My Review of Two Michelin Star Restaurant Gymkhana
In our recent vacation, our last stop before heading back home was to visit the city of London. I had never been but it honestly wasn’t at the top of my places to visit. However, since it was on the way back we decided to make the most of our day trip there and to also check out the highly rated, two Michelin Star restaurant called Gymkhana!
Located just around the corner of Piccadilly Circus, Gymkhana is known for their contemporary Indian cuisine using seasonal British ingredients. According to their website, they have a strong focus on “tandoori oven and chatpatta sharing dishes”.
I absolutely LOVE Indian food. It is my second favorite cuisine, not far behind sushi. So when I heard about Gymkhana, I told Michael that we just had to make a reservation and try them out!
We got a late reservation for the day that we were going to be in London. Unfortunately the only earliest option available was 10 PM so we took it and decided to save our appetite until then. We did stop by at the bar in the hotel we were staying in – the Manetta’s Bar inside Fleming’s Mayfair.
After a bit of relaxing and trying their signature cocktails, we hopped in an Uber and headed on over to the restaurant.
The restaurant is located in a dimly lit street in London. It almost looks like a back alley. I wouldn’t have been able to easily spot the restaurant even with its sign out front. But once you do, the door looks very grand and opulent.
Once inside we were seated pretty quickly. The vibe was what you would typically expect for a London restaurant when dining in the late evening. It had a dark yellowish, orange glow of lighting. The seats were giving gentleman’s club (lol), or I guess more appropriately an upscale hotel bar feel.
This is usually my type atmosphere when I go to a fine dining restaurant. I love dining in a dimly lit restaurant with lots of interesting art and photos hung throughout the restaurant. The cushy booths and detailed carved wood give it a very exquisite, exclusive feeling.
What I wore:
SANDRO Blue Alexandrine Midi Dress in Rib Knit
Chanel Necklace
Van Cleef & Arpels Earrings
The noise is tolerable – essentially what you’d expect in any busy restaurant. For a tasting menu dinner (which we thought we were getting) we thought it would be a little more quiet but the restaurant was packed and every booth was occupied.
So when we arrived we were hoping to try out their tasting menu. HOWEVER, we later found out that they stop serving their tasting menu option after 9 PM. This was probably why everything was book up through 10 PM. So if you’re interested in trying out their tasting menu option, make sure to reserve a table for 9 PM or earlier.
We were bummed but their general menu looked just as good! First thing I wanted to try was actually a drink off of their drink menu called the Alphonso Mango Lassi.
If you’ve never heard of the term lassi, it is a punjabi yogurt-based beverage that has a smoothie-like consistency.
I love smoothies so I had to try it. And it did NOT disappoint! It not only tasted great but it looked very appealing. It was like drinking a fruity pebbles shake.
We then ordered a few appetizers to start off. Michael and I were pretty hungry when we got here so our eyes were definitely bigger than our stomachs.
The two appetizers we chose were the Patiala Fried Chicken (depicted on the right in the image below) and the Kasoori Chicken Tikka, Moong Sprouts & Kasundi Kachumber (on the left in the image below).
When they served us the appetizers, we were pleasantly surprised at the portion size – they were pretty big for appetizers especially for a Michelin star, high end restaurant.
So these two appetizers were actually recommended to us by our waiter who was very friendly and exchanged some friendly and funny banter with us!
The Kasoori Chicken Tikka on the left was a good appetizer dish but the Patiata Fried Chicken on the right? That was probably one of the BEST Indian dishes I have ever tasted in my life! I’m being very honest when I say this. It was one of the most flavorful dishes I’ve ever tried, but also extremely spicey (for me, I don’t have a very high spice tolerance).
I seriously contemplated getting a second serving of it because it was just that good! Michael also agreed with me on this. In fact, throughout our dinner, I just kept commenting back to how good of an appetizer it was! If you’re going to this restaurant and eating off the regular menu, I highly recommend the Patiata Fried Chicken Appetizer – it is A MUST!
After our appetizers we ordered two of the mains. We asked our waiter whether this would be enough or too much food since both Michael and I were starting to get full. He sort of gave us a half baked answer so we just went with an order of two mains and some garlic naan and a bowl of rice to share between the two of us.
We ordered the Chicken Butter Masala (a staple for Indian food and I have to order a variation of Tikka Masala at any Indian food I go to) and Michael wanted to try the Goan Prawn Curry so we order that as well.
When we got our mains, we weren’t expecting the portions to be so large! Our eyes were definitely bigger than our stomachs and by this point we already felt defeated looking at all the food in front of us! So if you order a few appetizers to share between two people, know that the mains are quite large because in addition to a main, you’ll want to order a side of rice and their naan bread basket as well.
Both of our mains were very delicious but I was about to pop by the end of this meal! I personally favored the tikka masala over the prawn but I’m usually biased towards a good chicken tikka masala anyway!
After we tried to eat as much as we could, our waiter came by and asked if we were interested in dessert. I laughed (and hurt cried because of the slight pain from over eating, lol) and said I didn’t have the room in my stomach for more. As tempting as it was, both Michael and I passed on dessert.
The waiter came back with our check and a dish of assorted small dessert bites to end the meal.
Both Michael and I looked at each other with the same thought – are we going to attempt to eat these small desserts? They were tiny so we each tried a small bite of both. I can’t remember what the filling of the Mukhwas seeds coated balls were, but it tasted sweet. the other dessert bite had a thick gelatin texture and also pretty sweet.
Would I rate this a 2 Michelin star? Of course! Gymkhana, in my book, was another hit when it comes to fine dining contemporary Indian cuisine! While we did not get the try their tasting menu due to non-availability and our late reservation, we did still enjoy the food that we picked from their regular menu. We found the waiters and host to be very friendly. They made excellent recommendations (brownie points on that Patiata Fried Chicken – seriously one of the best dishes!).
The ambiance of the restaurant itself was perfect and the history behind the restaurant was equally as entertaining and insightful. The portions were bigger than we thought especially for a 2 Michelin start restaurant. Overall we enjoyed our dinner very much. If we’re ever in London again, we’ll be sure to dine there again – and hopefully catch their tasting menu option a second time around.
Don’t forget to check out my other Michelin Star restaurant reviews from other parts of the country & world!
Overall, I do give this a two star myself and if you’re traveling to London, UK, please check out Gymkhana restaurant while you are there! Hope you enjoyed my Gymkhana Restaurant Review and that it entices you to dine there one night!
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