Kahani is an exquisite Indian restaurant in Belgravia serving contemporary Indian cuisine with British ingredients. We rarely venture into West London, but we love Indian food and the menu was very intriguing. Plus, the website is rather alluring.

Kahani is utterly beautiful and equally opulent, yet we didn’t feel underdressed or unwelcome in our usual East London sorta-smart casual attire. The service is also really good. Aptly blending the elegant and friendly vibe of the restaurant.

Before I talk about the food, I need to talk virgin cocktails. Shiima and I have an ongoing battle about virgin cocktails. I think it’s overpriced juice and she… actually, I don’t know what she thinks, she just orders them anyway 😂. Shiima ordered Oriental Wind and Red Smile, and both were tremendous. But, this was an outlier and I stick to my point… not like she cares 😆.

The food

We ordered spiced chickpeas and samosa platter from small plates. Small portions of smoked Malabar prawns, chicken tikka, and lamb seekh kebab from chargrilled. For mains, I ordered Somerset Lamb Chops and Shiima ordered ‘Kahani’ butter chicken.

Small Plates

Shiima really enjoyed the spiced chickpeas. It was well spiced, the chutney was delicious, and it was really creamy.

We enjoyed the chicken and aloo samosas, but really didn’t enjoy the venison. It simply didn’t taste good. The pastry for the chicken and aloo are similar, but it wasn’t the pastry of the samosa venison we didn’t enjoy, it was the filling.

Chargrilled

All the grilled dishes were delicious. So much that Shiima ate and enjoyed one of the prawns, which she never does unless battered and fried to within to an inch of its existence.

The lamb seekh kebab was the best of them, it had the most flavour and was really spicy.

Mains

Firstly, applause for portion size. Four very meaty lamb chops. The chops were perfectly seasoned and succulent, but I would’ve loved a bit more heat to it. Regardless, really enjoyable.

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Shiima’s butter chicken was so flavourful, and all of that was from the rich tomatoey sauce. Shiima enjoyed the sauce with some excellent naan bread and basmati rice, and left most of the chicken for me to devour.

Dessert

We usually don’t bother with desserts at Indian restaurants because the desserts aren’t to our taste, but we were very intrigued by Kahani’s desserts.

We ordered the raspberry and mint cheesecake. It was delicious, not overly sweet, and light. A perfect finish.

Verdict

We really enjoyed our experience at Kahani. The food was mostly superb, the service was excellent and it’s utterly elegant yet relaxing. We recommend for romantic dates, special occasions – they have a really intimate private room for about 8-10 people – and a taste of Indian fine dining. But the taste will cost you, as it’s fairly expensive.

Cuisine: Indian
Dress Code: Smart Casual
Shiima & Amen’s Star Dish: Lamb Seekh Kebab
Price: Over £50pp (excluding alcohol)
Rating: 5 out of 5

Kahani
1 Wilbraham Place
London SW1X 9AE
Reserve at OpenTable,
Or call 020 7730 7634