Chakra

We have walked past Chakra many times, as it's almost next door to bottle shop and beer bar, Real Drinks that we frequent. Although we have often eaten at The Red Pepper, an Italian restaurant on the same street (which we also recommend), we've never ventured into Chakra, an Indian restaurant. Chakra also have other restaurants in Kensington and Kingston upon Thames.

Although we had booked, there were very few customers inside, although this was probably because it was still fairly early. The menu at Chakra has plenty of options, but isn't overwhelming and includes all the Indian dishes you'd expect. Classics like a chicken tikka masala, plus biryanis, and tandoor dishes.

My wife went for one of the tandoor dishes, the Chatpata Chicken Tikka — which was without sauce, as our waiter explained. It was however not just a dry piece of chicken, and still coated in something, giving a good level of spice and flavour and the chicken was still nicely moist. I picked the Kashimiri Lamb Rogan Josh as I was hoping for something a little spicier, which this dish delivered.

With our dishes, we also had a plain naan and some steamed rice. To help us deal with all the spice, we had the customary Cobra to go with our meal.

Chakra is a good neighbourhood Indian restaurant, and I'm sure we'll be back some time.

Lamb Rogan Josh

Chatpata Chicken Tikka