A Foodie’s Bucket List

In Queen’s Country

When in London, do as they do and treat all your senses to the highest gastronomical pleasures. Dr Nishant Kumar shows you how, once COVID settles down!

Having spent 15 years in the UK and USA, I have been fortunate to be exposed to some of the best restaurants in the world. My journey as a gourmand started with me enjoying a good meal at a local restaurant and over time, I found myself looking for the best restaurants in cities I travelled to for holidays, work and meetings. Soon enough, I transitioned to planning my vacations around table reservations at some of the world’s most sought after restaurants.
Over the last few years, I grew accustomed to accepting invitations to lecture at conferences only if it was in a city that had a cuisine or restaurant I wanted to visit. So, as you can see, food and eating out became a big part of my travel, professional commitments and my life.
However, all that changed the past year. A small virus, the SARS-CoV2 virus to be precise, changed the world. Lives were lost, livelihoods decimated, economies crushed and the way we lived, travelled, worked and ate changed.
Looking back over the last six months, our food habits have changed. Lockdowns across the world meant that everyone was eating at home. A new breed of home chefs surfaced and flourished while restaurants were shut and limited to takeaway and deliveries. Even now, though things have started opening up, I suspect many restaurants may never, or take a long time, to open.
Travel has gradually opened cautiously with masks and shields and lots of sanitiser sprayed over every conceivable surface. Some of the world’s gastronomic capitals like London, New York and Paris have started opening restaurants with limited seating, social distancing and a mandatory mask policy, however a third wave of infection threatens to close these establishments again. So, it may be a while before we start travelling freely again and travelling to eat might have to wait much longer.
I have been thinking that once COVID ends or at least becomes treatable and manageable — and despite being active in COVID research I have no clue when that might be — which restaurant will I be calling for a reservation. When I fly into Heathrow where will I head to for my first meal. Which are the restaurants and the food that make me smile when I reminisce about them through these difficult times.
It is an interesting question because it got me thinking as to what makes a restaurant special, memorable and droolworthy. Which is the place you will find me when I go out for my first meal? Note, I restrict myself to restaurants in London for this article as it was home for me for 15 years and is undoubtedly the gastronomic capital of the world for me.
The answer has surprised me as much as it may surprise you. I was used to searching out Michelin star restaurants and the best recommended and rated restaurants in the cities I visited. To be honest, I have eaten at a fair few Michelin star restaurants across the world. In the UK, there are probably only a handful of that I have not visited.
That said, Fat Duck, Heston Blumenthal’s 3-Michelin star restaurant — and probably UK’s most famous and celebrated restaurant — is nowhere amongst the top of the list for restaurants I will make a beeline for post COVID.
Fat Duck is a great experience and definitely worth a visit — but only once. The artistry and innovation of the chef is awe-inspiring, the treatment of each course is refreshingly new, and the presentation is out of the box. But while the experience is memorable, the food is not. I remember snail porridge because it is so off the beaten track, but I do not remember the flavour of the dish and I would not order it off a menu in a restaurant. It was tantalising but not repeatable. After over a year of not eating out, I do not want an experience; I want something that will satiate my mind and stomach.
I was surprised that the first place I will probably find myself at, before even checking into my hotel in London is Shake Shack at Covent Garden. Yes, the burger, hot dog and milkshake fast food chain that started in New York and has spread across the world like wildfire. It is not gourmet, it is not fancy, it is a simple place, serving a great burger with curly fries and cheese. Why Shake Shack of all places? Well, because even writing about the ShackBurger has me salivating. I can almost feel the greasy burger patty spilling out of the bun and the juices of the medium done patty being released in my mouth. The crinkle cut fries with melted cheese are indulgent and the thick, thick milkshake makes my lungs work overtime to get it to move up the straw.
Nope, the fries are not triple-fried like at most Michelin star restaurants, it is not Wagyu beef for the patty and the peanuts are not from some exotic location. The chef making my burger is probably a college kid working a few hours at this place to pay the rent and has no formal education in gastronomy, but this is what my heart and stomach want. A greasy Angus burger served with paper napkins and a good dollop of tomato ketchup.
Being a burger fan, I must tell you about a few other absolute favourites of mine in London. If you find yourself in Borough Market on a weekend, do search for this small stall run by a Turkish gentleman who has only one dish to sell. A burger made with Swiss beef served with blue cheese. No onions, pickles, condiments, nothing, only the patty done medium and blue cheese on a brioche bun. There are only two options for the burger — with or without the blue cheese. I strongly recommend the burger with blue cheese. It is a simple dish, costs only £5 but it is a memorable burger. There is no seating, so you take your burger and sit on the pavement as you relish something so simple but so satiating.
A fancier burger can be found at the Mandarin Oriental, at Bar Boulud, run by Michelin star chef Daniel Boulud. It’s a sumptuous burger in a fancy setting, and it’s a burger with a soul. Most hotels do a soulless burger. The ingredients are in place but there is always something missing, probably because the chef finds it deserves the least attention. The Boulud burger in London, and New York, however, gets the attention it deserves.
Of course, when speaking of eating in London, one has to consider the gold standard restaurants like Nobu and Zuma for Japanese cuisine. These two restaurants have become global icons and for good reason. Nobu was the first to present Peruvian Japanese fusion and Zuma amongst the first to popularise robata cooking. I have never been a great fan of teppanyaki restaurants. According to me, teppanyaki cooking is more about the show the chefs put on, juggling knives and setting the grill on fire, more for effect that any accentuation of taste or flavour. All ingredients are treated the same, with butter, garlic, soy sauce and Japanese wine. There is very little innovation in the cooking and it’s good for an office meal with colleagues, but not for a meal after a long while of eating at home!
In India, we are starved for good Japanese food, especially good sushi. There are many reasons for this; unavailability of good quality sushi grade, fresh fish but more importantly lack of trained sushi chefs. The great chefs like Masa Takayama in New York and Masaki Saito in Japan have spent years training and perfecting the art of sushi. These celebrated chefs still wake up at 4.00 am to take delivery of their fish themselves. They cook their own vinegar rice and even grate their own wasabi. The attention to detail required to make ‘good’ sushi requires great commitment and to elevate sushi to ‘great’ like what Masa, Saito and few of the other celebrated chefs in Japan have accomplished, takes a lifetime.
Having eaten at Masa in New York and a few of the celebrated sushi restaurants like Sushi Saito and Sukibayashi Jiro in Tokyo, Japan, the first thing you notice is how limited the seating is. In Japan, the best sushi restaurants will accommodate only 15-20 patrons and the chefs serve each dish themselves.
So, my next meal after the burger would have to involve sushi and in London, there is a lot to choose from. Nobu, Umu, Roka and Zuma do good sushi while Sushi Samba, Novikov do a reasonable sushi. Yo Sushi, the McDonalds equivalent for sushi does ‘ok’ sushi, but my advice is that for about the same cost you can get much better sushi at the above restaurants.
For something exceptional, try Dinings and Sushi Tetsu. Tables are hard to get and at Sushi Tetsu, it is close to impossible. The restaurant can accommodate only seven patrons, so you can imagine the wait list is as long as your bill would be!
The miso black cod at Nobu is an all-time favourite and would definitely figure in my first few meals post COVID. It has been often copied, seldom matched and never surpassed. It is a classic from Chef Nobu that keeps patrons coming back. The robata grills at Zuma and its sister restaurant, Roka, are amongst the best I have had. The grilled baby chicken, lamb chops and tiger prawn dishes are grilled to perfection on the special grills. A must-try.
There are a few vegetarian dishes at Zuma that compete successfully for table space with the meat and fish options. The spinach with sesame dressing, the miso-glazed eggplant and the grilled asparagus are moreish and should not be missed.
Another post COVID meal I dream about is a good Italian meal. And I do not mean pizza, I mean a good Italian meal with a pasta course, fish course, meat course finished with a great dessert.
In London, the choice of Italian ranges from casual and relatively affordable to fine dining and exorbitant. Let’s get the exorbitant out of the way.
There is one restaurant in London that attracts billionaires from all across the world. It’s great for people watching and you may need a small mortgage if you want to indulge in their wine list. Situated in Mayfair and now known as C, it was previously known as Harry Bar and Cipriani.
The carpaccio and Burrata are amongst the best in London. They have a wide selection of pasta dishes and my favourite is the baked tagliolini with ham. It is light and creamy with the saltiness and umami from the ham. It is the one dish I will not share with anyone. For mains, the dover sole is a classic, but their true speciality is the veal and the lamb chops. You will struggle to find a better veal dish in London. For dessert, the vanilla and lemon meringue are their signature dishes and for good reason. The meringue melts in the mouth and the cake is light and fluffy. A meal here is a treat for all the senses. The eyes feast on some of the best dressed and groomed people in London, which normally includes at least a few super models and actors, and the food is truly Italian and spectacular. Having eaten at the Cipriani in London and Venice — the original Cipriani — I can vouch that the quality of food and service is the same at both.
My other favourites for good Italian are Amaranto at Four Seasons, Scalini and Signor Sassi. It may interest you to know that London’s best-known Italian restaurant, Scalini is owned by Indians; the Kanwars better known for making Apollo Tyres and the Burmans, better known as the owners of Dabur. Situated very close to Harrods, Scalini is as Italian as it gets. Great Mozzarella and Burrata with Italian cherry tomatoes and bread sticks with olive oil help get things started. My favourite here is the spaghetti lobster, their signature pasta. Other highly recommended dishes are the Tortellini Gorgonzola (served with cream and asparagus), Spaghetti Gennaro (a chef special), the Prawns in Spicy Garlic and Butter Brandy Sauce and Steak Fiorentina. The steak is a typical cut from Florence and at 800 gms, it’s a big piece of meat, not for the faint-hearted. I hope the Scalini owners do bring this restaurant to India soon as we need some great Italian restaurants here in case our travel gets restricted again from COVID or some other cause.
Amaranto is more upscale but it is a delightful restaurant with the finesse expected from Four Seasons and the food is hearty and rustic as a good Italian meal should be. Signor Sassi was a favourite with Princess Diana and continues to be a popular choice for many. It is now a chain with a few restaurants around the UK and I feel that their quality has suffered as they have expanded. Having said that, they are still above ‘above average’ and with Signor Sassi being their flagship, standards are maintained. I visit Signor Sassi especially for their tagliolini with crab, tomatoes and cream. It is wonderfully fresh and flavourful pasta and I have yet to find somewhere else doing good crab-based pasta.
For my next post COVID meal, I find myself craving a good kebab. Not the Indian tandoori variety but the Turkish and Arabic kind. This craving has probably got something to do with nostalgia and my past in the UK as a trainee eye surgeon and then as a consultant. It is almost a ritual to end a Friday or Saturday night of revelry and pub and club hopping with a kebab on the way home. Food does have that strange ability to transport us back to times and memories that lie dormant in our subconscious. I find that the key to a great kebab is the quality of the meat and it’s unfortunate that our lamb is no match for what one gets abroad. A traditional kebab needs no spices and has limited seasoning. It is just great quality meat grilled on an open flame, traditionally a wooden or charcoal flame and now more commonly, gas. It is comfort food at its best.
No trip to London is complete without a good Lebanese meal. A good shawarma or mixed grill can be had at many of the casual restaurants on Edgware Road in Central London. This is the Arabic part of London full of shisha bars and quaint small Lebanese restaurants frequented mostly by Arabs. If the food here is good enough for the people who invented these dishes and who call it home food, it’s good enough for me. Maroush (no relationship or affiliation with the Indian Maroush) has about five to seven restaurants on Edgware itself and offers stand-in and eat options to elegant dining. The mixed grill with chicken cubes, lamb cubes and a lamb kofta is my favourite with the garlic sauce and spicy sauce. Another outstanding choice is Ishbilia and Al Hamra.
Al Hamra is a favourite with Indians. Lebanese food has a good selection for vegetarians and Al Hamra does a great falafel, hummus and muhammara (walnuts, almonds and pistachio with herbs and red chilli). My favourite is hummus kawarma (hummus topped with diced lamb and pine nuts) and kafta yoghortileh (lamb cubes grilled with yogurt and pine nuts). Their mixed grill is probably one of the best in London. The idea with Lebanese food, very much like an Indian meal, is to share the small plates and try a bit of everything.
Post COVID, I look forward to walking the streets of London and stopping at a Patisserie Valerie or Pauls for a pastry and coffee or getting a creamy gelato from the food hall at Selfridges or Harrods. And to be thrilled to find a Lola’s cupcake outlet to get their Red Velvet cup cakes. These are the small pleasures I miss in Bombay even when there was no COVID. Every week there is a new artisan bakery or delicatessen opening in London that is worth a visit. In Bombay, we rarely step out for a walk and surprise ourselves by walking into a quaint cafe for a coffee and cake or some tea and scones.
There are so many other cuisines and restaurants I miss. An authentic Chinese meal, fresh Dim sum at Yauatcha or Din Tai Fung, a good steak at a speciality steakhouse like Hawksmoor or Marco Pierre White, the ceviche at Lima, London’s first Peruvian Michelin star restaurant, or even the Bangladeshi Indian food which is passed off as Indian food at most takeaways. Chicken tikka masala, UK’s national food, is also something I miss, as it is actually an English dish and bears little resemblance to the tikka masala we eat here at home.
These are restaurants I want to re-visit once we are out of the grips of the pandemic. But there are so many new places I would like to try for the first time and explore and with time some of these places will become my new favourites. There are several talented chefs who keep evolving. Marcus Wareing. Gordon Ramsay, Michel Roux Jr are just some of the figures in London who have evolved into artists from chefs. They have perfected their craft and dining with them is an experience and a privilege.
One knows greatness when one experiences it and experiencing greatness in any sphere never gets repetitive. The cheese soufflé by Michel Roux Jr is a legend amongst chefs, a very high accolade that I will never tire of. And every generation of chefs brings forward someone extraordinarily talented who can reinterpret the classics and sometimes create something absolutely new from the same old ingredients. Along the way there are a few misses and a few terrible meals but then there is also the extraordinary meal that demonstrates how one can reach a blissful state with a just a plate of food.
Food is not just something we eat. It is an experience that stimulates all the senses. COVID has helped create better home chefs but has taken away the adventure of gastronomy. I love the process of exploring new tastes, flavours, experiences, people, places, cultures and the creativity that great restaurants provide. And please note, a great restaurant is not necessarily an expensive one. As I said, my first post COVID meal in London will be the humble burger, but that is perhaps what food is, an expression of you.

Lobster Tempura Rolls at Dinings

A sumptuous Bar Boulud burger

Art on a plate at Gordon Ramsey