg of chicken that had been marinated with yoghurt, cream, cheese and spices before cooking in the tandoor. The chicken used was free range French-breed, slow grown chicken from Fosse Meadows in Lutterworth, Leicestershire. This had excellent flavour and the spices had nicely combined with the flavour of the meat, which had been softened in texture by the marinade (15/20).

Butter chicken with smoked tomato and cream (£24) had a rich but not overly buttery sauce, and again the chicken had good flavour (14/20). Tandoori prawn (£22) featured a large king prawn served in its shell, cooked with garlic and served with raw mango. The prawn was quite tender and the mango was an interesting touch (14/20). Yellow dhal (£12) had yellow lentils and tempered pigeon peas (a legume also known as toor dal). This was very good, the lentils keeping their texture well (14/20). Monkfish (£26) was served on the bone and was just a little overcooked, served with Awadhi fish curry. The curry sauce was nice but the fish cooking was not ideal (barely 13/20). Biryani (£28) with spiced chickpeas, soy dumplings, seasonal vegetables and pilau rice lacked the traditional pastry case top to seal in flavours. The rice was nonetheless reasonably aromatic and the little dumplings were good, as was the cauliflower used (14/20).Wild garlic naan (£6) was served stone cold, but its replacement was piping hot and had good pliable texture and plenty of garlic flavour (15/20).

Gulab jaman (£11) was not in the traditional sphere shape but tasted just fine, with a rich syrup that was not too sweet, with Chantilly cream alongside (14/20).  Rasmalai (£11) was good if a little dense in texture (13/20). The coffee here was from Difference Coffee. Weirdly, the Brazil yellow bourbon was priced here higher than the (superior and costlier) Jamaican Blue Mountain. Doubtless this will be corrected in due course. The tea offered here was Lalani, which is probably the best tea supplier in London.

Service was friendly and the bill came to £120 a head. Overall, Oudh 1722 was an enjoyable experience but one where the kitchen was clearly still feeling its way. This was just the second day of service, but then it was also full price, so there should not have been the multiple issues with food temperature given that there was no soft opening discount. However, I am sure that the teething issues will get sorted out in time, and I will try it again when things have settled down.