Inspired by the army mess bars of India, Brigadiers at Bloomberg Arcade in the City is a sprawling, gloriously loud Indian barbecue restaurant spread across several rooms of red leather booths, polished mahogany and gold detail. The live fire cooking is excellent, with tandoori lamb chops and beef shin biryani among the standouts, and the whole place doubles as one of London's best sports bars, with pool tables, whisky vending machines and cocktails on tap making it as much a destination for a big night out as a serious dinner.
Dishoom's more relaxed, bar-forward sibling, Permit Room opened its first London outpost on Portobello Road in 2025, housed in the former Portobello Road Distillery. Named after the drinking dens that sprang up in Bombay after prohibition was lifted in the 1970s, it serves all-day Bombay-inspired small plates, smoky grills and Dishoom classics alongside inventive cocktails and resident DJs, with the walls covered in art and two boutique hotel rooms upstairs for those who want to make a proper night of it.
A busy restaurant with sites in Soho and Covent Garden dedicated to Indo Chinese Hakka cooking, the fusion food that grew out of Kolkata's Chinese immigrant community. The name combines the Chinese surname Fatt with the Indian word pundit, and the food does the same, weaving Chinese techniques through Indian spices to genuinely exciting effect. The crackling spinach is the signature dish everyone orders and nobody forgets, and the steamed momos and Malabar monkfish curry are equally brilliant.
