TALLI JOE, COVENT GARDEN

Talli Joe is a new ish restaurant doing Indian half plates and full drinks on the Covent Garden side of Shaftesbury Avenue. I headed there recently to join their PR company and some of my favourite bloggers to test run their menu and learn about the spicing that head chef uses to create the different tapas style dishes. It was such a fun and filling evening and we learnt about the three ways the chef spices dishes - as a dry rub, in poaching liquids or through frying. We sampled as many cocktails as possible from the menu divided into regions that inspire each drink. My favourite was the Holy Basil - made with whisky, basil leaves, grapefruit syrup, tea and prosecco - which was just the right side of bitter whilst being really refreshing.

 

We also ate as much from the food menu as was humanly possible! My absolute favourite being the truffle ghee kulcha - a naan stuffed with cottage cheese and brushed with a very generous portion of truffle ghee. Other stars of the menu were the Chicken 21, aptly named after the number of attempts it apparently took chef to develop this delicious dish. The Devilled Quail Egg, a scotch egg made with crabmeat, quail's egg and served with tadka mayo, was sublime, as was the Talli Macchi - grilled and spiced red mullet which comes with half an orange that's been soaked in Old Monk rum that you squeeze over the fish. In fact, out of all the many dishes we sampled there wasn't one that I disliked. It's great to have a reliable "tapas" style Indian in the middle of town, where you can get cracking cocktails and really good food at great prices. You can find more info on Talli Joe here.