It’s been a while since I have written about an Indian restaurant. The problem is that I love it so much and I have always been so spoilt by my mother’s cooking that when I eat out at Indian restaurants, I can’t help but feel discontent. You will often find British Asians complaining that the restaurants in central London aren’t “authentic” enough, by authentic they mean the food served never has enough chilli. It seems that the Indian food scene is thriving more than ever- you just have to look at the queues outside Dishoom or Hoppers to understand what I mean.

I’d been keeping an eye on Kricket for a while and was eagerly awaiting the date that it opened for soft launch. Founders and Englishmen, Will Bowlby and Rik Campbell, met at university some time ago and a few years later launched Kricket as a pop up in Brixton. After tasting success down south, they did what ambitious restaurateurs do and set up shop in the mecca of London’s food scene, Soho. Their style is best described as Indian tapas; everything is very much in sharing plate form which I firmly believe is the way forward. I love the fact that Kricket experiment with meats and fish that you seldom see being used in Indian restaurants such as venison and langoustine and marry these up skilfully with traditional Indian flavours to create a contemporary Indian cuisine.

My gorgeous colleague, Miss.C, and I walked down to Denman Street after work and much to our surprise, there was no queue! I hate queuing up for food, just hate it. There is a popular Japanese joint, Bao, nearby and they actually make their customers queue on the opposite side of the road! It looks so ridiculous that when I first walked past it I thought it was bus stop! Miss.C is also a lover of food and she is usually so open to new places, but recently (and luckily after our visit to Kricket) she has been going through a vegan phase which has somewhat limited her choices!

During the soft launch the food was 50% off, so we decided to venture out and try as much as we could. We started with the juicy scallops followed by the delicious bone marrow and cep kulcha- this is a Punjabi flat bread which is much less stodgy than naan bread. You must try this! The smoked sweet potato garnished with horse gram, sesame raita, gunpowder, fried curry leaves was expectedly sweet and I think we made a mistake in ordering another sweet dish in the form of the delica pumpkin with makhani sauce, fresh paneer, hazelnut crumble and puffed rice. Suggestion: order one, not both. I had never tried a vindaloo before, let alone a goose vindaloo, but this was my favourite dish! It was “authentic” enough for me. The gajar halwa and pistachio ice cream served in a super cute copper pan was divine- the warmth of the sweet carrot complemented the cold pistachio well.

Something I particularly liked about Kricket was their range of fusion cocktails which are made up of ingredients that are at the very core of Indian cooking such as coriander, tamarind and cardamom. I recommend the Old Narangi!

Now, despite everything I have just written, I’m afraid to tell you that the menu has changed significantly since my soft launch visit! Does that invalidate my review though? No, and I will tell you why. Like any smart business, they used the soft launch period to see what does and doesn’t work and voila, you now have a fantastic new menu with some really exciting looking dishes. I hear the butter garlic crab and lamb Haleem are superb! I will, of course, pay another visit and when I do, I will write another review.
Rik Campbell exuded complete charm, he engaged with the diners and was mucking in as much as any other member of staff in the open plan kitchen. Backed by entrepreneurial hospitality guru, Chris Miller of White Rabbit Fund, and with a chef who has been named as a ‘chef to watch in 2016’, Kricket is undoubtedly on the road to stardom in the alternative Indian restaurant sector.

Food: 9/10   Atmosphere: 8/10    Value: 9/10