Anokha – Posh Curry in the City of London

Anokha
9-13 Fenchurch Buildings
London EC3M 5HR

Good++

If I want to go for a nice curry lunch, most likely I’ll choose Anokha.  The basement location (of course it’s in the basement – it’s a City restaurant…) is quite nice and not your usual curry house.  It’s pretty bright (despite being in the basement), and you don’t have an overpowering hit of curry when you walk in.  Basically, it’s posh curry.

The poppadoms (which are GBP 1.20 a portion whatever that is) were good and the sauces served with it (a selection of four – the usual yoghurt, mango chutney, onion-tomatoey thing, and a lemony tasting sauce) were good but nothing out of the ordinary.  We started with the mixed starter for four which had a selection of paneer, chicken tika, lamb sheesh kebab, samosa and onion bahji.  Looking at the menu online, I see that Anokha lists other items for the mixed starter so I am not sure if we actually received different items, or if I am just mixing up my Indian food.  Regardless, it was all nice except the lamb which I found a little greasy.  For my main I had the Chicken Rogan Josh which was nice and light but surprisingly lacked a little flavour.  This is actually quite critical, as I’d prefer this over a heavier curry any day.  I am not a curry expert so I won’t spend time comparing the other dishes my companions got except to say that they were all excellent.

The service at Anokha was great, and the food was good too.  I am not a massive curry fan at lunch, just because I find it quite heavy, but I like this place every once in a while.  It would be my number one choice for curry in this part of the City.

Decor: Upmarket curry.  Nice enough for a nice business lunch.
Price: It’s not a cheap curry joint.  The mains are about GBP14.
Food: Great
Good For: A nice corporate lunch where your companions want curry and you want to go somewhere slightly more upmarket.