Forget the diet. Who wants to nibble lettuce when it’s snowing? Instead visit London’s healthiest Indian restaurant. The menu reads like the blurb for a New Age spa, the Indali philosophy being based on the Ayurvedic medicinal value of the “precious nine spices”, using no artificial colouring, additives or preservatives nor butter, ghee or cream. It didn’t sound much fun. However, this sleek designer restaurant had not a whiff of the sandal-wearer about it. My Indali 50 cocktail (£10.95) (Bombay gin, raspberry purée, elderflower, champagne and pomegranate)

 

seemed happily less intent on my holistic balance than knocking me off my stool. With so many dishes on offer we went for the set menu (£25, £20 for veggies and half-price for under-12s). Our starter platter included softshell crab (the highlight) alongside mushrooms and a bland chicken sheesh that certainly lived up to its billing of not being “over-spiced”. Mains, however, were lush and plentiful. A moreish yellow daal jollied up our naan bread. We loved the succulent Goan fish curry, the tasty spinach sai bhaaji and were in awe of the (can’t-believe-it’s-not) butter chicken. The brains behind Indali, Dr Kartar Lalvani, is some kind of macrobiotic mystic: how can food be so dreamily creamy without cream? Pudding was a light mango kulfi (low-fat probiotic frozen yogurt) and a carrot halva, sinfully moist but without ghee. And what a joy to leave a curry house not feeling like you may have eaten your own bodyweight in butter. This is comfort food that truly leaves you comfortably
full.
Larurushka Ivan-Zadeh