24 March 2015 | Food | By: Sejal Sukhadwala

In this series,we review restaurants from an entirely vegetarian angle. While some restaurants will be specifically vegetarian, others will be mainstream. Well be tasting everything from veggie burgers, to posh meat-free menus. Along the way, well try to find out, as far as possible, whether chicken stock, cheese made from animal rennet, gelatine, fish sauce and so on are not lurking in the supposedly vegetarian dishes.

Londonist Rating:

We were excited that the once-acclaimed Zaikahad been revamped, refurbished and reimagined and finally relaunched around 3-4 months ago and so all the more disappointed when our overpriced meal turned out to be incompetently cooked. Very surprising, given the restaurants pedigree and other critics effusive praise.

First established in Chelsea over 15 years ago, Zaika has had more ups and downs than a yo-yo on a trampoline. Its where top Indian chef Vineet Bhatia (who went on to open the award-garlanded Rasoiin Chelsea) first made his mark, and it was one of the first Indian restaurants ever to gain a Michelin star. Many affluent Indians, proud that their complex cuisine had finally been recognised beyond the curry-house clich, flocked there in their finery to celebrate special occasions.

It spawned numerous Indian restaurants up and down the country copying the word Zaika which means sophisticated flavours into their names, and its chocolate samosa became one of Londons most widely imitated restaurant desserts. But when the restaurant lost its star, the Tamarind Collection, owners of Tamarind and Imli Street restaurants, took over and a couple of years ago inexplicably turned it into an Italian restaurant named One Kensington. It didnt work and eventually closed, leadingus to the rebooted Zaika of Kensington at the end of last year.

The 19th century Grade II listed building, formerly a bank, is certainly impressive, and retains many of the original architectural features such as high vaulted ceilings. Whereas once the bar was located by the entrance, its now plonked right in the middle of the room, with informal seating and a more formal dining area squeezed to either side. You can just drop by for a drink and the cocktails are truly fabulous but the bars unusually prominent positioning makes us question how serious the kitchens intentions are. Is Zaika now supposed to be more a drinking or a dining destination? It is a handsome-looking space though, all creams and browns and luxuriant with sturdy wooden panels, leather banquettes and dozens of framed pictures. Splashes of fresh flowers and plants bring tropical colour and feel, but the sparkling jewel-hued lamps have been replaced by more functional spotlights. If colonial India had gentlemens clubs, they would probably have looked like this.

The kitchen is now overseen by Mumbai-born executive chef Sanjay Gaur, whos trained as a pastry chef and worked at The Savoy Grill, Maze, and Angela Hartnetts Murano among others. The head chef Devshanker Sharma has worked with the Tamarind Collection for over a decade. The menu is a contemporary take on Awadhi cuisine of Lucknow, the capital of the state of Uttar Pradesh in northern India. This intricate cooking style evolved in the royal kitchens during the Mughal Empire. Its renowned for its refined, nuanced flavours and highly sophisticated techniques influenced by the cuisines of Persia, Turkey, Afghanistan and, to some extent, the Balkans and Central Asia. So we were surprised that there was nothing royal or refined about the vegetarian dishes on our visit.

Mixed sprout tikki spiced Indian potato cakes with sprouted beans have no discernible flavour or texture of the sprouts, and we cant see or taste their apricot-coriander stuffing. Theyre over-cooked to the point of almost being burnt on both sides. Palak paneer (spinach with Indian cheese), on the other hand, is alarmingly undercooked and has an unusually bright green colour and dominant taste of raw garlic. Its described on the menu as paneer tossed with onion-tomato masala finished with pureed spinach and if you take the description of the cooking process literally, maybe thats the problem. The curry should be made by frying the onion-tomato masala long enough to give it a rounded, well-cooked taste, adding minced spinach and cooking it further until it acquires a dark khaki-green colour. Sauting onions, tomatoes and spices patiently for the correct length of time is absolutely essential in Indian curries, otherwise they just wont taste right and this popular Punjabi staple, which even many high street restaurants are proficient at, clearly hasnt been cooked through.

Indian baby aubergines are often astringent, depending on the variety used and unfortunately this is the case with baigan masala here. The masala is fine, but the bitterness of the baigan doesnt do it justice though this is not really the kitchens fault. A bread basket is filled with soft plain and chilli-and-cheese stuffed naans, which are fine, but also paratha (flatbread) thats overcooked to the point of being crisp and dry in texture.

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Vegetarian London: Zaika Of Kensington Restaurant Review