Full of Eastern promise

Success can be a double-edged sword. And when Indian Summer owners Minesh Agnihotri and Byron Swales found themselves turning up to 50 people away from the restaurant on a Saturday night they knew something had to change.

So, at a cost of up to £100,000, the multi-award-winning restaurant has moved next door increasing its capacity by up to 50 per cent, to more than 100 diners a night, while their running costs are only going up by a quarter at an extra £75,000 a year.

“I was doing my figures last year about how many people we turned away every weekend,” says Agnihotri. “It gave us the energy to move.”

The East Street restaurant, which was first opened in 2001, is based around the food Agnihotri grew up eating at home rather than the Bangladeshi vision of a curry which most diners currently associate with India.

“My friend took me to a curry house at the age of 19,” says Agnihotri. “I remember telling my mother our food is being butchered. The idea for Indian Summer began back then.”

The menu is devoid of tikka masalas and bhunas, instead offering a mix of vegetarian and meat dishes including shakahari miloni – an oven-roasted round courgette stuffed with cashew nuts, red onions and ground spices, vegetarian and meat thalis from Gujarati, and Rajasthani laal maas – diced leg of lamb cooked with red chillies, cinnamon, cloves and yoghurt.

An evening set menu offers two courses for £23.95 or three for £27.95, while at lunchtimes newcomers can choose between street food, starting at £4.95 per dish, or thalis from £9.95 offering a mix of traditional dishes including roti, dall, pickles, vegetables, meat and rice.

“We have tweaked the menu a little,” says Agnihotri. “We want to do some Indian high teas – this would be just the place to do it – we are teaming up with Boho Gelato [in Pool Valley] to do some ice cream cocktails, and we are toying with the idea of doing tiffin with a zero carbon footprint, following the old Mumbai tiffin system.”

The system, which is popular with office workers in the Indian capital, sees dabbawallas deliver ready cooked hot lunches to people’s homes and places of work in metal tiffin boxes.

Indian Summer already caters for weddings and special occasions, something Agnihotri is looking forward to continue.

“We have a lot of European customers who want to do something different,” says Agnohotri, adding they are able to mix both English and Indian canapés owing to the skills in the kitchen.

He admits the move next door was not without problems.

“This site has not worked for years,” he says.

“We spent much more money than we wanted to – we really stripped back the walls and found unexpected problems. Our builder has been amazing – I met him through a cookery lesson I did for him. He knows everything about us, and knows the food. We used to have problems with air conditioning before, now this restaurant is climate controlled so people can be more comfortable.”

Essential info

Open 6pm to 10.30pm Mon to Thurs, noon to 3pm Tues to Fri and Sun, 5.30pm to 10.30pm Fri and noon to 10.30pm Sat. Visit www.indian-summer.org.uk