Referring to Guru as an “Indian restaurant” is not doing it justice.
Nothing against Indian restaurants- and Hong Kong has a number of very good ones- but Guru in Lower Elgin Street, Soho, is an entirely different plate of papadums.
If used to frequenting most of the Indian restaurants in the Kensington area of London or all those curry houses down Fulham Road with their fiery and tasty South Indian dishes served in small silver bowls, or think the best curries in Hong Kong are found by slumming it in Chungking Mansions, Guru won’t be to your taste.
It’s very different to any of that. The restaurant’s menu might have words like tandoori and vindaloo on it- and these dishes are very good- but it also serves some excellent vegetarian dishes made from spinach, okra, dahl that are not “Indian” at all.
This is cooking far more “acceptable” to a wider clientele than those who look at “eating Indian” as a rare experience to “go native” and drown the bum burners served with several pints of beer and leave swearing never to have another curry in a hurry.
Guru has a very loyal clientele, it has a popular and busy outdoor catering service, and one can either make a conscious decision to go there for the Chilli Chicken, the Tandoori Prawns, the Chicken Tikka, or the Lamb Kebabs- OR, you can just go there and ask Mr Karki, the Nepalese owner, to surprise you as you’re too darn tired to think.
Whenever I’ve taken this route to dining, what’s been served- for example, very different tasting and not too spicy chicken dishes that go a treat with the Pineapple Rice and Spinach Purée with Cottage Cheese which, with some Onion Naan, is a meal on its own- has been excellent.
I leave content in knowing I’ve tasted something new in an ambience that’s made me feel comfortable, and which will make me want to return in a few days time for more.
And that’s Guru’s strength: Return visits, and which are never frequent in what are your typical Indian restaurants where, after a meal, one doesn’t exactly feel very sexy as the stomach has expanded, and you can’t wait to crawl into bed- alone- and hope no one sees you for a few days.
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