Hankies is a new North Indian spot on Shaftesbury Avenue, next to the Piccadilly Hotel. To be honest, we almost walked past it amongst the hustle and bustle of Shaftesbury Avenue, but we’re glad we didn’t.
The concept is to experience Delhi street food through it’s range of Achars, street bites and dishes from the grill or pan, all mopped up with a hand-spun roti folded into ‘hankies’. The menu is made up of small dishes designed for sharing – this would be a great place to come as a group of four to allow you to try a selection of dishes on offer.
Recommended to have around 3-4 dishes per person, we ordered a selection from the vegetable, grill and pan sections. The Hankies Daal and Saag (kale and spinach with lotus puffs) served as tasty accompaniments to the larger dishes and could be added to the dry dishes from the grill or pan.
From the grill we had yellow chilli fish tikka and the pumpkin paneer tikka. Marinaded in a range of spices, each is grilled for a few minutes over the coals to introduce a lovely smoky flavour. Big chunks of paneer were packed with flavour and both had a nice spicy kick.
Hankies signature dry curries and pan-fries are perfect for eating with the roti. The kidney ‘n keema, a mix of lamb mince, kidney, tomato and coriander sauce, went nicely with the dahl wrapped up in the roti. Egg and crab gotala, eggs ‘masala’ mixed with spicy crab, was a more unusual dish but the crab wasn’t overpowered by the spices and it was really delicious! Finally, we had sea bream simply pan fried in spices. The fish comes served whole and is worth the effort of extracting off the bone! Delicate fish combined with complementing spices is always a winner with us!
With prices for most dishes between £4-6, Hankies is a great place to pop in for a bite before visiting the theatre. Quick, great value and different to most pre-theatre set menus, give it a try!
