Moti Mahal Restaurant Review

Situated in the heart of Covent Garden lies Moti Mahal, a contemporary Indian restaurant which we recently had the pleasure of reviewing for Lusorian. The restaurant comprises two floors adorned with tasteful glass chandeliers, dark wood flooring, taupe walls and cream leather seating all of which make for a relaxed and warming atmosphere.

The cuisine has been created by renown Indian Head Chef Anirudh Arora, who we learnt had recently featured on BBC2 MasterChef – we knew we were in for a treat!

After a delightful long fruit cocktail in the bar area we were escorted to our table and presented a the perfectly sized menu (in terms of dishes on offer)… not too many and not too little making it far simpler choice for us to make a choice.

Selecting from the A La Carte menu we started with the Scallops seared with onion seed and coriander stem, tamarind glaze, tangy chaat potato mash which was beautifully presented, the only complaint being the scallops were perhaps a little small. We also had the Tandoor roasted lamb chops with kashmiri chillies, cumin mash, spiced puy lentil salsa which was by far the best choice and offered up some incredible flavours.

Before we got stuck into our mains we were brought a blackberry sorbet with fennel seeds… sounds weird I know but BOY did it work! It was the perfect palette cleanser and I`ll no doubt be attempting my very own version some time very soon.

We love unusual dishes so when we saw the Spicy Wild Boar and okra curry from Goa – it was a done deal. Having never eaten wild boar before we were unsure as to what we`d get and were very happy to get some beautifully succulent meat in a gorgeous spicy sauce. Our other choice was the Crisp fried spiced soft shell crab tossed with rouquette, water cress, kumquats in coriander and coconut dressing. When it arrived it looked like any ordinary salad, however… having pulled the rouquette back we uncover one of the tastiest crabs we have tasted to date.

So to sum up… the restaurant was well positioned and easy to find. It may not be the most opulent restaurant we have featured but with the vast amount of theatres in the area it makes for the ideal before or after show bite at a very reasonable price. Expect to pay around £30-£50 per head.