craig kao
Love the starter with those special Street food dishes
Lolly pop chicken
Lamb mix grill tika cook to perfection
Main seafood curry is great
Lamb and spinach curry was great
Chicken dishes and flavoursome even the milder one
Over all I love. Great quiet location , love the food. Keep up the good dishes
Lionel Tan
This is a small and non discreet restaurant but a great find. We had the lamb samosas to start which were spicy and gave a kick. The butter chicken with garlic naans are recommended. The naans were fluffy and freshly made. The blank lentil dhal is also recommended. We had the vegetarian briyani and it was delicious. We rounded off the meal with masala tea. One comment was that the masala tea could have more spices. Overall we enjoyed the food very much and will certainly be back!
Aishwarya Giri
Loved it!!
We walked in near their closing time, but they still served us so well. The manager was really courteous, and the food was delicious. Would definitely recommend it! <3
Anne Manero
Really friendly staff. We ordered take out and got the food very quickly. The samosas and garlic naan were really really tasty, we also got some chips as an extra, which was a grateful surprise. We would love to order here again soon.
Jeanne G
Honestly so lovely, i don’t write reviews often but this place deserves the 5 stars. Amazing service, the food is gorgeous and portions quite generous. As someone from Asia, the food tastes rich and authentic, plenty of flavour and spice. Have been here twice now and amazing both times. Doesn’t look like much from the outside but honestly so worth coming back. Definitely recommend!!
Richard Allan
Tasty, authentic and distinct Indian food only 15min walk from Kings Cross and close to a great back-street boozer (The Duke). My veggie Jalfrezi was oozing with taste and the array of freshly prepared vegetables were really succulent. Although quite busy they fitted 6 of us in on a Saturday evening. Not cheap at £28/head for pappadams, curry & drinks but worth it
Eric Marasco
Amazing food, service was wonderful. Nice little place and did not feel like tourist spot, more local feel. I would recommend and would go again when I am back in town.
Martin Curwen
Great little find, super friendly, excellent food … laal mass to die for , paratha, so tasty… excellent all round and good value …
David Stigg
Absolutely loved this place! Lots of vegan and gluten-free options.
We had the tofu starter, followed by 4 vegetable side dishes and rice. All were perfect. Took our leftovers home and ate them for lunch the next day - still delicious!
John Wood
First time in this restaurant tonight was very freshly cooked was a good service as well the only thing I did not agree with was the 12.5% on top of your bill I did not pay to hat as I much prefer to leave a tip for the waitress in which was much better
as I asked where that went and it goes towards there wages which is wrong but still good food from starter to main worth a visit but do challenge to hat 12.5%
Suchetha S Prabhu
Loved the ambience and decor. Some of the dishes were great like the Dal makhni and and paneer tikka Masala. The chilli panner wasn't so great. Overall worth a try.
Dominic McGovern
We were hungry for some Indian food and we found this beautiful little place while on holiday.
Ordered the tikka masala, mutton biryani, and some garlic naan - all of it was delicious!
The size of the tikka masala looked a little smaller than expected, but ended up being more than enough for the two of us.
The mutton biryani was a little spicy for my girlfriend, but I was more than happy to have the rest of it to myself (she ordered some additional plain rice for herself).
The vibe was nice and chill, all the food arrived quickly and I'll happily recommend this place to anyone looking for some great Indian cuisine!
Emily Simon
Overall, we enjoyed our meal here! The butter chicken, rice, naan, and popadoms were delicious! The tikka marsala was a little sweeter than what I would normally think of. The atmosphere was nicely decorated and clean. The service was very good! The owner was clearly upset at the lack of orders for the evening though, which made our dinner a little uncomfortable. It was a good experience overall though!
Feed the Lion
If you weren't aware of the pedigree and prowess of the man behind the business, you might be forgiven for thinking on first impressions that Salaam Namaste, despite being located in an affluent part of London with plenty of history (including a Charles Dickons Museum a couple of roads down), was just another curry house setup to take advantage of said neighbourhood.
In the end, however, we're certain that you'd walk out of here thinking otherwise. There were a number of dishes we had that certainly confirmed the reputation of the place and the talent behind the menu, Sabbir Karim.
Only a chef with intimate knowledge of South Asian spices could create a biryani as good as the lamb Dumpukht we had, or succeed in achieving such balance in the strong spices that made up the intensely rich Dhaba Gosht.
Although not everything had us doing cartwheels, the service here was, on the whole, efficient and attentive; and with the menu being changed every 6 months, Salaam Namaste has enough going for it to warrant a visit.
Menu Recommendation
Drink - Sweet Lassi
Starter - Jungle Style Char Grill Lamb Kebab
Main - Dhaba Gosht (with Nan)
Dessert - Gajar Ka Halwa
AH
Waiter was very rude and condescending as he complained that we stained our napkins by placing them on the plate when we were done, despite being stained previously during the meal. From this I assume they reuse napkins and are not clean. Also gave the wrong bill at the end.<br/>Food was ok, not worth the long wait as portion sizes were very small<br/>Overall service was very slow and unprofessional. We are students and I cannot see this type of poor service being given to other customers. I have never been treated like this at a restaurant before. <br/>Do not recommend as there are much more professional and tastier places to eat in nearby.
FoodNewz
Peter Morrell tastes one of this restaurant’s four Christmas menus which all offer an exotic mix of tastes, flavours and textures. Salaam Namaste is conveniently located just a short walk away from busy Russell Square in London. It has cool, contemporary décor and the well upholstered banquettes and seats make it a comfortable and relaxing space to eat.
Aryan Pathak
I have been to this restaurant a couple of times but this time with my family and the visit was absolutely fantastic .. The food was delicious like it was authentic Indian style with lamb chops the best out of all .. We had mixed grill which was cracking as well ... Overall was happy with our visit with everything going the right way the staff was friendly and the manager was coming to make sure we are been offered the best of them .. So I recommend this place to all !
Ipsita D
This place was my go to place for modern Indian food! I would recommend this place to anyone who lives in Bloomsbury area and wants to have some tasty Indian food! I have been here n number of times and have had so many takeaways. It felt like Home food away from home. I have tried almost all the dishes they have to offer in the menu. Tandoori Portobello mushroom, chicken tikka and Hyderabadi biriyani were my regular dishes and mango lassi in the drinks! <br/>Also a special mention to the amazing owner and the courteous staff. <br/>
Tasty
Perhaps it is one of the few places in London which serves food which has authentic Indian taste and flavours . <br/>I am a vegetarian , so on my multiple visits had the opportunity to try all that they have to offer . <br/>Their Biryani was extremely good , though .
Pratik Mehta
V went for dinner at 8.30pm..aftwr whole day of tiring sight seeing.:till 10.30 they didn't served any order and when v discuss regarding that manager was very rude and told to leave hotel..I saw such restaurant with such behaviour for first time.:please take care friends to go there next time
Eat NTweet
What we went for: dinner with friends to a place that sounds friendly and welcoming- Salaam Namate( Greetings!)<br/><br/>Ambience: a small restaurant, dark and dingy with some awards propped up on the wall<br/><br/>What we ordered: aloo tikki, bhelpuri chat, okra with raw mango, aubergine with sesame, paneer lababdar, dal, Kulcha, roti, Rice, yoghurt <br/><br/>Price: gbp 75 <br/><br/>Verdict: the dark dingy restaurant, hesitant and non engaging service had me doubting my evening already... <br/><br/>Food arrived all at the same time and looked all rite and actually tasted good. But the portion sizes sort of didn’t make sense to me.. dal in a huge balti, vegetables in a tiny bowl, paneer in a giant soup dish! Tad oily but I think food was allrite.<br/><br/>Drinks- it was either alcohol or water! Great !!!!<br/>Dessert- vanilla ice cream and I think grudgingly!!! Well we dint have it..<br/><br/>Service: remained iffy, under confident and left me underwhelmed!! We had to ask for water and a few glasses and cutlery too!! Goodness!!!<br/><br/>Would I return? The crisp, cold air stepping out of the restaurant felt warmer than the ultra cold and dark service inside - so nope never again! I have money and time to spare but only on the deserving!<br/>Alvida( Farewell!!)
Pooja Wakhare
Strictly average taste.<br/><br/>Lamb chops -2/5<br/><br/>Could have been better had it been properly cooked. Hard to chew. <br/><br/>We tasted a chicken curry whose name I can't exactly recollect. It had coconut crushed over it in the toppings. Couloured gravy. So based on these I can rate curries to be - 3/5<br/><br/>Tarka Daal - 1/5<br/><br/>Guys please don't make tarka daal if you don't know what it means. It's not daal with some chillies in toppings. It should actually have that tadka. Please put some efforts to make that tadka to enhance your daal. <br/><br/>Ambience - 4/5<br/><br/>Service - 4/5<br/><br/>So overall 2 it is from me.
Satish Kumbhat
A nice small restaurant with a cozy atmosphere. Ordered the dahi Bhalla which was very good. The paneer gravy was a little sweet but the dal was nice and creamy. The yogurt with cucumber and pineapple was good too. The service was good and the place had a feel good ambience.
Googlebacha
Ordered the butter chicken, naan, daal and pulao rice for take away. The staff were very pleasant and polite. The food was really tasty and I was pleasantly surprised. Will definitely try them again.
Got To Be Gourmet
Last week I was invited for dinner at Salaam Namaste in Bloomsbury. As with most reviews, I always try not to read up too much on the restaurant or its menu in advance, so it comes as a nice surprise. I knew that it was an Indian restaurant (one of my favourite cuisines) but that was about it. My friend Kelly joined me and we met at Russell Square station and walked for just under 10 minutes to the restaurant. It was a little bit in the ‘middle of nowhere’ down a side street and to be completely honest, it didn’t look to be anything particularly exciting or different from the outside. But we were still looking forward to seeing what food would be on offer.
Pizzaface22
Salaam Nasty. Ordered a takeaway took 1 hr 45 min, the man came without change and the food was the worst curry I have ever had and that's something considering I have been to brick lane. Everything was cold tasteless and soggy. Never ever will I or anyone else go there.
M Jones
Salaam Namaste in Bloomsbury is an amazing Indian Restaurant in London, We love the food, it's alway fresh and tastes, their Festival Lucknow menu was nice/ especially the Gosht Kalya, Staff are always happy to help which makes it very welcoming. I found it very fascinating reading on the BBC NEWS website about Salaam Namaste and the back ground of the founder of the restaurant and their sibling restaurant in Camden Town. We highly reccommend This restaurant for delicious food.
Hungrydave
Nice food, poor service. Above average Indian food for the centre. A few beers at the Perseverance and then round to Salaam Namaste (its quite popular - we had to book). <br/>Apparantly the Blairs have eat here, according to a review. The space is average and could do with touching up. <br/>The food once we ordered arrived quickly and the whole thing felt rushed with a waiter literally filling our wineglasses everytime we gulped. Arrived back on the pavement 40 minutes later and squiffy.<br/>Will I go again? No.
Whatever
Love it, love it, love it. Great food, very delicate, affordable and good service. <br/><br/>This is not your average South Asian slop house. They do a variety of dishes from across south Asia reaching right up to Afghanistan. Everything is beautifully presented and delightfully subtle in flavour.<br/><br/>This is way up there if not better than the likes of Benharis, which is overpriced tosh by the way.<br/><br/>Salaam, Namaste rocks.
Wrap Your Lips Around This
Student-friendly Bangladeshi-led cuisine at this Bloomsbury outpost
Food I Fancy
Salaam Namaste serves traditional Indian classics alongside exciting, new, contemporary ones. You can tell that chef-patron, Sabbir Karim, spent a lot of time and care in designing the menu. You could probably get cheaper and similar in the curry Mecca area of East London. But if you happen to be in the Bloomsbury neighbourhood, then this restaurant is well worth checking out. Heck, even if you’re not – go!
Leyla Kazim
It’s ‘fine’ in that it did the job - it fed us and we ate (most of) it.
Murray Blake
Salaam Namaste is a wannabe up-market Indian in Bloomsbury, the chef patron Sabir Karim has won lots of awards including chef of the year at the 2012 Asian curry awards. I think there is a place for fancy curry in London’s restaurant scene, but once you have allowed for The Cinnamon Club, Quilon and Tamarind, there isn’t a whole lot of space left. Salaam Namaste is aiming a notch below The Cinnamon Club et al., but for me it has a long way to go. The Bloomsbury branch is the younger brother of the Namaaste kitchen in Camden; both restaurants have received glowing blogger reviews – see: foodifancy , London Unattached and The Hedonist . Interestingly, all of these reviewers seem to have been invited by the owner and have eaten for free – I appreciate that they have all admitted this in their write ups, but I wonder how impartial they were, especially in the face of the “charming ow
The Hedonist
Mangalorean Soft Shell Crab (£5.95) had a lightly spiced dry batter with the crab oozing juices-it came with a spicy tomato chutney. It is hard to find soft shell crab where the flavour isn’t overwhelmed and this dish managed it.
TheFoodaholic
Salaam Namaste is located down one of the many back streets of London, not far from Russell Square Station and has recently undergone a revamp of both its menu, and interior. The restaurant has won lots of accolades in its time and most recently become the winner of ‘Best South Asian Restaurant’ at the Asian Curry Awards and both The Guardian and Evening Standard have praised it in its time. I made my way down to find out exactly what head chef Sabbir Karim has up his sleeve to make this restaurant so well talked about. Chile has long been investing lots of money into the marketing of one its favourite grape varieties Carmenere, something they say works very well with the loosely termed ‘curry’ and surprisingly i think it does, on the whole - though not with everything (unless you're drunk). Salaam Namaste serve a bottle from well know producer Concha y Toro, a must to go with your meal. Some poppadoms and chutneys arrived before the meal, something us British can't live without before
Every Meal Matters
The dahl makhani was rich and smooth and moreish and my lamb biryani was faultless; tender lamb, falling off the bone into the expertly spiced rice and served with a fresh, tangy pomegranate raita.
London-Unattached
In a quiet street in Bloomsbury, there are a few tables outside which must be lovely when the weather is a little more clement. Inside, simple décor with white table linen and comfortable chairs makes this a pleasant place to dine. Unlike Namaaste Kitchen, Salaam Namaste focuses on traditional Indian dishes. My understanding from Sabbir Karim is that the recently launched new menu is a little more adventurous than its predecessor, but in general you can expect richer dishes than you’ll find at Namaaste Kitchen. And, the menu itself has a whole section of traditional dishes to satisfy the regular clientele who have grown to know and love certain dishes.
Mr Noodles
The food of the Indian sub-continent that is served up in London is often inauthentic and formulaic. However, there are an increasing number of eateries breaking free from the shackles of tikka masala to offer more interesting fare. Here are three of them. Samosa chaat Brixton Village's Elephant styles itself as a purveyor of authentic Pakistani street food and its short menu certainly hits the spot. A starter of samosa chaat , with its abundance of chickpeas, would do as a light meal in itself. Vegetarian thali For something more substantial, I recommend going for a thali. I liked my vegetarian thali so much that I actually forgot that cauliflower is on my list of verboten veg! Drawbacks? The naan was a tad anaemic but I can forgive them this given the limitations of the tiny kitchen. Elephant , 55 Granville Parade, Brixton Village Market, Coldharbour Lane, London SW9 8PS Nearest station: Brixton (BR, Victoria Line) Next stop is Isleworth where I enjoyed a fantastic meal at the Cinnam
Ellie Mathews
Salaam Namaste is an opulent yet clean and modern Indian restaurant with a whole host of awards to its name. The most recent awards being Chef Sabbir Karim Winner Of The Best Innovative Chef Of The Year 2013 and The Best Newcomer award in the prestigious Asian Curry Awards 2013. The interior is well lit with a relaxed feel. The music is not too loud and the atmosphere is really chatty and enjoyable to be around.<br/><br/>Alongside the lovely atmosphere, the service at Salaam Namaste was exemplary. Our waiter was excellent throughout. He was really attentive but not overwhelming, with lots of recommendations and a good knowledgable about the menu. He was particularly attentive to my nut allergy, ensuring each dish was safe for me to eat. We were also looked after by the Manager, who was attentive yet considerate of our waiter too. <br/><br/>We started with a Vionger white wine. I normally opt for a red wine when I am drinking, however we agreed that a white would be a better balance for the vibrant flavours in the Indian food. The wine had a strong peachy note with a soft finish on the pallet - not a hint of vinegar at all. This bottle went down a little too well as I went home royally full and drunk.<br/><br/>We also shared a set of poppadoms and chutneys. The basket featured two classic poppadoms and two masala roasted poppadoms. The masala roasted option was gently spiced which worked really well with the vibrant tomato and chilli chutney. The middle mint yogurt dressing was a little runny for my taste, however it was very cleansing after the tomato chutney. Our favourite, however, was the gorgeous mango chutney which worked really well with both poppadoms. Rich, sweet and spicy this chutney stole the show. <br/><br/>Onto the starters. I opted for a roasted mackerel dish with Goan spices and a spiralled salad. The mackerel is well spiced balanced with a gentle kick of heat. The hint of lime woke the dish up and worked really well with to Goan sauce on top of the fish. The salad was a little dry and the tomatoes on the side felt a little token and didn't need to be there.<br/><br/>For main, I chose butter chicken - an utterly classic dish that I have made on the blog before. The Butter chicken was incredibly rich and buttery (funny that!) and I couldn't finish a whole bowl as the sauce was so intense. I would have preferred chunks of chicken or chicken breast as cutting the meat away from the bone was very difficult as meat, in places, was a touch dry. <br/><br/>I ate my butter chicken with a side of basmati rice. The rice was lightly scented with cardomon which I liked and topped with crisp onions. Alongside this we had a black lentil dhal and sag paneer - a mix of paneer cheese and sautéed spinach. The sag paneer was rich in iron and earthiness. The spinach was well spiced and not all at wet, which worked well with the firm cheese. The cheese had a texture of tofu but Alex love it so there you go! The dhal very wet and difficult to eat, but the flavour was quite refreshing with coriander and possibly lime. I would have liked the lentils thicker but it was great for lunch the next day!
Aditi Dhamanaskar
Incredibly appetizing presentation, but the taste is barely average. <br/>Authentic indian food is hard to come by in London, and this restaurant just reiterates the same. <br/>A disappointment almost for my friend and I who had high expectations in terms of eating good Indian food- however the place did well for the rest of it. Good ambience, friendly staff, well presented food
Leyla Kazim
Bloomsbury is an area that I - still to this day - strongly associate with my golden yesteryears at university. I bunked many a lecture from UCL’s Department of Physics and Astronomy in favour of social smoking and afternoon snakebites in the student union, located at a proximity too conveniently close for self-discipline to have much of an effect.<br/><br/>This isn’t really an area of fascination, unless it happens to be the place you live or study, or you’re visiting the British Museum. It’s dense with poor students surviving on Boots meal deals paid for with clubcard points, when bank balances are as below zero as a harsh Alaskan winter. I will assume the grown ups who can afford to live here entertain more socially-happening parts of town when they dine out. And sure, Bloomsbury is relatively close to the well-heeled business folk of Chancery Lane and its immediate surroundings, should any of them fancy a 20 minute walk for an Indian lunch.<br/><br/>Yet here you will find the ‘finest Indian’ cuisine, according to the website of Salaam Namaste, a restaurant in this spot since 2005, run by award-winning Chef-patron Sabir Karim. And yes, it is fine. In the same way five pound coins change instead of a crisp note is fine. Or your medium-rare steak request revealing only the most modest blush of pink within is fine. It’s ‘fine’ in that it did the job - it fed us and we ate (most of) it.<br/><br/>I specifically chose an Indian dining partner to assist the critiquing and fill in any knowledge I might lack. He proved a useful sounding board for the mixed bag of dishes we received.<br/><br/>“These poppadoms aren’t evenly cooked. Look at the different shades of colour here and here. Try this bit, it will be chewy and not crisp,” he was right.<br/><br/>Chukandari venison tenderised with beetroot had pleasing flavours, but the vegetable had been a bit slack in its job, the meat needing the serration of a steak knife to dissect. The spoon of dark pink beetroot dip was a delight though, sweet, earthy and hot. <br/><br/>Beautiful fat prawns, were delivered on a scalp-sweating pool of Portuguese ‘fiery spices’ - essentially translating to the extra hot sauce at Nando’s. Coughing and spluttering, we sucked the sweet flesh from the shells with tingling lips - it was my favourite dish. Goan spiced scallops with mango salsa were soft and delicate, but perhaps needed a little salt.<br/><br/>Also good was the moru kachiathu - ripe mangoes and green bananas cooked with yoghurt, green chillies, ginger and curry leaves. Sweet and tart, with a back-of-the-throat heat tickle and chewy fruit. Very pleasing.<br/><br/>Ginger marinated lamb chops were fine (that word again), but not close to the falling-away disintegration from a hard stare alone I have come to expect from them (I specifically recall their outstanding texture in Chakra). Then there was an aromatic lamb curry, served in the clay pot it was cooked in, which looked good furnished with fresh coriander, but was just a bit lacking in both interest and succulence of meat.<br/><br/>Mooshed up baby aubergine with sesame and a mustard and curry leaf sauce is difficult to ignore on the menu, and it didn’t disappoint. But then there was the promise of whole grilled butterflied mackerel with a tomato and cucumber salad, which does nothing but call out to you on a hot June day. I have fond memories of eating exactly this whilst gently rocking on a boat surrounded by the azure of the Aegean on trips to Turkey.<br/><br/>But this was about as far from that as you can get. It looked great, all shimmering and golden, but the first bite told a different story. It was exceedingly tough, but worse than that, it tasted - wrong. It was detected instantly and I immediately extracted the offending mouthful - we left the rest of it untouched. My partner asked if it was cooked from fresh, they said it was. I don’t know what was wrong with it, but it wasn’t right.<br/><br/>For a Friday lunch, business was sparse. Those that were present were serving themselves from steel vessels on the side for the buffet deal. I think we were the only ones ordering a la carte, and so we waited a little longer than usual for the kitchen to manifest the dishes, but it wasn’t a problem.<br/><br/>The interiors leave a lot to be desired, with every inch of surface area assaulting the eyes with varying degrees of beige and brown. The staff were nice enough, and perhaps there’s a different vibe in the evening. This has the potential to be a decent local, and fulfill that requirement I’m sure it regularly does. But competition for Indian cuisine in London is tough and standards elsewhere are too high for me to hurry back.<br/><br/>Liked lots: spicy prawns and green banana with mango<br/>Liked less: mackerel, interiors, lunch-time atmosphere<br/>Good for: a reasonably priced lunch if you happen to be in the area; a candidate as a decent local<br/><br/>My rating: 3/5
Halal Food Guy
Date of Visit - 23.01.14 6pm<br/><br/>I decided to visit Salaam Namaste after reading about the wins it got - Chef of the Year in the Asian Curry Awards 2012 & Asian & oriental Innovative Chef Of The Year 2013. So i thought why not!<br/><br/>I decided to look on toptable for offers and saw a 3 course meal for £15.95.<br/><br/>Upon arrival i was rather concerned as it was totally empty. I was in 2 minds about trying to find another place, but my friend wasn't fussed and we sat down. Its a small restaurant, with a contemporary style and decor, i found it a bit cold and clinical, I also don't like restaurants that use large mirrors along walls to create a false sense of space and with the added fact that you can see yourself in the mirror while you look up.<br/><br/>On to the food, I'll try and keep this brief. Well, first drinks, I the mocktail list wasn't the most imaginative or expansive, i went for a Pina Colada and my friend a mango lassi. Safe to say my drink was bad, i had to send it back 1st time around as there was zero sweetness, it was just tasteless coconut cream. Not a good start. when it cam back it was just topped up with pineapple juice. I didn't drink much of it - at around 3 quid maybe i shouldn't expected much. The mango lassi was average as well. <br/><br/>For starters we had a choice of 2 things - Bombay Onion Bhajee - Crisp fried onion cake with potatoes and mix vegetables, tamarind chutney or Cumin Chicken Tikka Corn fed chicken, charred in tandoor, green smith apple chutney. The chicken is what i went for - With it being corn fed it was tender, well cooked and well presented. The Onion Bhajee were large in portion size.<br/><br/>For the mains, I went for the Rajasthan Lal Maas which is a Very spicy lamb with roasted red chillies, from the land of Forts and Palaces. Maas actually means fish in Bengali so this confused me and my Bengali friend :) My friend went for the Chicken Jalfrezi, Chicken chunks cooked with capsicum, tomatoes, green beans and baby corn in spicy sauce. The chicken option was not on the set menu, but the waiter said they would change the paneer for chicken. <br/><br/>Now heres my main issue, the food was not good. There was no lack of heat from the green chillies. But thats all i could taste. There was no balance or even evidence of any other spice, taste or flavours. I couldn't believe how below average it was. Now, I'm not the greatest cook in the world but my curries taste better. I could not identify any flavours, no hint of tomatoes, no sweetness, no spice just pure heat from the green chilies. Not an enjoyable experience - I was thinking how on earth did this place win an award? I did ask of the chef that won the award was cooked my meal.. he wasn't in and normally cooks in their flagship restaurant Namaste Kitchen. I think this curry was on par with a average curry from a average brick lane restaurant. The positives where that it was served with Naan, two types of Rice & Tadka Dal.<br/><br/>For desert we had the choice of Vanilla OR Chocolate Ice Cream. <br/><br/>The good points of this meal was the value and presentation of the meals. The service was average as well, we had to catch the attention of the waiters when we wanted to order... despite being the only ones there! By 8pm it did pick up a little but there were around 5 or 6 tables of other dinners.<br/><br/>Would i come here again.. No. What did i learn? Don't go to a restaurant because they won a Asian Curry Award.<br/><br/>Food - 2.5<br/>Service - 2.5<br/>Value - 4<br/>Atmosphere/Decor - 3
TheFoodaholic
Salaam Namaste is located down one of the many back streets of London, not far from Russell Square Station and has recently undergone a revamp of both its menu, and interior. The restaurant has won lots of accolades in its time and most recently become the winner of ‘Best South Asian Restaurant’ at the Asian Curry Awards and both The Guardian and Evening Standard have praised it in its time. I made my way down to find out exactly what head chef Sabbir Karim has up his sleeve to make this restaurant so well talked about.<br/><br/>Chile has long been investing lots of money into the marketing of one its favourite grape varieties Carmenere, something they say works very well with the loosely termed ‘curry’ and surprisingly i think it does, on the whole - though not with everything (unless you're drunk). Salaam Namaste serve a bottle from well know producer Concha y Toro, a must to go with your meal. Some poppadoms and chutneys arrived before the meal, something us British can't live without before delving into an onion bhaji. A fresh mango chutney, some mint sauce and a great (though spicy) tomato chutney went down very well.<br/><br/>For the festive period Salaam Namaste have launched a very attractively priced Christmas menu, starting from £15.95 a head and making its way up to £24.95 for some more luxurious ingredients. There are both new dishes, and some of their best sellers which make an appearance on the menus. For starter we opted for a house favourite, mackerel reichard from Goa. Two large pieces of blacked (but in a nice charred way) mackerel fish in a garlic marinade with a Goan tomato based sauce and zesty side salad. The fish had a lovely flavour but was a little overcooked. The Goan sauce on the other hand was excellent and worked really well against the fish.<br/><br/>The lamb seekh gilafi kabab was a mixture of good quality beef mince mixed with onions and pepper then cooked on a smoky charcoal grill. It very well executed, the meat was succulent and had bags of flavour. The side of coriander chutney had a nice zestiness to it and wasn't overly spicy. A good, solid dish.<br/><br/>I opted not to make the mistake and order Laal Maas, something which i once regretted while dining at Star of India in Kensington. It is an incredibly hot dish. Instead we tried a vegetarian option and ordered bhindi mushroom. A huge pile of okra (lady fingers) and mushrooms in a dry masala spiced sauce. It was well balanced but perhaps a little too predictable and didn't blow us away. I've had this dish so many times before elsewhere - and usually as a side. There is only so much mushroom one person can eat.<br/><br/>Hungry? Read more - http://www.londonfoodaholic.co.uk/2013/12/salaam-namaste-indian-millman-street-review-london.html
Allan
Has to be one of the best Indian restaurants in London. I've eaten at a lot over the years and the quality of food here is unbelievable. Coupled with the price, can't recommend this place highly enough...May have to book though.
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