Once upon a time, Indian restaurants in the UK, while popular, were never going to win critical acclaim and fine dining awards. Times have changed, and several Indians now boast Michelin stars. Some, like Benares, have gone for fusion type approaches, to the extent that dishes are barely recognisable as Indian, whereas others like Quilon and Gymkhana keep things more authentic to the homeland, and indeed specific regions. Amaya, now open 10 years, is on the more traditional side, though its distinctive point is the emphasis on dishes from the tandoor oven.
Situated in a pretty enclave of Belgravia, with illustrious neighbours like Petrus, Amaya has a large and smart, but informal dining room.
The welcome at reception was friendly, and service prompt and courteous at the table.
The menu is in several sections, comprising many smaller dishes and, at lunchtime, a number of platters and set menus. There are no curries to be found here, all of the dishes are smaller plates from the ovens, to be shared by the table, tapas style. We chose the Taste of Amaya platter, offering a selection of seven dishes to be shared. First up, the mandarin and goats cheese salad, the only dish not from the ovens. This was suitably tangy, with crunchy vegetables and fairly mild and soft cheese- a solid, if unremarkable dish.
Next, the black pepper chicken kebab. This was the first hint of the quality that this kitchen can produce. You can’t go too far wrong with tandoori dishes, cooked as they are in the tandoor in their marinades, but there is a risk of overcooking and going overboard with the seasoning- here, the chicken was very well cooked, moist and gently seasoned with the pepper, retaining the distinct tandoor taste as well as the flavour of the chicken.
The third dish was the Tandoori Ocean Prawns. These were truly jumbo prawns, and while the marinade and sauces were delicious, the prawns themselves were very slightly overcooked, and could have been a little more tender. Still a very solid dish, though.
The fourth plate to arrive was the Tandoori Chicken Chops, the highlight of the menu up to this point. With a different and equally delicious marinade this time, the chicken itself was perfectly cooked, falling off the bone easily.
A vegetable plate followed, the Spinach and Fig tiki, small cakes cooked in the tandoor. The unique sweetness and sticky texture of the fig blended very well with the spinach here.
The sixth and seventh plates to arrive, the Smoked Chilli Lamb Chop and Chicken Biryani, were the best of all. Lamb chops are often over or under cooked, but these were in the tandoor just long enough to taste well baked, but still very tender, while the smoked chilli marinade was not overpoweringly strong, the lamb flavour still coming through. The Biryani was one of the best I’ve tasted anywhere, cooked with a pastry lid, the rice slightly moist but not soggy, and the chicken again beautifully cooked in the tandoor, tender and tasty.
Overall, it’s clear that the kitchen is expert in cooking meat in the tandoor ovens; all of the chicken and lamb dishes were about as well cooked as you could hope for, only the prawn suffering a little from too long in the oven, and Amaya has succeeded in delivering full meals largely made in those big clay ovens, thereby providing a healthier dining option than most other Indians.
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