When I saw an appeal to stop the India Club from being demolished, I immediately signed to save a restaurant where I have eaten many meals. Located close to Somerset House in London’s very central location of the Strand, the India Club has been the local canteen for generations of BBC journalists who love desi food, but can’t afford the more expensive restaurants.

The back story to this iconic institution is more interesting than most desi eating establishments: the founding members included India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and, his friend and Lord Mountbatten’s wife, Edwina Mountbatten. Established in 1946 at a nearby location, the India Club moved to its present home in the Strand Continental Hotel in 1964. Below, on the second floor, is the Club bar where you can buy drinks to take up to the restaurant.

When the owner of the building, Marston Properties, announced that it intended to renovate the hotel that housed the India Club, and the cherished institution would have to be destroyed, a large number of well-known journalists and writers who had been eating there for years launched a signature campaign. Some 30,000 signatures later, the Westminster City Council announced it was rejecting the planning permission application on the grounds that the India Club was of cultural and historic importance. The owners, Yadgar Marker and his daughter Phiroza, expressed their delight over the reprieve.

To prevent demolition of the famed restaurant was nothing short of preserving an institution of great cultural and historical value

So all’s well that ends well. What’s the food like? “Pretty good” is the highest praise I can give any of the very predictable items on the menu. But on price points, it beats most London eateries. The starters include sundry pakoras and samosas, as well as bhel puri and pani puri that all cost under four pounds. The mains are the usual suspects: bhuna lamb, butter chicken, and Mughlai chicken. My favourite comfort food, qeema muttar, (peas and mince) is also included. All these are under 10 quid each. The only items to cost just slightly over 10 pounds are the king prawn biryani and the lamb biryani. While most dishes are pretty good, the India Club is not where you’d go for a gastronomic treat. There are other, far better, desi joints in London. But this restaurant remains popular with a largely gora (white) clientele who come back again and again, both for the low prices and the atmosphere.

The décor seems frozen in time with its fading photos of long-dead Indian politicians. Straight-back chairs ensure you leave as soon as you have finished your meal. The tables are Formica disguised as wood. The waiters are dressed in loose, shabby white cotton jackets that reminded me of Karachi’s old Irani dhaabas. Clearly, the owners see no point in keeping up with the latest trends in either food or décor. And why should they when they are full at lunch and dinner? In the recent furore over the club’s future, they have received nationwide publicity they could never have bought.

Speaking of desi food, I recently spent a week in London with my son who was visiting me. Shakir has lots of friends in town, and one of them had gone out to buy a number of dishes to bring home. These included nihari, pulao, butter chicken, daal and curried chickpeas. Excellent grilled chops, seekh kebabs and fish kebabs were the starters. The nihari was very well cooked but I thought it was a bit underpowered in terms of spicing. I suppose when you are serving local punters, the tendency is to throttle down on the chillies. The chops, however, were beyond reproach.

Another friend cooked Bihari kebabs as well as a potato curry. His wife made some great parathas. So a week of overdosing on desi food will keep me going for a bit until I return to the kitchen.

Published in Dawn, EOS, August 12th, 2018