Randomness Guide to London Menu

Excellent omnivorous counterpart to the (vegetarian) Rasa over the road, specialising in Syrian-Christian Keralan food - no tikka masala in sight!

Kat and Rick visited on a Wednesday evening; it was fairly busy but relaxed and friendly, we never felt rushed or under-attended at any point.

We decided to forego poppadoms and plunge straight into the starters. Kat had the Kerala fish fry, a wedge of kingfish covered in ground (fairly hot) spices. Rick had three enormous Mysore Bonda (fried potato balls) which were extremely good, similar in taste to the dosas we'd enjoyed on a previous visit to the other Rasa.

For the main course, Kat had the Erachi Olathiyathu, a dry lamb dish which was very tasty indeed, and went well with the paratha. The portion was quite plentiful and we wished we could have fitted in more of it. Rick had the Tharavu Roast duck, which came with a very good but very rich sauce. Although this was the 'meat' Rasa, there were plenty of vegetarian main courses on offer too.

We were way too full to have pudding, though the dessert menu looked very tempting.

A service charge of 12.5% was automatically added to our bill (around £35 for 2, including drinks). We'd definitely go back and try the rest of the menu.

See also:

• Matthew Fort's Guardian review (June 2001)
• Charles Campion's review
• Fay Maschler's review (April 2001)
• Grumbling Gourmet review
• London Eating comments