Haandi local restaurant

Haandi is a large and confident Indian restaurant, and so it should be as befits an establishment with sister restaurants in Nairobi, Kampala and Knightsbridge. The Knightsbridge branch has a very good reputation for what they style 'North African frontier cuisine' but is really Punjabi food with a few East African touches, liberal spicing and good, assertive flavours.

The Edgware restaurant is a stylish and busy place, with a central water feature hewn from an imposing hunk of rock, looking a bit like Stonehenge on a very rainy day. At the back of the room, a glass window shows the chefs in tall white hats moving calmly around the tandoor, cooking to order.

The prices here may be rather more Knightsbridge than Edgware, but then so is the quality of the food. The starters are impressive: a dish of tandoori lamb chops (always a good test) is wellmarinated and cooked spot on; an accompanying pudina naan manages to be minty and buttery all at the same time.

There is a dish called hariyali til rolls which reinvents the potato croquette. Inside, there is potato, veg, fresh herbs and a good belt of chilli, outside there is a mixture of breadcrumbs and sesame seeds, then the whole thing is fried until crisp outside and melting within. You must include the fish chaat patti which is a stir-fry of white fish with fresh herbs, red capsicums, onions and fresh herbs, enlivened with a dollop of tamarind chutney.

The main courses are also delicious: The modestly named Punjabi chicken curry is described as being 'home-style' and it lives up to expectations: a large portion and a rich sauce. Mari methi mutton is a stellar dish: a rich and dry curry with a good balance of fenugreek and chillies. The prawns are notable here: large prawns come stir-fried with onions, garlic and chillies in a dish called tawa prawn masala. Whatever you order, add a portion of dal dera, a butter-rich sludge made with those black lentils called urid dal, this dish is close to the famous dal Bukhara. Very good eating.

Haandi is a slick restaurant with suave service and there is even a wine list with laboriously worked-out charts to show which wines go with which dishes. The standard of cooking is accomplished and the dishes are all perky and fresh. When reviewing any restaurant, the wise critic's first step is to pick up a takeaway menu for reference purposes. They have a takeaway menu at Haandi, and, on the way in, I picked it up only to see 'At Haandi, the food is very good - Charles Campion, ES Magazine', a quote from my 2001 review of the Knightsbridge branch. Thankfully the food is good up here in Edgware too, and, with any luck, the proprietors can now pick something a little more effusive to quote from the piece above.

Haandi
Hale Lane, Edgware, HA8 7AX