Weekly Review: Koyal
Food and hospitality that top London's most recognisable Indian places, at a fraction of the price.
Declaring something “The Best Indian Food Ever” is a fairly dangerous move.
After all, spend more than 5 minutes reading history, and it’s clear that “India,” while one of the world’s most interesting and significant countries these days, is also a fairly recent, British-imposed contrivance. South Asia or the Indian subcontinent — as you like — are actually a wonderfully complex series of overlapping regions, defined by thousands of years of sweeping conquest, migration, and complex geography.
So there really is no such thing as “Indian” food. Like the subcontinent, food is best understood by region.
Make sense? Great.
Koyal is the best Indian food that I have ever experienced.
The force behind this extraordinary place is Chef Nand Kishor Semwal, who led the kitchen at Trishna in Marylebone to a Michelin star, then opened Gymkhana, earning a star there within 6 months. Born in the Himalayas, he worked in top places in India before coming to the UK. His food expresses his own roots and journey.
It’s clear from his cooking and his track record that he is extraordinarily gifted. And if you like food, even a little, you’ll want to try it.
Here’s another way to look at it: Right now, you can head to Gymkhana in Mayfair — if you can get a booking — and pay £160 for the tasting menu. Or you can make a foodie pilgrimage to Surbiton and enjoy better food for about half the cost. For wine, the pairings at Gymkhana will set you back £110. At Koyal, you can bring your own bottle and pay a reasonable £25 for corkage.
Which is how this happened:
I made the trip to Koyal at the behest of Andy Hayler and wine-writer Douglas Blyde, who sadly couldn’t actually make it. But happily, Andy and I were joined by Chef Larry Jayasekara from The Cocochine and committed international foodie and wine lover, Polo Tang. All of us brought wine.
Andy is a committed Koyal-ist, and has reported on 10 of his meals there. Naturally, we left him to manage the food. The next few hours disappeared into a Georgian-era procession of removes, punctuated by brilliant dishes and complemented by the fantastic wine that everyone brought along.
The first round of starters included “Beetroot Tikki,” a delightful cake of ground beetroot, lightly battered and fried, then served with yoghurt and coriander chutney. It was impossibly well balanced with multiple dimensions of flavour, all enticing. A dish of Hara Pyaaz, Aloo & Palak Ke Bhajiye — spring onion, potato, and spinach fritters — was equally delicate and miraculous, held together with careful frying and a small dose of hope. There was also a plate of even more delicate and dangerous puri, to be filled with broth and eaten in one go, lest your shirt become a casualty.
Chat, filled with sweet potato and kale, then topped with yoghurt, pomegranate, and a coriander sauce demonstrated a dexterity with sweetness, and offered a balance to the other, spicier starters.
Then came lamb chops prepared in the Tandoor, with a perfect dusting of Kashmiri chilli and garam masala. They were pink and gorgeous and consumed down to the bones. There was black pepper stone bass that, were it part of any other lunch, would have been the foremost highlight.
Which brings me to the chicken. If you are visiting during the week, you can pre-order a very special chicken that Chef Nand imports from Arnaud Tauzin in Les Landes, southwest France. Andy says it is the best chicken in the world. Chef Larry agrees — he uses the same ones at The Cocochine — and explains that they are entirely free ranging, grow slowly, and are fed on maize that’s produced on the farm. For the final few weeks, they are fed only whole maize and milk, which develops an extra layer of fat between fish and skin and creates a distinctive favour and golden colour.
At Koyal, the chicken is served in a several ways throughout the meal. For starters, there is chicken tikka, malai tikka, and chicken lollipops. For mains, the bird is used in methi chicken — a delightful curry made from fenugreek leaves, onions, tomatoes, and yoghurt. I have never had anything quite like it. And across all of the dishes, the chicken stands out as a truly special experience.
But there’s something more: While we’re enjoying the chicken starters, Chef Larry and I start talking about the accompanying salad. (You can see it in the photo just above.) On first glance, it looks like a decorative garnish. It isn’t. It’s a fantastic and vital accompaniment for all three preparations of the chicken — adding acid, herbal notes, and a bit of sweetness. There is corn, onion, tomato, cucumber, coriander, and tiny shavings of chilli. The care that went into making this salad is scarcely believable, even for a place with a Michelin star. The onions have been selected then tasted one by one to ensure the right flavour balance. Same with the chilli peppers. None is too hot nor too mild. The tomatoes have been shaved, but only after their seeds have been carefully removed to keep the salad’s moisture content at the correct level.
This level of care and attention to detail has gone into every dish.
Other mains include a vindaloo made from wild boar, more tender and with a greater depth of flavour than normal pork. As someone who slightly fears vindaloo, I try it with trepidation. The spice levels strike just the right balance. Hot but not catastrophic. Delicious but not overwhelming.
Muntjac Dum Biryani — deer, saffron, and onions — is served under the traditional pastry top. When carefully removed table side, all of the aromas arrive like a passing train. The rice is perfectly cooked, moist and wonderful. The venison is perfect. I may not be able to eat Biryani anywhere again.
Even the breads — a Peshwari naan and a Lasooni or garlic naan — are elevated. Aloo Gobhi, one of my favourites at our local curry place, is on another plane of existence. It lasts microseconds.
Throughout our Thursday afternoon visit, Koyal hums along. It is a large, comfortable space. Andy tells me that the upstairs dining room will hold another hundred or so people. On Friday and Saturday evenings, the place is always heaving.
Chef Nand comes by to visit a couple of times. His friendliness and positive radiance is reflected in his whole team. They know his food. They know the menu. They are offering peak hospitality without Michelin formality. I wish I lived closer to Surbiton.
By the end of our visit, Koyal has me thinking differently about the food of the subcontinent. Sure, I’ve had great, refined Indian food before. But I haven’t spent as much time as I would like getting to know the regional inflections or exploring applications of interesting ingredients. As with so many things, I have much more to learn. But if it can taste like this, I could not be more excited about the journey.
So, while I’m booking tickets to Delhi, Goa, and the Himalayas, I hope you’ll book tickets to Surbiton. It’s much closer than Mumbai.
It’s also great fun for a professional lunch or dinner. A real expedition and a chance to demonstrate unusual knowledge of the London food scene. Forget Gymkhana and Mayfair. We’re off to Surbiton. Grab a couple of bottles of wine. The train departs Waterloo every 15 minutes or so. Chef Nand and his team will be waiting, with the best Indian food that I’ve ever tasted.
Quick hit: The best Indian food that I’ve ever tasted.
Details: Booking advised. Surbiton. ££.
Visit their website. More on Instagram and from Andy Hayler.
Find it on Google Maps. 59-63 Brighton Rd, Surbiton KT6 5LR
Thanks for reading this week’s review. Needless to say, if Andy does a report on our lunch or Polo offers his views on Instagram, I will share links. Tell me what you think in the Comments. And please subscribe if you haven’t already.
I’m obviously very interested in going now!
I went to Dastaan when Chef Nand was cooking there.
Absolutely superb, but even harder to get to than Surbiton. I can`t find anyone willing to get on the train to join me for a meal at Koyal. Sigh.
I`ll just have to go on a fast for 3 days and then just go on my own.
Chef Nand cooks the best lamb chops I`ve ever had...