Excellent curry near St Paul's

After a wine tasting at Davy’s Wine Tun, we wander down Carter Lane to find somewhere for dinner. Down Burgon Street, a little side street by the Rising Sun pub, we come across Anokha, an Indian restaurant. There’d previously been an Italian and a Thai on this site, so we thought we’d give it a try.

It’s now only a small place, maybe 20 covers, on two levels. The lower level would be pretty claustrophobic, but we were OK on the upper one. It was about half-full when we arrived, but it did fill up while we there.

Poppadoms and pickles were followed by crab cakes and spicy squid rings off the specials menu to start. The crab cakes were excellent – light, crabby, and soft, totally unlike a Thai version. The spicy squid lived up to their name, with good light batter.  The standard menu starter list was also interesting, including duck tikka, duck puree and scallops puree as well as more conventional dishes.

The main courses on the specials menu were monkfish rogan, tandoori sea bass and mussels$ in a karahi sauce. But we went for the chef’s signature dish, Aada Gosht, lamb with fresh ginger and green herbs, and a king prawn jalfrezy. Both were excellent and full of well-judged spicing. Bhindi, tarka daal, and pilau rice played solid supporting roles.

With a bottle of Merlot at £15, the total came to just under £80 – maybe more than we’d normally pay for a curry, but in central London and for such good quality still really good value.