Gaylords of Mortimer Street

Gaylord – a name perfect for the Suits You Sir formality and elegance of one of London’s oldest Indian restaurants.

Established in 1966, the old dowager of Mortimer Street has recently had a facelift and looks fresher with her ivory interior and open glass frontage. Yet despite the refurbishment, its traditional values are still very much intact. For instance, they still import their tandoors directly from India.

We arrived on a Monday evening, to an empty restaurant but it was soon filled with a bevvy of high society It-girls and Indian elite. We ogled the diasporian diamonds and pearls while deciding what to order from the north Indian mogul menu.

We started with Golgappa shots, a novel starter of pan puri – little hollow wheat balls – full of tamarind, chickpeas and spicy water washed down with Grey Goose vodka. It doesn’t sound like it could work but we loved them, the combination being exhilarating and exuberant. We had a voluptuous tasting menu – too much to document here, so I’ll only mention a handful of dishes.

The pomfret masaledar, a Punjabi dish, was crusted in caraway and coriander seeds and done well – having the whole fish was an unexpected luxury. We also enjoyed the galouti kebabs made of lamb mince with 15 spices, including dried rose petals. These were juicy and aromatic, the original recipe having been devised for an 86-year-old maharajah without teeth – a food for gammy kings.

However, the tandoori broccoli with pineapple did what it said on the tin (no, not the pineapple tin). It felt a little unnecessary – a vegetable as fresh and nutritious as broccoli should not be as saturated in masala as rich as this.

Gaylord needs to watch how heavy its ghee is and how overwrought the spicing. Despite its refreshed image, the food is not necessarily lighter, although there are exciting variations here. Nevertheless, it continues to be a high class establishment, muted, moneyed, traditional, with an aristocratic character of its own.

Gaylord
79-81 Mortimer Street
Fitzrovia
W1W 7SJ

Tel: 020 7636 0808