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‘Cooked from the heart, served with love.’ So says the website of Little Kolkata, which sums it up pretty well. The first permanent restaurant from the crew behind a popular Indian supper club, there’s an endearingly amateurish quality to this place. The room is two knocked-together units, with a tiled black-and-white floor that slopes in parts. There’s a quirky table for two wedged tightly between two columns (do ask for it: it’s cute). Wine is in a clear-fronted chiller. The music veers from Tracy Chapman remixes to upbeat boyband pop. And so on. You get it.
As for the food, it’s homely stuff, drawn from the kitchens of Kolkata (once known as Calcutta). And some of it is marvellous. Like dinky breaded cod cakes, perfectly spiced and tasting every bit like you get at Indian family functions. Or Indo-Chinese battered chilli chicken, with mellow onions and equal hits of sour, sweet and heat. Then: slow-cooked Bengali goat curry, its rich, mellow sauce spiked with skinny slivers of ginger. But a few dishes – a snack bowl of brittle, overcooked okra, or a side of too-sweet yellow lentil dahl – lacked sparkle. Still, Little K is kind to wallets, so if you’re on a budget and looking for comfort, it’s well worth a whirl.