It’s glorious to take tea beneath a host of dramatic chandeliers at Colonel Saab restaurant in Holborn. And while the wow factor is the ornate lighting, the burgundy walls make their mark too, clad with a myriad of colourful plates and antique artworks, including a vintage wooden temple window. There are also photographs of Army Officer Colonel Manbeer Choudhary and his wife, Binny, the parents of owner Roop Pratap Choudhary, who are the inspiration for the restaurant.
It’s a continuous eyeful of intriguing art and splendour.
It’s a vibrant scene that celebrates their love of Indian culture and travel, oozing romance, and so where better to spice up a relationship than to take afternoon tea Indian-style here.
The flight of treats includes a diverse selection of ten delicacies, some savoury and some sweet.
I started with the eye-poppingly pink Aloo bonds slider, filled with masala potato balls and tamarind, served with coriander sauce, offering an explosion of flavour. Similarly, the Tikona samosa comes stuffed with mashed masala and, when paired with the coriander sauce, is pretty sensational. There’s also a Bombay grilled sandwich with spiced cottage cheese and mozzarella in grilled white bread, but I bypassed that as there is only so much I could eat in one sitting.
I did, though, nibble on a slightly spicy and crispy chakli spiral-shaped biscuits made with gram flour, rice and lentil is enjoyed in the same way a digestive biscuit is during a natter over a cuppa of spicy chai. I was sipping a fruit Persian pomegranate tea and found that the chakli tasted great with that.
The sweet treats were a coconut and rose laddu, in essence a rose ball coated with dry coconut, a bite-sized fruit tart and a lentil and jaggery paysam – a pudding from South India.
My favourite was the mud cake cup fashioned into an edible chocolate plant pot with gulab jamun (usually a dumpling made from milk and flour) but turned into a tiramisu. What a gorgeous mouthful.
The question is, can you have an afternoon tea without a traditional scone with jam and cream? Of course not; that’s why a raison scone is included in this platter, complete with strawberry jam and cream.
Verdict:
This afternoon tea is a truly lovely gourmet experience. There is no way you can eat all 10 treats so you get to take it away and continue this Indian-style tea at another time. Plus this is superb value at £35 a head. Basically, that’s your afternoon sorted.
Colonel Saab Restaurant, Holborn
Holborn Town Hall
193-197 High Holborn,
London, WC1V 7BD