A Pro Chef's Guide To Indian Dining in London

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Come on, what's not to love about this?

I am Karan Gokani, and today I'm gonna take you

to some of my favorite Indian restaurants across London.

And this is Where the Chefs Eat.

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Mm.

That samosa is actually really good.

I think London is the place in the world for food right now.

You've got all the cultures, every little street

offers so much at every price point.

You've got Borough Market,

you've got obviously the posh stuff in Mayfair,

you've got the little neighborhoods,

you've got so much happening in the East.

I think London keeps it real.

Yes, you can get your crazy expensive,

you know, bougie meals in some restaurants,

but at the same time, you can get some really fun,

authentic food.

That's the kind of food I love eating.

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When I come to New Colaba, I always get the chaat.

So chaat is a category of food

that you find in most metros across India.

It literally means lick,

because you eat that food with your fingers,

you're sort of licking your fingers afterwards,

and it's so tasty.

These guys do something

that I grew up eating on the streets of Bombay,

a Bombay Bhel Puri.

It's got rice puff, it's got little crisps,

it's got potatoes, onions, and the most important thing

are the different chutneys that they use to make it.

So you've got spice from the green chutney,

and then you've got tang from the tamarind.

You've got this lovely garlicy background

from a red chutney.

It's just delicious.

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You get this in newspaper cones on the street

and typically you won't get a spoon,

but you get one of these, so you kind of dig it in,

use it as a spoon.

The last bite, you load your last little bit of bhel on top

and eat the whole thing.

So it's, you know, it's just fun.

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What I love about this is both of them are puris,

and puris are these crisps made from wheat or semolina,

which you just fry up and puff.

And there are two versions here.

These are panipuri, really simple.

There's black chick peas, there's potatoes.

Sometimes you can put things like mung beans in there,

you can put spices in there.

And then there's a simple sort of minted tamarind water.

So you pour that in and the idea is to have it in one shot,

a bit like a balloon exploding

with textures and flavors in your mouth.

And the fun thing is with the same puris,

you can fill them up with yogurt,

a little more tamarind chutney, and the saved crisps.

Pomegranate, just for, again,

a little bit of sweetness and fruitiness to it.

It's the same dish, but just tastes so different

because of the yogurt in one

and the panipuri pani in the other one.

Now obviously this is a bit of a starter,

but when we were kids, we'd sit and eat panipuri,

my brother and me would just eat piles of panipuri

as a main course, which I can't think of doing today.

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New Colaba is my choice for chaat,

for North Indian food, and for that homely Indian food

that you'd find at restaurants back in the '90s

if you were growing up in Bombay.

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Right, so that was a great start.

Got my belly full of chaat.

I'm gonna take you to the next spot.

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I am in Soho. Possibly my favorite part of London.

This is something really unique.

We're at Govinda's restaurant,

which is part of the Hare Rama Hare Krishna Temple.

So you've got a temple on the first floor.

You'll see the big Hare Rama Hare Krishna procession

that sort of goes all around, so people singing and dancing.

And I think that it's a bit of an establishment.

It's not just about food for me when I come here,

you can get great food across London.

But for me it's about this little moment

where you're rubbing shoulders with people

from all walks of life, all sorts of beliefs and faiths.

It's the ethos and the thinking behind the food.

So it's all for a good cause. It's such good value.

So when you come to Govinda's, and I hope you do,

obviously visit the temple upstairs.

But then when it comes to eating, I go for the thali,

and you've got various thalis.

You've got a vegan thali,

you've got a slightly bigger one.

I've obviously gone all-in with the giant Govinda Thali.

Thalis, it actually refers to the plate

and you've got a whole selection of dishes.

So we'd have that, you know, at a normal lunch at home.

At Diwali, my grandma would have a massive thali for us.

I'll start with, it's in my hand, that's a poppa.

You have different versions of poppa.

This is a fried poppadom. And they do a spring roll.

I prefer samosa, so I've taken an extra samosa.

Something I love with a lot of my food is a roti.

So they've got a simple chapati,

which is easiest, lightest option

when you're eating something like this.

A dahl, which is like a light lentil curry.

You then got a kidney bean curry.

So a couple of stir-fried dishes.

I think that looks like cabbage and corn to me,

rice, which is essential.

I normally eat rice after the roti.

And then my favorite thing,

and I'm glad it's there on the menu today,

there's a mango shrikhand, which is like a hung yogurt

with mango puree, little bit of saffron,

little bit of cardamon whipped through.

Even my youngest son, he just loves shrikhand.

I made the mistake of giving it to him once with his meal.

So I think it's in my blood, but I love that stuff.

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Anything in Govinda's cooked, Hare Krishna Temple,

love and devotion, we cook with the love and devotion.

But you can feel that. Exactly.

You can feel that when you get the food-

Yes. From the people.

And this is, you know,

another special thing about this place.

Then when the cooks they're cooking,

they have to listen [indistinct].

When you cook with that mood, then you cook actually,

literally you create some dishes which is nourishing

for your health and soul.

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So I've just dined at Govinda's here in Soho,

and it's been so special because it wasn't just a meal.

I got to go to the temple.

It's reinforced everything I've believed

about how clean and homely their food is.

It was a fantastic meal, but now I'm gonna take you

to arguably my favorite spot in London.

Come, follow me.

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I know I'm biased, but I think London is the place

to get the best Indian food outside India.

Wembley for one, Tooting,

but if you're more central, there's Brick Lane,

where you get the Curry Mile.

So there is incredible regional Indian food.

Generally when you're in a neighborhood

and you walk around, you get a very good feel

for where people are going, what has the queues,

and what looks fresh.

Here we are at our last and final stop of the day.

This is something that's very special to my heart.

Come join me at Hoppers.

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So we're in Hoppers Soho.

Tiny little spaces. You can see 40 seats.

Almost created a bit like a film set

where it's immersive, it's hidden, it's just exciting.

The crowd we see over the last nine years

of having this restaurant, I've noticed that, you know,

people have gone from What is South India?

To, Oh, we know what those are.

We kind of understand the finer nuances.

Maybe not to the extent that we know them,

but that's what we are here for.

We've got, probably the dish

we've sold most of at Hoppers,

ever since we opened nine years ago.

Our Bone Marrow Varuval, we've got beef bones,

simmer them in this lovely curry

made from coriander seeds, coconut, chilies,

loads of curry leaves.

And then we serve it with a homemade Malabar Paratha.

Beautiful, flaky paratha.

It's almost like an Indian croissant.

All those layers, all that lamination,

and then squashed together and then fluff back out.

So break a little piece of this,

load this on top and enjoy.

I don't know how many of these dishes

been sold over the years,

but it is still the first thing I feed anyone

or come in and eat when I'm at Hoppers.

More than the restaurant, it was about creating a space

where you just come in and feel like you're transported,

like you're taking away somewhere.

Because a lot of dining is about that whole experience of,

you know, the sounds.

Whether he's making a dosa in the kitchen like that,

or the people you end up sitting next to and chatting to,

the friendships you make.

I've had guests who've come in, sat next to each other,

one has paid the other person's bill

by the end of a 45 minute meal

because they became such good friends.

And I think it's stories like that

that really define dining in Soho, dining in London.

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Oh, look at that. Right.

I'll tell you what, I've been on all kinds of diets

over the last nine years, but the one thing

I just cannot avoid, is if I walk past the dosa griddle

and the guy's making a fresh dosa,

I can't resist ordering one for myself.

And it's this one particularly. Look at that.

The Chili Cheese Dosa. This is just magic.

We make the dosa, we get a layer of podi on top,

which is this lovely sort of lentil

and spice and chili powder.

We get a mix of mozzarella and cheddar,

and then we get fresh green chilies.

It's nuts.

And all you need to really eat a dosa

is some chutneys, maybe some sambal.

But when I'm having this as a snack,

just those chutneys are more than enough.

I'm almost three lunches down now,

and I'll tell you what's next.

It's time for a big, long nap.

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