Shilpa has been serving Keralan food in Hammersmith since 2012. It has an extensive menu, with a mix of Keralan specialities and more familiar north Indian dishes. Head chef Mukundan Ramachandran has been here for three years and is from Kerala, as indeed are all the staff here.
I began with masala dosa, the classic South Indian breakfast dish. This has a rice pancake cooked on a griddle and rolled up into a cylinder, inside of which is a filling of potatoes and spices. This is traditionally served with a sambal curry and coconut chutney. The dosa was crisp, the filling was generous and nicely spiced, and the sambal and chutney were excellent (14/20).
Chicken jalfrezi was perhaps not the best choice that I good have made, this being a more generic north Indian dish than a Keralan speciality. It is a fried chicken curry with onions, green peppers, tomatoes and chilli as well as assorted spices. This was fine, but the spicing was rather one dimensional and the chicken had limited flavour (12/20). Cabbage thoran had grated coconut, shallots and green chillies as well as shredded cabbage. This was pleasant enough, though it was not as good as the version that was served at Rasa, and to be honest, it was not as good as the one that I make at home (12/20).
Service was friendly enough, but the waiters seemed pretty distracted, and it was hard to get attention even on a quiet midweek service. The bill came to £55 per person, with beer to drink. I rather over-ordered, and a more typical cost per head might be more like £45. Shilpa is a pleasant neighbourhood restaurant, and if you stick to the Keralan dishes, then you will eat quite well.
Further reviews: 06th Oct 2012
Richard Fryer
A bit of a former favourite, now difficult to park to pick up a takeaway. Really interesting and varied menu. I try to pop back to try some new items.