After success in west London with Raj of Kensington, Salim Sheikh launches a second restaurant specialising in authentic Indian food and gin cocktails.
A new Indian restaurant opens for a soft-launch on Holloway Road from Tuesday, December 17.
It's called Raj of Islington - the sister site of Raj of Kensington, which opened in 2016 - and the focus here will be on home-cooked, authentic Indian food inspired by different regions of the country.
Founder Salim Sheikh has a background in fine dining and a passion for food influenced by the British Raj era. His second restaurant will have room for 82 covers, with lots of light, plush materials and fashionable textiles.
Building on the success of the Kensington restaurant, Raj of Islington will have signature dishes including the Railway Lamb Curry and Murg Salli Zardaloo (grilled chunks of chicken flavoured with cumin and rock salt). The former was once served on the epic railway journey between Bombay and Calcutta, the latter is based on a 100-year-old recipe.
Other main dishes will include the Sweet Potato and Goat Cheese Tikki and the Sharabi Jingha, which has tiger prawns soaked in cider and sautéed with chopped peppers, tomatoes and spring onions. The menu will also include a section for clay oven delicacies and market fresh vegetables.
Sheikh's second restaurant vows "a modern interpretation of classic Indian dishes" that will be hand-made and put together from scratch. There should be a takeaway menu to order from in the new year, as well.
At the bar, Raj of Islington comes stocked with wine, spirits and house-made mocktails. The speciality, though, is gin. There are 16 different varieties and three from India, so if you're partial to good Indian food and the occasional gin cocktail, this could be one to keep an eye out for - full launch is in January.
Raj of Islington, 359 Holloway Road, N7 0RN. Soft launch is from December 17. More details are here.
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