Bar Zaika Bazaar

2A Pond Place, London SW3 Tel: 020 7584 6655 Cost: about £20



Brompton Cross is ladies-who-shop territory ? you can start with a smart frock, move on to a new dinner service for main course, and finish with an antique watch.
Hard work, and such a successful late morning deserves a reward. But once you get into your stride exercising your flexible friend it can be hard to stop ? exercise is so compelling. This is where Bar Zaika Bazaar excels. Not only can you stop for a small (or larger) bit of nourishment in the form of Indian ?tapas? in small, medium or (rarely, if ever) large size, but you can also pick up a silk sari cushion or a Moghul-inspired silver door.
This is the diffusion version of Zaika, which used to be just down Fulham Road before decamping to Kensington High Street. The site used to be El Rincon, so Indian tapas was a natural ? the shopping was pure inspiration.Although it must be said that London already possessed a everything-you-see-is-for-sale Indian restaurant in the form of Chor Bizare in Mayfair. This is a technicolour room, already blood red from its days as El Rincon, it now sports turquoise, pink (the navy blue of India, as Diana Vreeland famously pointed out), burnt orange, olive, plum ? you get the idea. But it really works.

As does the food, equally colourful and really rather wonderful as the cooking has been developed by Michelin-star awardee, Vineet Bhatia. There are snacks and finger food which can be had as small or medium-size dishes, five or six each in fish, poultry, lamb or vegetable. Among these, the crab and pea samosa is delicately sweet, the grilled spice-coated scallops are a contrast between sweet and spice and the smoked spiced tandoori salmon was one of the dishes that brought Bhatia favour with the Michelin men. Gilouti kebab was not as succulent as one could have hoped, nor did it have that melt in the mouth texture that marinating the minced lamb in raw papaya brings about, but good flavour. Chilli and green herb chicken tikka more than made up for this. Did not try a ?large dish?, but did have a wrap, also known as a kathi kebab. This is a very popular Indian snack, made of very thin (natch) roti wrapped around meat, fish or vegetables, dipped in egg and quickly fried. Good Indian flavour cocktails. And the shopping?s not bad, either.

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