Amaya Restaurant Review, Belgravia, London

Cuisine: Traditional Indian
Style Points: 5/5
Price: £££
Overall: 5/5

Swankier than swank, this places looks gorgeous. It’s not over done or over powering, in fact the decor is just perfect. The first thing that hits you is the amount of natural light filling the space, from sky lights to an entire side wall made of glass.

This makes the restaurant very atmospheric and allows it to look so drastically different in the day from the evening. Reflecting this there are two main spaces: the centre of the restaurant has a lighter feel to it as there are lots of chic mirrors bouncing of the aqua greens and sky blues; the later section is more oriental and composed of dark reds, dim lighting and candles.

A nice addition is the fact that the food is prepared right in front of the diners, everything from including chopping the onions to grilling the chicken, meaning the diners will receive occasional and tantalising wafts from the cuisine.

Would I Want Seconds?

Oh yes. What astounded me about Amaya was that, unlike many of the Indian restaurants I’ve visited, the food here actually tasted authentic. Amaya doesn’t claim to serve authentic Indian cuisine, instead it inserts a twist to it by grilling traditional Indian dishes. Yet despite this, the wide range of choices on the menu and the amount of spices used in the food was enough to hark back to authentic Indian dishes.

I opted for the Amaya platter which allowed me to taste substantial amounts of 7 different main courses. It goes without saying that all the dishes effused the delicate spices used in Indian cuisine, such as cumin and saffron. I would say that it is quite an achievement to transform the presentation and manner of cooking traditional Indian dishes but still maintain the essential balance of spices that makes it taste so good!

Could I Afford Seconds?

I would say no; but this isn’t a ridiculously expensive option when it comes to dining in the Belgravia area. The platter was definitely worth £20 due to the variety of main course dishes provided as well as a decently sized salad to start and dessert to finish. On the whole, the entire platter was totally worth the cost and I would have gladly paid more for it.

Do bear in mind that Amaya does have lunch offers, such as the lunch platter, though dinner may be slightly more up to Belgravian standards.

Overall?

I had been waiting for an excuse to visit Amaya for ages and the food, decor and cost was all totally worth it. Furthermore, although many people have pointed to ‘bad service’ at Amaya, I found the staff to be very friendly and easy to get along with. The waiters were not your usually stuffy professional types which might put some people who pay a price for a certain service off. Instead I found that their approachable attitude added to the overall dining experience.

Website: www.amaya.biz