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Baluchi
LaLiT Hotel, 181 Tooley Street, London SE1 2JR
I am a Londoner born and bred, and as I have said numerous times, this wonderful city never ceases to surprise me. My latest surprise is how much the south side of the river has changed over the last few years. The area around London Bridge has changed so much with a number of considerable new developments including the ultra-modern London Assembly building and, classy as these buildings are, I can’t help loving those older buildings that survive this modern design of glass and metal. It was, therefore, a true delight to visit Baluchi, a restaurant within the 5-star luxury of the LaLiT Hotel.
The LaLiT hotel group are an ultra-luxury hotel chain and have cleverly chosen a good location in London, near to Tower Bridge, and have renovated an old school building, thus using the wonderful architecture of a bygone age whilst maintaining the luxury expected today.
The LaLiT hotel chain was not known to me, but is clearly a modern company which chooses the most trendy sites, and their first hotel in London is a genius choice, situated on the South Bank in the Tower Bridge Conservation Area, occupying the former home of renowned London grammar school St Olave’s. This is a listed building and the renovation is sympathetic and classy.
On arrival you enter the grand entrance, which was truly more impressive than any school I have ever attended, and to the left of the lobby is a stylish bar which used to be the teacher’s common room, and ahead of this is Baluchi. Baluchi is situated in the old school’s main hall and the room is imposing with its vibrant blue ceiling and four truly stunning chandeliers that wouldn’t look out of place in Hogwarts Main Hall. Under their watchful gaze the tables are well spaced, and the large space is broken up by ornate wooden partitions, although I personally would add a few plants as a bit of greenery always soften things a bit.
Indian cuisine has had a real make-over during the last few years, and many fine dining Indian restaurant’s have appeared on the scene, and Baluchi is a good addition to this revolution. Baluchi does distinguish itself from others however, by having at the far end of the restaurant the first Naanary I have ever seen. This is an Art Deco bar which serves a selection of naans with a flight of wines that go with each naan - a first for me!
The Main Course ...
Baluchi’s menu is compact, and has throwbacks to the restaurants previous use, referring to Term1 (Starters), Mid Term (Mains) and Term Break – School Holidays (Desserts). For Term 1 my wife chose the Hand Dived Orkney Scallops (£14.50) with oyster leaf pakoda, buckthorn pure´e, gin foam and pickled grapes, which was served in a smoke-filled glass dome. I chose the Lamb Chops (£14.50) with smoked aubergine, coriander chutney and beet crisp. My chops were succulent and had a lovely heat which was delightfully offset by the cool refreshing aubergine, and both were a great start to our meal. The mains are inspired by the whole of the Indian continent and it was nice to see a number of imaginative vegetarian choices available, including Tandoori Roasted Cauliflower and an Aubergine Steak. Despite those temptations my wife stuck with the seafood theme and chose the Tandoori Lobster (£27) masala shrimp khichdi, wild mushroom, homemade lime pickle and sabudana papad, and I continued with the lamb theme with the Lamb Shank Gushtaba (£21.50) fennel, cashew and saffron with masala mash. The lobster was sweet and succulent and meaty just like lobster should be, and the masala shrimp khichdi was delicately spiced so it complemented rather than overpowered the lobster. My lamb shank was based on a Kashmiri delicacy and was slow cooked so the meat fell off the bone. There was an abundance of sauce which was eagerly mopped up by me using breads from the Hindustani Rotiyan (£11), a basket of mixed breads including paratha and a mixture of different flavoured naan’s.
In Conclusion
Despite all this food we still had a little room for dessert, which was lucky as these were a wonderful end to our meal. I had never really thought of Indian restaurants as having great desserts until now, as my Ginger and Mint Cake (£8) with dark chocolate crumble and berry compote was spectacular. The mixture of textures elevated the dish but the real star was the sharp sorbet which just burst with flavour. Just when I thought things couldn’t get better, I tasted my wife’s desert, Bhapa Doi (£8). This was a rich and creamy honey steamed yoghurt which surrounded a fruit compote and cake that just caressed the tastebuds.
Baluchi serves quality Indian food in a unique environment and is well worth a visit, as it takes the great tastes from across India and serves them up in a creative way, all a stone’s throw from Tower Bridge.
