Zeen - Euston, NW1

Open the menu and it's hard for one's heart not to sink at the invitation to 'Begin Your Voyage', just one of a series of roadside-caf-style seafaring quips, substituted for proper a la carte headings. Yet, however corny and irrelevant these are, the descriptions of the pan Indian food wash well and make one want to steer north eight knots and so forth...

As Mary, Rosemary and I were really the only diners in the very orange, clean lined basement canteen, combined wait and kitchen staff were able to pay us their full attention.

For starters, we were delivered a mini plate of crisp sized cumin flavoured poppadoms and gorgeous, aromatic mango chutney, fragrant with whole spices. There followed unusual batter fried bhindi that could possibly have been a little less chewy, and two fat pale sausage sheeks requiring more seasoning and spice.

Things improved vastly with the main courses: an ace Chicken Madras, decent hunks of flesh in an unctuous gravy, rich with cinnamon, bittersweet cloves, creamy coconut and sour chillies plus an inarresting dish of great juicy courgettes stuffed with a cheesy, starchy filling, luxuraint in a toothsome nutty, onion sauce. The plain rice was great and a big, sweet, milky lassi was also much enjoyed.

Now that I've been and zeen, I will return to Drummond Street, a lesser known foodie haven for sub continental food, and depending on the company, may give the place another go as it's pretty similar to, if perhaps not quite as good as Masala Zone.


FOOD (& DRINK): 3.5
SERVICE: 4
AMBIENCE: 2.5
VALUE: 4

Willp2328 score: 7.5/10