New Diwan i Am, Chiltern Street, W1. Well received local Indian Restaurant.

29th April 2014
When the students we used to go to the old Diwan i Am which was on the corner of Warren Street Whitfield Street near Tottenham Court Road. You can tell how long ago that was because when I started going there initially I was paying £1 for a chicken biryani. The business was definitely there until about the early 1980's when it fragmented and turned up at various other locations in London under different names such as the Red Fort and Diwan i Khas and I even found somewhere in Southport that had one of the cooks.
I had a satisfactory outing to this new edition of the Diwan with my wife in the past and I knew my friend I was hanging out with would welcome a surprise trip to this location as he had also favoured the old Diwan. There is no web-based information from this restaurant, but there are plenty of reviews. There are many reviews of this restaurant on trip advisor which are mainly positive but the owner seems to add his comments even after unfavourable reviews. I guess the problem with all (food) review sites is that people who have an unsatisfactory experience use them to vent their frustration, and interrupt the flow of business. I think that is the way of the free market and people can vote with their feet either way. There is some suspicion over glowing reviews on Tripadvisor, because it is easy enough for the business to plant its own reviews, or alternately plant damning reviews of the competition. I have even heard that there is a war of words between various Indian restaurants in North London conducted through the pages of TripAdvisor.
Nothing can quite replace the memories of taste and smell from ones youth, and I realise it is now so long since the original unique tastes of the old Diwan, that one just judges a place on its own merits rather than comparing it to memories.
Remembering a decent experience last time at the New Diwan, and needing somewhere within walking distance of Marylebone station, which would not break the bank, this fitted the bill. The menu is fairly conventional. The surroundings are new fashioned Indian restaurant with white walls and modern furniture. This small restaurant seems cosy, and the staff seem keen to please.
For starter I had my usual benchmarking Sheek Kebab.

This was pretty standard stuff. It was well cooked, very tasty and hot enough probably scoring about 7.8 on the CHOF scale.

For a main course I chose the special chefs Biryani. What made this particularly special was at the sauce came with it was based on dhal rather than a vegetable curry. This meant it was by definition not particularly spicy but the ingredients for the Biriani were very tasty and it was an unusual mix of meats.

In retrospect I think I should have plated it out so you could see what was actually in the dish. Suffice it to say, I would recommend a special biryani but the dhal sauce was probably a bit too mild for my taste and I think I should have ordered the dish a bit more spicy. I also think it should have been a bit hotter as it only rated 7.8 on the CHOF scale. I really ought to know better and I should order my dishes hot at the time of discussing with the waiters.We had eaten fairly early in the evening and it's not possible to say what the restaurant is like later on. Judging by the fairly positive reviews this restaurant attracts, I would be loath to go there at a normal dining time without reservation. Staff are friendly and efficient and this is my second experience of this restaurant which has proved to be positive. I will definitely go there again.