Mooli's, Frith Street

Soho is my stomping ground, it's an area I like to think I know pretty well - from the busy Carnaby Street to the peaceful St Anne's Church courtyard, from the cheap eats of The Breakfast Club to a pricey dinner at Bob Bob Ricard and drinks at the underground cocktail bar Soho Arts and Theatre club to the blinging dance offs at Studio Valbonne. I know a fair amount about Soho but I did not know about Mooli's until just last week when I was invited for lunch.

Located on Frith Street, just a stone's throw from the aforementioned Soho Arts and Theatre Club is this delightful stand alone Indian street food eatery with an emphasis on rotis and lassis. Always keen to try new things, when an invite came to go and try it of course I didn't resist.

Along with my lovely friend Hannah we went along for a quick lunch, I kind of wished we didn't have the standard hour lunch break as I could have happily grazed on the incredible food all afternoon.

To start we each opted for a lassi, mango for me rose and cinnamon for Hannah. Ice cold, sweet and smooth - they were refreshing and certainly moreish.

 We initially ordered one roti each but the lovely Gabriel suggested that we try all of them in order to get a feel for each and every one and to find our favourite for when we go back again - can't argue with that!

While we waited we snacked on roasted poppadom bites with four different chutneys - raita, tamarind, tomato and chilli. The poppadoms had a spicy kick which was either mellowed out with the cooling raita or sweet tamarind dip or added extra heat to the chilli and tomato chutneys.

 And then lunch arrived... look at all of these!

The Paneer (at the back) and Chicken are the mildest options so we started with those. I'd never eaten paneer cheese like this before (only as saag paneer) so it was interesting to try. The flavours in the paneer worked well together but I don't think there was enough of a spice kick in there and it was very crumbly and difficult to eat. The chicken had a much better texture with the addition of soft lentils but it still needed more oomph to get my tastebuds dancing.

 Next we went on the the chickpea (at the back) and pork. I'm the biggest hummous fan that you ever did know but for some reason I'm not a huge fan of chickpeas on their own, I'll eat them (of course I will) but I wouldn't choose them. The ones at Mooli's were very good though, wrapped up with tamarind, spring onion and coriander, the wrap had a sweet and spicy taste to it.

And then on to the best of the bunch, coming in 3rd position... the Keralan beef with coconut, salsa and yoghurt was incredible (and Hannah's favourite) the beef was so tender it fell apart as soon as you put your lips to the roti.

 In 2nd place came the pork roti (at the back), the combination of spicy Goan pork and sweet pomegranate salsa was a flavour explosion in my mouth. I especially enjoyed the huge quantities of meat that filled the bread, by this point I was feeling full but I didn't leave a morsel of this one on my plate.

Which might have been a bad idea as in 1st place the goat roti!! I'd never tried goat before so I didn't really know what to expect but I loved it (it wasn't to Hannah's taste) it tasted very gamey and rich but was complimented with the soft creamy cumin potatoes and spicy salsa. It just so happened that because Hannah wasn't a fan there was still half a roti left on the table, of course after eating so much I couldn't possibly eat any more... yeah right, I polished it off.

I wouldn't recommend eating all six of the rotis available at Mooli's but I would certainly encourage you to try the pork and goat options... otherwise like me you will almost fall at sleep on your keyboard.

I couldn't get the secret of how to make the amazing rotis but I did get a recipe for a mango lassi - perfect for cooling down on these hot summer days and great for a dessert too.

You will need:
2 ripe Alphonso mangoes
100ml thick Greek yoghurt
100ml milk
1 teaspoon freshly peeled and chopped ginger
A few cubes of ice

Method:
Using a blender mix all of the ingredients until it becomes smooth and frothy. Add the ginger and a little honey or sugar to taste (it's up to you - I think the mangoes make it sweet enough)

You can also experiment by adding cinnamon or cardamom or... spike it with some spiced rum - delicious!

Mooli's
50 Frith Street
London
W1D 4SQ

Thank you to Lianne at W Communication for inviting me along to Mooli.