When London warms up, plenty of people assume a curry is the last thing they want. In practice, a great deal of Indian cooking was shaped by heat, and the right order can feel lighter and fresher than almost anything else on a summer evening. At our restaurants in Charing Cross and Soho, the warm months are when the tandoor, the cooling sides and the brighter rice dishes really earn their place on the table.
This is a short guide to building a summer meal from our menu: what to lean on, what to balance it with, and how to keep the spice without feeling weighed down afterwards.
Start with the tandoor, not the sauce
Dishes from the clay oven are the natural place to begin when it is warm. They are marinated, cooked fast at high heat and served without a heavy sauce, so you get all the flavour of the spices with very little richness. If you want to know why the tandoor gives such a distinctive char, we wrote about it in Inside the Tandoor.
Good summer choices from our tandoori section include:
- Tandoori Chicken Sizzler: half a chicken on the bone, marinated in yoghurt and spices.
- Paneer Shashlik: paneer with peppers, red onion and tomato, chargrilled.
- King Prawn Shashlik or Fish Shashlik: seafood and vegetables from the grill, both light and bright.
- Tandoori Mixed Vegetables: tomato, onion, peppers, potato and cauliflower, marinated and cooked in the tandoor.
- Tandoori Mix Grill: a sizzling selection to share, served with fresh salad.
A squeeze of lemon over any of these lifts them further. Among the starters, Seekh Kebab and Chicken Tikka or Paneer Tikka follow the same logic: grilled, spiced and easy on a warm night.
Cooling sides that do real work
Yoghurt is one of the oldest answers to heat in Indian cooking. A bowl of Raita on the table does more than cool the palate between mouthfuls of something fiery; it makes the whole meal feel fresher. Order it even if nobody is having a hot curry.
The Mix Salad and Onion Salad are worth adding too. Crunchy, sharp and raw, they cut through grilled meat and bring a bit of contrast to a table of warm dishes. The Chutney Tray adds sweetness and tang in small amounts, which is often all you need.
Brighter rice instead of the usual
Rice is where a summer meal can quietly change character. Rather than defaulting to plain, try one of the lighter flavoured rices:
- Lemon Rice: fresh and citrusy, very good with grilled fish and prawns.
- Zeera Rice: cooked with cumin, fragrant without being heavy.
- Coconut Rice: gently sweet, a good match for spicier dishes.
One rice between two people is usually plenty when the rest of the table is grilled food and salad.
If you do want a curry
A summer meal does not have to skip the curry entirely. It just helps to pick one with brightness rather than weight. Fish Goa, made with mustard seed, coconut and lime juice, is a fine example: medium spiced, with a sharpness that suits warm weather. Pathia brings lemon juice and sweet notes to a spicy sauce, and Bhuna is cooked down to a medium-thick sauce rather than a creamy one.
For something green, Bhindi Bhaji (okra with onions and medium spices) and Sagwala (fresh spinach and garlic, with chicken, lamb, paneer or king prawn) both feel lighter than the creamier dishes. If you are curious about how cream is used across the menu, and when to save it for a cooler evening, our piece on cream in Indian cooking explains the difference.
Putting a summer table together
For two people on a warm evening, a balanced order might look like this: one tandoori sizzler or shashlik, one lighter curry such as Fish Goa or a Bhuna, a vegetable side, Lemon Rice, one naan to share, Raita and a salad. That gives you smoke, spice, freshness and something to mop up the sauce, without the heaviness that puts people off curry in July.
For a bigger group, the same principle scales up: more from the grill, a couple of curries, several sides and plenty of yoghurt and salad. Our guide to the best Indian dishes for sharing has more ideas on ordering for a table.
Eating early before a show
Summer evenings are a popular time to see a show, and a lighter meal makes a lot of sense before a performance. Nobody wants to sit through the second act feeling sluggish. Both restaurants are a short walk from the West End theatres, which makes an early dinner easy to fit around a curtain time.
If you are heading to a show, have a look at our pre-theatre menu and book a table before you go. Tell us your curtain time when you book and we will make sure you are on your way in good time.
