Review: Pure Indian Cooking, Fulham

If generic yellow curries in leaky foil tins and broken poppadoms in greasy paper bags are your thing, then prepare to be disappointed.

Fulham’s Pure Indian Cooking is an extraordinarily original fine dining experience which could not be further from your average Friday night high street takeaway.

Run by super-talented husband and wife team Faheem Vanoo and Shilpa Dandekar, this unassuming looking place spins traditional Indian dishes in such a clever way that each dish is more surprising than the last.

The couple both started cheffing together in Mumbai, before moving over to work in the kitchens of high-end London restaurants including Bombay Brasserie and Quilon. To nobody’s great surprise, Shilpa’s obvious talents were quickly spotted by Michelin-starred chef Raymond Blanc who crowned her Head Chef at Brasserie Blanc.

Now the pair run Pure, with charming Faheem managing front of house and Shilpa heading up the kitchen team who quite clearly share her passion for excellent ingredients which dominate her innovative menu.

We were lucky enough to be treated to the eight (yup, eight) course tasting menu, which at £48 is actually a bit of a steal – you get a lot of food – but unlike some multi-course feasts there are none of those pointless filler dishes. Every single one is a corker.

First up, a brace of Pani Puri shots, delicate balls of poppadoms which were fun and tasty, but Shilpa’s skills really started to show when we were presented with the grilled-to-perfection scallops drizzled in a surprisingly yummy beetroot, lime and red chilli sauce. Seriously good stuff.

Then came chicken tikka, but not as we know it. The tender meat had been marinated in orange and tamarind for a rich depth of flavour which packed a knockout right hook.

But for me the dish of the night was Kasoondi mustard pan-fried stonebass with mussel sauce and samphire pakoras. That hunk of flaky fish was fried to perfection and the juicy mussels gave it a kind of extra meaty boost. As for the pakoras. Well, I adore samphire and I’ve never met a pakora I didn’t like so I bloody loved the salty, savoury baby they made.

Just as were starting to flag, up popped a delicate palate cleansing lime and ginger granita – just the job to set us up for round two.

At this point, I confess we bickered a bit over whether Shilpa had in fact saved the best until (almost, but not quite) last. Granted, her lamb sukke was a masterful dish, slow cooked until it fell off the bone without even trying and paired perfectly with asparagus and a fluffy naan bread, but I maintain that it didn’t beat the stone bass whatever anyone else says.

Obviously at this stage, pudding was entirely surplus to requirements, but we forced ourselves to sample the halwa with vanilla ice cream and cherry compote. Absolutely did not need it. No regrets.

London is hardly short of decent Indian restaurants but trust me when I tell you this one is worth its weight in gold. The menu is full of dishes you’ve never heard of but will want to try.

• Nadia’s meal was complimentary for the purposes of an honest review.
• Pure Indian Cooking, 67 Fulham High St, London SW6 3JJ. Tel: 020 7736 2521.