harden’s

“a light and fresh approach to curry, deserving success” - this “interesting” indian can come as a bit of a “surprise”, given its “backwater” location in islington’s “grotty” chapel market.

harden’s website  http://www.hardens.com/az/restaurants/london/n1/rooburoo.htm

london-eating

Chapel Market is not the most glamorous street in the area and illustrates the strange bipolar nature of the Angel – unemployable kids in hoodies from the council estates sharing the pavement with people living in zillion quid houses around the corner. It’s not Upper Street that’s for sure and if it was, then I doubt they could turn out such great food for the low price they do. It’s worth wading through the detritus left in the evening after the market has gone to get to Rooburoo’s unassuming front door, because inside it’s creamy bright, modern and atypical Asian.

Menus double as place mats, which is handy because it means anyone writing a review can pocket one and save themselves some note taking. Very little on the menu is familiar, although they do offer the dreaded chicken tikka masala for diners with conservative tastes. Papodums came swiftly, had been cooked in fresh oil and had a range of interesting pickles including beetroot. A good start but our actual mixed starters got mixed reviews. I liked the idea of the Momos; dumplings filled with turkey or asparagus plus ginger and spring onions. The filling was good, but the dumpling case was a little leathery as were the samosas. Both were probably victims of being made a bit too far in advance. The sheeskha kebabs were very good, as was the selection of bhajis and the little lamb chops with ginger and limejuice. All the dishes, though, could usefully have done with being served much hotter, they were merely warmed through.

Heat came with the roobuwrap of chicken chilli roomali. One bite and steam came out of my ears and I like a bit of chilli I do. Closer inspection revealed that inside the chicken filling, itself wrapped in a sort of paratha, were no less than five and a half whole raw chillies each with its seeds in. The missing half was on its way to my stomach. We trimmed the number down and put them back; the wraps were in fact really enjoyable once defused and you can also buy them at lunch as a takeaway snack.

Naga Murgh - chicken cooked with pickling spices and mooli - was excellent, as was the lamb pepper fry with its colourful whole peppers and a sauce served separately. With it came rice unnecessarily coloured orange and fried bitter gourd and red onion, which was crispy and very edible. I could eat a bowl as a TV snack, no problem. Crispy greens, five sorts in five spaces, had the crunch and flavour you only get from rapid and efficient stir-fry on demand, but a bowl of pulses in herbs was dry and not very interesting. The dessert of baked yoghurt and sugar was unexpectedly wonderful and we scraped the bowl clean.

There’s a load of dishes I’d go back to Rooburroo to try because this really is an ‘Indian’ that’s trying hard and succeeding in doing something different. They could probably trim the menu a bit, and watch the chilli content, but other than that full marks from me. Recommended.

Nick Harman - February 2008

london-eating http://www.london-eating.co.uk/28277.htm

foodepedia

The delicious paradox of a ‘Hindoostani Coffee House’ by the presciently named Dean Mohomed would have intrigued liberal thinkers and epicurean romantics of 1809 – the year that England’s first Indian restaurant appeared. Although Dean was declared bankrupt a few years later his legend lives on, namely as a historical snippet on the menu at Indian restaurant Rooburoo where this fusion of English and Indian is evident some 200 years later.

Rooburoo, on Chapel Market in Islington, perfectly mixes Western and Indian ingredients and should thrill Western palates. While not all flavours are strictly authentic (what, after all, is authentic about fusion?), the ingredients are fresh and perky, vegetables distinct, and best, whole spices such as cardamom and cinnamon are kept intact within the dishes.

That said, our meals gave mixed satisfaction. The starter of broccoli and paneer bhaji, ‘mixed with lentils for extra crunch’, was soggy and heavy on the gram flour. Chicken paratha, with chick peas and pomegranate seeds was doughy and confused.

But the fried bitter gourd crisps – or karela – with red onions were a welcome treat. Being an acquired taste, it was heartening to see the menu bold enough to include them, the ghost of chat masala working surprisingly well. Similarly, the home made pickles with poppadums – carrot and lime, beetroot and cider vinegar, mango and cumin jelly, also proved healthy alternatives to the usual lime sluggies that accompany most poppadum servings.

Mains-wise, the lamb chop biriani from Lucknow was generous in volume and plucky in flavour. We liked that. But my lamb keema was a disappointing student’s attempt, whipped up in a flurry, the flavours unmelded, stark and blunt. Spicy fish stew with oily fish and chickpeas tasted much better the next day – never be ashamed of dogging chow home – again, bold contrasts in flavour and texture. The pudding of mishti doi – sweet baked Indian yoghurt with molasses syrup was a winner but the kulfi with fresh fruit was just too fusion with its trickles of jus – gimme a pistachio , crenellated tower any day.

Rooburoo has a pleasantly sparse decor against aubergine walls and quirky, film memorabilia. The Bollywood actor Shar Rukh Khan’s velvet pin striped jacket sits in a glass case and historical photos make tasty eye fodder. The food is pretty affordable – Chapel Market prices this side of Woolies – and the wine list’s decent if not as adventurous as the food. On a drizzly, Wednesday night, the place suddenly filled up after 8pm, puffed full of urban, youngish locals. Rooburoo is high on concepts and originality – it just needs to tweak some of the cooking to deliver a little better.

Anita Pati

foodepedia link  http://www.foodepedia.co.uk/restaurant-reviews/2008/dec/Rooburoo_restaurant.htm