Restaurants

This established Keralite restaurant knows its (mainly non-Asian) customers well, and offers a mix of South Indian snacks and breakfast fare, seafood and meat dishes, plus a few Keralite specialities to keep them all happy. We recommend sticking to the specialities such as the avial (‘mixture’ vegetable stew), vellappams (large frisbee-shaped crumpets), thorans (vegetable stir-fries including finely diced beetroot or grated cabbage), and lemon rice. The dosas, idlis and vadai are also fine, but several restaurants in Tooting now do these better, and cheaper. Recently we’ve found RKB inconsistent; sometimes the food is faultless, but on our last visit, one of the dishes – a mango and yoghurt curry called kalan – contained yoghurt that had curdled, giving the dish an unappealing lumpy texture. Mostly, though, we don’t find much to pick fault with, and the interior here is particularly memorable, inducing enjoyable getaway reveries. The walls are covered with bold photographic wallpaper depicting coconut-fronded beaches and sunsets; a full kathakali dance costume sits imposingly in one corner; and statues of blue boy Krishna and his favourite girlfriend, Radha, adorn the counter.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2009