Painted Heron on Cheyne Walk

The Painted Heron has a great reputation.  It was one of those evenings when we decided we wanted a curry (actually we wanted Tsunami but couldn't get a table until 10.30).  We phoned at lunchtime and getting a table for 8.30pm on Friday night was no problem.  Should that mean anything?  May be curry eaters are going more native and exploring Tooting and Brick Lane.  We arrived and were promptly seated, which was as far as the promptness was going to last.  They were clearly expecting a quiet evening as they had staffed accordingly but as we all know there is a minimum level you can't go below and they seemed to have limboed too far below that.  We ordered the set menu, this seemed the most sensible option as 1)  That normally includes dishes the restaurant would like to show off and 2) it covered all the curry bases from my point of view.

The Painted Heron has as I said earlier a great reputation and has received many accolades including Nomination for Best Indian Restaurant and Top20 in Taltler's Restaurant Guide last year so our expectation of the food was high, that combined with the food positioning as being modern Indian...

We kicked off with the essential bowl of poppadums and associated dips, pretty standard fare for any self respecting Indian restaurant but certainly nothing out of the usual, what was unusual and I can not say for certain but it looked suspiciously like one of the waiters was putting unused relish back in the pot when i visited the men's room downstairs where the kitchen is located - it wasn't a bin and it was being put back not added to...

Let's not dwell too long on that and move on to the food.  The pre starter was Mixed lentil sprouts & pea poppadum roll which was perfectly pleasant with two flavoursome dipping sauces, one not unlike hoisin sauce.  The starter was a mixed tandoori plate with tiger prawn, chicken tikka and lamb chop and was perfectly cooked and the marinade bursting with flavour - this was what we had come for.  The lamb was wonderfully rare, the chicken thankfully not.  

Then came the sorbet - it was allegedly a champagne sorbet, none other than Piper Heidsieck but I could have sworn it was lime sorbet.  It was way too sweet and lacked the sharp acidity that I was expecting as a nice refreshing interlude.  The main event arrived and I felt like I was on familiar territory with essentially a Chicken Tikka Massala,Menu description: Chicken tikka with almonds in tomato & cream curry  pilau rice and a naan bread (how many times have I said that in an Indian restaurant?) Salmon tikka with samphire & basil and Lamb roganjosh.  This was, how should I put it?  It was average, that's not to say that had I had this at my local Indian restaurant I would have said 'It's good tonight'  (as we know these things tend to ebb and flow.  But this was one of the top Indian restaurants in the country and therefore expectation was running higher than that.  It was pleasant, naan dipped in the sauce, just how I like it, but no culinary epiphany that's for sure.  Now I am leaving the best bit until last and i have added a drizzle of irony there.  OK its fair to say i have NEVER ordered pudding in an Indian restaurant in my life.  By that point my buttons have already become weapons of mass destruction so rarely have the minuteness of space to include a pudding but we were on a set menu and pudding we shall have. 


This was a mango kulfi lollipop and was incredibly sweet but what made it worse was the drizzle of factory made raspberry purée.  It was not a pleasurable experience.  

Over all it was a very pleasant evening, the staff were friendly and the food was good but not earth shattering and at £117 (that included a nice bottle of Gewürztraminer) I would say average value for money.

Service 3.5 out of 5

Food 3.5 out of 5

Value for money 3 out of 5