Rasoi Restaurant

Vineet Bhatia's supremely elegant Rasoi, on a supremely elegant side street off the King's Road, doesn't even particularly look like a restaurant from the outside. You'll need to ring the doorbell first, whereupon you'll be admitted to a plush interior of silk wall-hangings, Indian artefacts and antiques, the whole place beguiled with all the perfumes of south Asian cooking. It's a top-drawer, effortlessly professional operation. The food too is in another class, fusing Indian and Western ingredients and techniques in a productive cross-cultural exchange. Dishes are composed of contrasting elements, such as the roasted chilli salsa and coconut soup that come with a spice-crusted scallop to start. Chicken cooked in the tandoor manages to avoid the drying-out so often met with, its bed of smoky, saffron-scented semolina offering a wealth of supporting flavour. Fennel-coated halibut served with steamed rice cakes and coconut chutney offers another essay in textural and taste contrasts, and vegetarian dishes are practically the most exciting of the lot, as may be vouched by anyone setting about an array of almond and pea tikki, chick pea masala, stir-fried vegetables, tamarind chutney and yoghurt sorbet, and a masala cheese naan. The seven-course Gourmand Menu is well worth the time and outlay. Desserts that you'll be talking about for long afterwards include 'choco capsule', a kind of samosa of dark chocolate, cumin and hazelnuts, served with white chocolate and malai kulfi.