A stone’s throw from Piccadilly Circus station and bathed in a warm, golden glow, Farzi Café is an exciting new opening from enterprising restaurateur and Indian MasterChef judge Zorowar Kalra.
Like the nerd I am, I prepared for my visit by reading up on Kalra’s rise to prominence: the successful restaurant group Massive Restaurants, which he founded under the mentorship of his father, Jiggs “The Czar of Indian Food” Kalra, in 2012; the existing nine Farzi Café outposts in India and Dubai; the hard work, the thriving brands, the myriad awards, and of course, the remarkable food.
Arriving at Farzi Café
We arrived for our 7pm table on a wet February evening, just as the theatre crowds were emerging from black cabs and sauntering into the Theatre Royal Haymarket next door. The restaurant is split over two floors, with a bar area and partially open kitchen upstairs, and a low-lit, moody dining area downstairs. An awful lot of money has been spent on getting the design just right, and it shows.
The modern interiors were dreamed up by Design LSM, the company behind the chic and individual identities of some of the world’s coolest venues including Food Market in Toronto, Project in Progress in Lisbon, Galvin Demoiselle in Dubai, and The Coal Shed in London.
The vibe is upmarket but relaxed, and we kicked off with an old fashioned while we wrapped our minds around the broadsheet newspaper-sized menu of pan-Indian cuisine. Farzi is an Urdu word meaning ‘fake’, and true to its name, the restaurant serves food that is not all it appears to be. The Jhol chicken biryani, for example, was served inside a delicious decoy thin-crust pie.
The Food at Farzi Café
We had quite a few questions for our waiter, who was knowledgeable, affable, and luckily had the patience of a saint. After much to-ing and fro-ing we went with: braised lamb chops with maple and kokum glaze, pan tossed shrooms with a black truffle haze, the aforementioned chicken biryani in a pie, madras pepper prawns with aerated thayir sadam (curd rice – beautiful), a rich, smoky charred dal makhani, and a basket of Indian breads.
I know, it’s a lot. But with food this good and wine this drinkable (South African Syrah, £20 a bottle), it would have felt criminal to under order. So we loosened our belts and got stuck in, ending our epicurean odyssey with a coconut ladoo and an irresistible cheesecake. And let me tell you I have been recommending this place to anyone who will listen ever since. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a menu as diverse and keenly-priced as this in Central London, and you know what? Don’t even bother looking.
Verdict
This is a must try addition to the capital’s ever-expanding and evolving food scene, and one which has certainly broadened my horizons. I am by no means an Indian cuisine aficionado – and in fact I’m notoriously a big baby when it comes to hot spice. I am however a big fan of sensational food with a hint of molecular gastronomy, of classy design, of waiters with a sense of humour and of words like “haze” and “shrooms” being used on a menu. Farzi Café’s praises have just found themselves a lead singer.
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George Clode is a travel and culture writer, and a multimedia commissioning editor for travel
