I’ve been a fan of Colonel Saab for quite a while, having enjoyed a couple of lovely evenings at their Trafalgar Square branch. I’d heard dishes had been added to their menu, and so I hot-footed it down to Colonel Saab restaurant in High Holborn for their new culinary experiences.
The a Là Carte menu listed a pleasing range of dishes for carnivores and vegetarians with flavours hailing from the Indian Subcontinent, including the ever-popular Colonel Saab’s Butter Chicken.
And as I explored the menu, I couldn’t help but be drawn to the canopy of stunning chandeliers overhead, throwing a subdued glow over us. The walls are replete with artworks, and a handsome picture of Colonel Saab himself, looking out at us from the wall ahead. Colonel Manbeer Choudhary (his real name), enjoyed a decorated career as an Indian Army officer for 25 years. His travels around the Subcontinent with his wife were an inspiration to his son and owner, Roop Partap Choudhary, for the existence of the Colonel Saab restaurants.
Waiters are handsomely well-groomed, donning burgundy and black uniforms, and attending with a pleasing flourish and charm. And within this environment, we started our culinary journey.
The food
The three starters (yes, a little enthusiastically greedy) were incredibly beautiful. I simply loved the Banarasi Amrood Ki Chaat. This was a guava cone chaat with tamarind chutney, raspberry sauce, spiced cream, topped with crisp gram flour noodles. Savouring like I would an ice cream meant that different creamy flavours continually played on my taste buds.
Banarasi Amrood Ki Chaat
Hummus, Beetroot & Orange Salad
Zimikand & Beetroot Tikki, Colonel Saab
The Hummus, Beetroot and Orange Salad was a brilliant mash of flavours and textures comprising poached baby beetroot, orange segments, chickpea hummus, roasted pine seeds, salad leaves with crunch provided by the khakhra crackers.
Zimikand and Beetroot Tikki was a a trio of crisp-coated Calcutta-style zimikand and beetroot chops, with lime chilli pickle, beetroot murabba, with homemade kasundi sauce on the side. It’s very flavoursome and surprisingly dense.
Old Delhi’s Famous Lamb Curry, Colonel Saab restaurant
Paneer-E-Pukhtan at Colonel Saab Restaurant
The wo main courses were a vegetarian dish Paneer-E-Pukhtan – shahi pumpkin and tomato sauce, butter-poached vegetables, pickled spiced stuffed and grilled cottage cheese, garnished with pumpkin seeds. This was a fairly rich dish with plenty of flavoursome ingredients.
The Old Delhi’s Famous Lamb Curry is a traditional street food dish of Keema boti lamb curry cooked in the style of Sardar Ji meat wale (a chef who has a stall in India’s Old Delhi market),. The lamb was soft, and the sauce mildly spicy.
We paired these dishes with rice and two types of naan bread – one stuffed with cheese and jalapeño, and my favourite a Peshwari naan, for that familiar sweetness that comes from dry coconut and apricot.
Deserts were imaginative and again pleasing to the eye. There was even a little theatre.
These were the Pineapple Jalebi – Rabri Chantilly cream and pineapple jalebi, pistachio kulfi, crisp tuile, pistachio-infused oil, and Chakka Varattiyathur tart filled with jackfruit and halwa, popping pearls, served with Alphonso mango sorbet and raspberry crumble. Both were an incredible combo of flavours, where the pistachio kulfi was the main event in the Jalebi, and the halwa showed through in the jackfruit tart.
The third was a showstopper in terms of its theatre – Kochi’s Coconut Pannacotta. This pudding was served in half a coconut shell, placed on top of stones and ice. When water was poured over the stones, it became a bowl of steaming smoke. And it was delicious.
There is a full bar, of course, and we enjoyed a Spicy Podi Margarita, Blanco tequila with in-house south Indian podi spice syrup and chilli tinctures – and yes, this was pretty spicy.
Verdict: The experience at Colonel Saab in Holborn is an entire submersion into an other-worldly ambience and sense of theatre that adds to the “Ooh” and “Ah” factor to a joyously delicious good night out.
Colonel Saab Restaurant, Holborn
Holborn Town Hall
193-197 High Holborn,
London, WC1V 7BD