We have a slightly comical experience at Salaam Namaste. My dining companion orders the Dorset crab vindaloo, gregariously explaining that for the sake of the diners around her it’s best if it’s taken out of its shell in the kitchen. When it arrives it’s still very much in the shell, and without a cracking implement or a crab fork in sight. “Am I supposed to do it with a knife and fork?” she asks, looking confused. She asks the waiter whether it’s too late to send it back or if they could bring her some tools. They bring out a crab cracker and a fingerbowl, but the crab is saturated in so much spicy curry this means getting all over herself, and potentially others. What’s worse is that once she eventually prizes out a bit of meat it’s overcooked and dry, and she gives up on it soon after.
Luckily everything else is very good. Chef/owner Sabir Karim serves updated regional specialities from all over India with great skill. The tandoori Portobello mushroom has a sweet, creamy filling made from figs, cashew nuts, cheese and spices; the Mangalorean soft shell crab is coated in light crispy batter, served with tomato coulis. The menu also has a selection of dishes cooked on a bukhara, an open charcoal grill, one of which is the khaas seekh kebab, two skewers of minced lamb, well-seasoned and flavoured with coriander and slightly charred.
For dessert we try the traditional dessert gajar halwa, made from grated carrot and scattered with raisins and nuts. It arrives piping hot, which makes it all the more syrupy.
By 8.30 the spartan dining room has filled up with suits, as it was empty when we first walked in. We may be near the British Museum, but these particular backstreets of Bloomsbury are surprisingly desolate. Karim opened this restaurant in 2005, and it proved an instant hit. In 2010 he launched Naamaste Kitchen in Camden, and throughout the whole time he’s kept his job as a British Airways crew member. Thankfully his skillful cooking has nothing to do with airline food, although trying to eat a whole crab on a plane would probably result in a similar experience.
