What's the draw
Quick-and-easy places to eat in the heart of theatreland are always welcome – especially when they're bringing creative, modern fusion food to the table. Tandoor Chop House is a venue that's just as suitable for a working lunch as it is for a pre-theatre bite or a Friday-night blowout.
What to drink
One of the restaurant's Indian twists on classic cocktails are a must – we tried a Darjeeling Negroni, laced with a sweetly spiced (and very in-vogue) tea syrup before the main event. Elsewhere, there's a good range of core beers and a rotating line-up of guest ales, and we felt at home with the on-tap house white, a peachy, crisp Sicilian Terre De Chiara Grillo – a snip at £5 a glass.
What to eat
The assured, compact menu proclaims that "all our dishes are served fresh from the oven", and just walking into the restaurant confirms it: it smells unmistakably (and deliciously) of spiced, grilled meat cooked over coals. Seekh kebab was everything we wanted from the dish, with tangy, minted green chutney and a sparing use of pomegranate seeds; black dahl had just the fragrant, muscovado-sugar flavour we expected; and lamb chops confirmed what the aroma on entry hinted at: succulent meat, fresher than fresh, with verve, spice and char.
Small plates £3-£16.50; wine from £5 by the glass. 8 Adelaide Street, WC2N 4HZ; tandoorchophouse.com
