Restaurants

Andy Varma’s becoming little restaurant has long been a favourite with well-off Chelsea folk. Its light but ornate interior is replete with oil paintings and carved teak chairs. The kitchen offers some excellent dishes derived from the culinary traditions of India’s north-west frontier, but while Vama has won awards and acclaim aplenty, there was nothing warm about our recent evening here. The room was chilly and rather empty, lacking the warm buzz of conversation. Among the best dishes were the adraki gosht (tender lamb laced just so with ginger) and scallop masala (where the spicing perfectly offset the sweetness of the scallops). Bhindi bhojpuri (battered, deep-fried slivers of okra dusted with tangy mango powder) was delightful too, and the dessert of ras malai (curd dumplings poached in a saffron-infused syrup) also elicited sighs of pleasure. But a refined and primly plated starter platter of Indian street snacks (including sev puri, a fairly flavourless aloo tiki, and a little heap of small black chickpeas) was not the strong gutsy affair it should have been. In the end, there was something vapid about the Vama experience: the place just lacked oomph. Pricing is very high too.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2009