Williams William Sitwell China India Pakistan Indiana Iran city Westminster county Berkeley Burma Nepal city Delhi man and Williams William Sitwell China India Pakistan Indiana Iran city Westminster county Berkeley Burma Nepal city Delhi

William Sitwell reviews Mathura, London: 'I feared pan-fried turbot – and a scary bill'

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telegraph.co.uk

Quo Vadis, opening in Delhi and an Indian resident dismissing it, saying he preferred a greasy spoon. But, hey, there it is.

I’ve been conditioned this way. I was brought up with the idea of Bangladeshi curry houses being a Sunday-night treat in the ’80s.

There was even one near us in Notting Hill called the Standard Indian, which is exactly what you got, and very good it was too.Often with my brother and father, we nipped there at the end of the weekend, ordered too much of what we always ordered, and watched with astonishment as my father finished every morsel, like some wartime schoolboy not knowing when he might eat again.And then there are my many experiences of actual India: street food, shack food and beach food.

Dals, rice, breads and occasionally meat. The latter always disagreeing with my constitution and the ensuing weight loss being the reason, when I returned home aged 17 after several months in India, that my beloved mother’s first words to me were not, ‘You look slim and well,’ but, ‘God, you look ill.’So given this entrenched background, picture me sitting in Mathura, slobbering like I always do in anticipation of Indian food, wanting just an economic vat of dal, some naan and rice, but fearing white tablecloths, a panoply of Indo-Asian dishes, pan-fried turbot and a scary bill.But at least I’m in the hands of Atul Kochhar, a chef of great talent and the man who opened what was probably London’s first properly posh Indian, in Berkeley Square in 2003: Benares.Kochhar’s latest place is an old fire station in Westminster, a restaurant that mixes Indian food with influences of its neighbours, including Iran, Nepal, China, Pakistan and Myanmar.The place is beautifully restored, although sitting in such.

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