Bulbul London, Tudor Street in London / By Megan Lawton / Publisher Luxurylifestylemag

London isn’t short of good Indian restaurants, so it takes something special to make a new one worth talking about. Bulbul is just that.

The brainchild of chef Rohan Dsouza, who began his career in London working with Marco Pierre White, and highly successful restaurateur Twinkle Keswani, it’s a conveniently central restaurant, just a short walk from Blackfriars and St Paul’s stations.

From the outside, Bulbul is unremarkable. In fact, the building was once a 130-year-old printing press. But step inside and you’re greeted by large floral lights hanging from the ceiling, a decadent winding staircase leading down into the dining room, and an impressive fountain taking centre stage. The whole place oozes 70s flair, with lavish interiors including velvet sofas, leopard-print chairs and golden napkin holders.

That attention to detail extends to the staff uniforms, which are burgundy pinstripe, with artistic embroidery across the back. Immediately, you get the sense that this is going to be an experience.

The same theatricality carries through to the cocktails. Rather than handing you a standard drinks menu, the waiting staff presented us with an open wooden box: an innovative take on the cocktail menu that lets you sniff the ingredients, and even taste some of them. There are fragrant flowers, rice to demonstrate texture, and a whole flight of ingredients designed to take you through the drinks.

I can never resist a martini, even when it comes with a twist (not the lemon variety on this occasion), so I went for Bulbul’s take on the classic. It arrived in a delicate, dainty glass, iced to perfection, and tasted much like a traditional martini with a slight, welcome hint of strawberry, just as the menu promised. It was smooth, subtly sweet and moreish.

My partner Sam went for the raw mango highball, which came with a novel spoonful of ‘mango caviar’ – essentially a mouthful of little mango balls. Just like a classic highball, it packed a punch, only this time with a fruity hit too.

The cocktail menu celebrates Indian spirits, ingredients and flavours

Then came the food. We started with the crab, which was served in a large shell alongside a thin and crispy dosa. The crab meat was delicately spiced, finely shredded and loaded with flavour. A show-stopping dish.

Next up was the lamb wagyu kebab, so tender that the meat practically fell apart as the knife went through it. Succulent and juicy, it was served with pickled onion and a slice of lime, whose sharp, sour flavours provided the perfect counterpoint to the richness of the meat.

Authenticity is clearly everything to the team at Bulbul. The restaurant had its tandoor oven flown in from India, where, it turns out, the air miles were the least of the team’s worries. The biggest hurdle was getting it into the basement kitchen. As one member of staff told us, “it took 10 people to carry it downstairs”.

So, naturally, it would have been rude not to order from it. The tandoor-baked monkfish and Norfolk chicken were succulent, crispy on the outside and tender within, both packed with flavour and a warming level of spice that never overpowered the dish.

The chicken was baked in cream cheese, which gave it a pleasant tang while keeping it succulent. We expressed our appreciation to chef Rohan Dsouza, who told us they had searched high and low for the perfect supplier of tender, succulent chicken. They now use – as the name of the dish implies – a supplier in Norfolk, another small detail that reflects the care that goes into the menu.

As we had mainly chosen drier, tandoor-cooked dishes, our waiter recommended we add the black lentil dal to our selection of mains. The dish had been cooking for 18 hours, giving it an indulgent depth of flavour. Soft, creamy and almost buttery, it brought something different to the table and was perfect mopped up with the fluffy, light rice and buttery naan bread.

As somehow always seems to happen at restaurants, we found room for dessert. The fig and gingerbread plate was a refreshing end to the meal, with a gingerbread crumb adding texture and warmth.

Fittingly, we finished our evening with the restaurant’s special chai tea, which was a treat in its own right; comforting, sweet and fragrant.

In a nutshell

Perhaps what makes Bulbul most interesting is that, beneath the theatre and extravagant surroundings, the food itself holds up. The restaurant manages to retain the flavours and techniques at the heart of Indian cooking, while giving them a more playful, contemporary setting.

From the tandoor oven that had to be hauled down the stairs, to the 18-hour dal, the Norfolk chicken and the ingredients laid out for you in the cocktail box, there’s a real attention to detail throughout. And it’s a restaurant, I’ll most definitely return too.

Factbox

Address: Victoria House, Part Ground & Lower Ground Floor, 25 Tudor St, Temple Avenue, London EC4Y 0DD
Phone: 020 8713 1085
Website: bulbullondon.com

Images courtesy of Bulbul London.