Spicing up the Soho kebab

It was at the glittering Amaya restaurant in Belgravia that I realised that the word kebab has a particular definition for Indian chefs. Beyond meat on a stick, it seems to refer to anything grilled or otherwise quickly cooked.

At the newly renovated Soho Spice complete with a kitchen on view behind glass, the kebab menu includes dishes such as barbecued lobster, chargrilled trout and piccata of lamb marinated in pomegranate juice, smoked with cloves and grilled on the tawa (griddle).

Maybe it was because I had booked a table - using my foxy New Year pseudonym - in what is more of a walk-in restaurant, or maybe I was recognised, but we got the best corner in a space crammed with tables. We also got assiduous service but I have never seen quite so many staff milling about, chiefs as well as Indians.

Soho Spice is now part of the group masterminded by Kuldeep Singh which includes Mela and Chowki, also in Soho. Perhaps reserves had been called in for the opening of this new enterprise.

Of the starters we chose, the finest exponent of what the chef Raminder Malhotra is said (by the press release) to expect from a great kebab - "crisp on the outside, soft and succulent inside" - was lamb mince pattie.

Paneer (curd cheese), mint, onion and egg made a soft filling inside a papery, crunchy meat coating. It was vigorously spiced, as was "curls of squid" which was too hot for the tastebuds of its recipient but I thought it exciting spicing with layers of flavour. Chaat, lentil dumplings bathed in spiced yogurt and chutneys, was suitably gentle as the final third in our order.

Main-course kebabs when chosen as a meal, rather than the rather irritating definition "nibbles", come complete with rice, dal and naan. They are served on white china, a sort of Wedgwood version of a thali. Our plates also had a little bowl of spinach and chickpeas which was presumably the vegetable of the day. It was well cooked, as was the dal.

Both mixed with the rice and eaten in a Hindu frame of mind made the meat almost superfluous, but I liked my little quails roasted with a coating of ginger and mango powders. Supreme of chicken had that softness and slight dullness that a yoghurt marinade can impart.

Another page of the menu offers "Favourite Curries" including vegetable curries. The spicy chicken curry we tried was fine. We skipped desserts - rasmalai, kulfi, gulab jamun and ices - and enjoyed masala tea.

In the basement is the Spice Lounge, a bar and nightclub. Music from there penetrates the restaurant, adding to an atmosphere where you might not want to linger, but you'd certainly want to nip in for unusually good, reasonably priced Indian food.

Soho Spice
124-126 Wardour Street, W1F 0TY