Imli Restaurant, Soho, London

Good atmosphere, attentive staff, great tasting food and all for a decent price. Booking is always recommended in the evening as was busy even on a Tuesday.

I am gluten intolerant so it was particularly good for me as all items were clearly labled on the menu and there was still a good selection.

The only thing I mark it down for is the proximity of the tables, which at times I found uncomfortably close. It was very noisy, but that's generally a good time as it tends to mean people are enjoying themselves.

Definitely a hidden gem!

I have tried Imil once. Delicious Indian food, friendly staff who explain what you need to know, and an overall lovely experience.

We stumbled across this restaurant looking for a quick and tasty light lunch on the way to the nearby Queens Theatre.

The food was excellent. We picked three dishes from the menu: each was a fairly small portion (hence the Tapas approach) and very tasty.

The staff were very friendly and helpful, definitely a place to re-visit when we want a bigger meal when we can try more dishes.

An affordable option for Wardour Street noshing, Imli offers “tapas style” Indian dishes. Popular items include papdi chat, samosa chat and the masala grilled chicken and honey grilled duck. I like their chats very much and think the vibe here is most conducive for a low key and casual evening with good friends. Nice cocktails too!

What folks might not realize is that Imli is the sister restaurant to the Michelin starred Mayfair restaurant, Tamarind. The executive chef at Imli, Samir Sadekar, was trained at Tamarind. Samir takes the same care in preparing and presenting food at this Soho eatery as one might expect at the considerably more upscale Tamarind.

Here's an interview with the chef:
http://londonist.com/2010/07/chefspective_samir_sadekar_e...

They are fab, really good!

I've always liked tapas because I love the idea of food to be shared, but my husband is a fussy so-and-so who doesn't like traditional Spanish tapas, so this suited our needs to a tee!

Lots of very tasty and extremely filling dishes on offer, so ignore advice to order too many. We had 2 starter dishes, 2 main dishes and 2 side dishes, and we couldn't finish it all - what we had was yummy though. The prices are reasonable, but as you're ordering a number of dishes, cost can stack up quicker than you realise.

The staff are very friendly, particularly the one waiter I saw giving people directions using the maps on his phone.

If you fancy pushing the boat out and having a really nice indian meal then this is the place to go! The food here is nice but the prices are a little high but very worth it!

My tummy hurt after I ate the special taster meal deal at Imli - but only because I ate so much!
If you want to push the boat out and eat Indian, ditch Brick Lane in favour of Imli Soho. It may be a bit more expensive, but you'll not regret it. The little taster dishes didn't look much to begin with, but were packed so full of flavour I was sated pretty quickly. Crunchy king prawns were plentiful, daal was tangy and rich. Two glasses of a very nice mango and strawberry lassi were my downfall... Delicious!

A world away from the Brummy Indian Curry Houses of my childhood, Imli is thoroughly modern, sleek and actually suprisingly lacking in atmosphere.

However, the service is some of the best I've ever experienced. Friendly and attentive but so relaxed and unfussy - very impressive.

I went for one of the 2-4-1 tasting menus that other (lucky) people have had the pleasure of scoffing and wow! For less than £15 a head we had plate after plate of amazing curries, fine Indian starters and topped it all off with delicious fig and ginger ice cream. It was all very tasty and goodness me, filling!!

I would certainly recommend you try a table at imli for a spicy night in SoHo!

Finally got round to having dinner here last night.

Totally agree which ljrich's comments about wearing loose clothing! we had a 2-4-1 tasting menu which meant we got a 'bit of everything' for £14 each (bargain!).

The dishes didnt look very big (we kept saying 'is that for four people?') but believe me we were stuffed by the end - still managed to force down the ginger and fig ice cream that was included though! I thought my stomach might actually burst if I moved too quick, so we stayed a good 45 mins after we finished our food to let it all digest!

Good selection of veggie and meat dishes, and one of my friends who was there is Indian and he said it was good/authentic so he probably knows better than me.

I would def go back, its a great venue if there is a group of you as you get to share lots of dishes.

For the 2-4-1 book online and click 'view offers'.

Nice food, but overpriced.

Remember to wear loose clothing when you go to this place. It's a contemporary Indian restaurant which serves stylish Indian food in small (but numerous) tapas style portions. I feel an enormous sense of achievement after putting away vast swathes of spicy delights.

For the best experience, get the tasting menu, (veggie or non-veggie - around £18) and enjoy the raucous surroundings while you are brought what feels like an infinity of plates by the staff. All that with hardly any effort - unless you count saying "I'll have the tasting menu please" as effort, that is. If there are more than 10 in your group, they will arrange for a party menu for you. If you're not going for the tasting menu, I'd advise everyone ordering a dish each and sharing.

At the time of writing, you may be able to get 2 for 1 offers if you book in advance at certain times of the day.

Oh, and the mango and basil sorbet is the perfect finish - at least, for this overfilled foodie. Just don't forget to do your belt back up when you leave.

around £15-20 per head inc drinks
best for groups and friends

With a friend calling me at the last minute from distant shores, it was a mad rush to find something that offered comfort and taste and local to his hotel. Ta da Imli was chosen and Ta da! it did not deliver. Eating at Imli is like reading an instruction manual to build your own kit car and expecting the end result to be a Ferrari replica. All the boxes were ticked when it came to what it says on the menu but the taste just didnt arrive. The food had fresh ingredients, it was delivered as they said and it looked like the description on the menu, but it was a poor result. The bang just fizzled out. Having said that I may try it one more time, I did visit on Friday night,but it was not very busy

The restaurant was still fairly busy and buzzy when we walked in late at night, but there were a few tables for two left, and we got one near the front window. It’s not exactly the most attractive place, but is fine for what it is (i.e. a fairly cheap Indian ‘tapas’ restaurant). There are dark wood tables and wooden floors and notes of orange scattered about. Unfortunately, the place could have been cleaner. There was quite a bit of random stuff on the floors, one of the orange floor lights that projects upwards was flickering constantly, and it just didn’t seem spick and span.

Our very charming and eager-to-please server came over, gave us the menus, asked if we’ve eaten there before, and explained how everything works. She said four tapas per person would be about right, and I guessed it would be more than right for their profit margin. I often find that with these ‘small plate’ restaurants that are sprouting up everywhere, their stated number of suggested plates per person is more than you would probably want to consume, even if you were very hungry. We decided to order five dishes in total between us, which turned out to be about right.

We got off to a cracking start with an excellent chaat. My favorite version of this particular street-food dish in London is La Porte des Inde’s ‘Bombay Chaat’, but Imli’s was very good. In fact, come to think of it, it was better than the chaat dish we had not too long ago at Zaika. The underlying brown sauce tasted like a good sweet, smoky and spicy American barbeque sauce, and its thick and smooth consistency contrasted perfectly with the crispiness of the whole wheat and vermicelli. My only issue was that it aired a bit on the sweet side, but it was very satisfying and a good sized portion. 7/10.

The roasted vegetable plate had some nice flavors, and I especially liked the squash and fennel. The coriander dressing was, well, coriander dressing. This dish provided us with something to munch on that wasn’t spicy, which was necessary as the two meat dishes we had definitely packed some heat. 5/10.

The lamb and chicken were both presented in a patty-like forms. I preferred the lamb patties as they had a nice, rich flavor (not at all ‘lamby’), and the fairly sweet beetroot dipping sauce complemented it well. Either the lamb or the chutney was damn spicy, but we couldn’t figure out which one it was as our mouths were already too hot by this point to be able to distinguish. 6/10.

Luckily, Mrs. LF had ordered a salty lassi (which was excellent), so she had that to fall back on. I, on the other hand, had a glass of Peter Lehmann’s South Australian “My Word is My Bond” Semillon, which although sort of pleasant on its own (a fatty, citrusy affair), provided no respite from the onslaught of Indian heat.

The chicken shammi was also pretty good, and the onion and ginger came through clearly, though I wasn’t so keen on the mint pairing. 5/10.

The daal also had a good kick to it, and tasted okay, although it didn’t really have the depth that a good daal should and was very liquidy. I prefer daal to be thicker and have a broader flavor profile – this was very one dimensional. It was disappointing because I’ve had good daal at many cheaper Indian restaurants in London. Maybe it’s just down to my preferences, but I didn’t think this was any great shakes. 4/10.

I will say up front that I am really not a fan of Indian sweets in general. As you will know if you’ve read some of my other reviews, I have a sweet tooth, but desserts like gulab jamun are too sweet even for the likes of me.

This caramel custard sounded pretty good, though. It did satisfy my sugary cravings, and was quite light given the coconut milk base. It didn’t taste of much besides coconut milk, jaggery (according to Wikipedia, that’s a concentrated bit of sugar cane juice without the separation of molasses from the crystals) and a slight hint of caramel. So not intricate, just full on sweet, but not too much so. 5/10.

Gimmie Imli?

Sure, most of the food tasted good and if you order cleverly (or go for one of their many deals), the bill comes out on the low side. The staff were all very pleasant and keen to make sure we were happy, and service was efficient for the most part. So, not a bad option for cheap Indian food in Soho, especially since it is a big restaurant and you’re likely to be seated quickly even if it’s busy. Just don’t go out of your way to eat at Imli.

Oh dear. A couple of years ago, Imli was one of my stalwarts, a “banker” place to impress everyone from the missus to parents and all points inbetween. Great value, lovely food, smooth surroundings, helpful staff… it was a no-brainer.

So what’s happened? The staff are still delightful and the surroundings haven’t dated particularly but is it just me or is the food going off the boil? Bel Puri, instead of being crisp and fresh and spicy was a little dull, chewy and, I’d suggest, had been made several hours before. Fried fish was still excellent, ditto the two bean curry. The dal was okay, but the naan? I’ve had better supermarket ready meal naans.

Ok, so two false notes does not an entire disaster make but I’m worried it’s a sign of greater problems. I hope I’m wrong. London needs more “banker” restaurants like Imli not less.

It is obvious that Indian Tapas works… just look at all the reviews. The service was fast and not sickeningly friendly, the food was fresh, slightly inconsistent though. People at my table ordered the same thing but someone got different bits and pieces, nothing so that they felt they were ripped off, but it did seem a bit odd.
Nice setting and clean modern interior. Definitely a keeper!

I love this place!!!

I visited this resturant as part of my job and so got to see things behind the scenes. I was impressed how clean the kichen was, despite it being lunch time, and other non customer areas were also very tidy. I was also impressed by the management who are always looking for ways to improve.

During my visit I was able to sample many of the dishes, which in my opinion were some of the best indian dishes I have ever had. Luckly I didn’t have to pay for meal (perks of the job!) but what I could see were not cheap, but very reasonably priced.

Definiatly give this place a go!!!

Update:

Despite me not planning on coming back, I met my friend here for dinner (which was a press thing, we didn’t pay for it) but they’ve really upped their game! So much so that I’ve bumped them up by an extra two stars.

The food is better. The owner explained each dish to us, and made suggestions that we were happy to go with. He knows best after all. And he did! The food was amazing this time. Of course, there was too much of it and we were well looked after, but we looked around and everyone was getting the same special treatment. There’s even a waiter who sings (very well) and he’s a treat. Cute too.

The margaritas were fab, the carrot fudge dessert was stunning (think carrot cake and treacle sponge all mixed up together) and every single dish we had was stunning. We had a great time, and yes, I will come back and I will actually pay for dinner next time. In fact, I’m looking forward to it already.

It’s still not tapas though :-)

*

Do. Not. Get. It.

Now, first off, Tapas is spanish. If you’re offering anything else, then frankly it’s little plates of food their should be a lot of. And considering it’s little plates of stuff, Imli shouldn’t be so darn expensive.

I hate the explanation that the waiter gave me, like I was a moron who couldn’t order food. I hate that the waitress was snotty when my best mate and I wanted to share our food. They treated us like crap all night and stood in a corner and bitched.

I’ve not been back since, and I don’t plan on it either.

It’s NOT tapas!

A very satisfactory 4* rating. Good food with reasonably authentic flavours.

Chowpatty Beach flavours were evident in the bhel poori, good Gujarati style was displayed with the vadai, whilst there was a satisfying Madras 'depth’ in the lamb curry.

The thyme lemonade was lovely and the dessert of figs and ginger kulfi with pistachio divine. A good lunch menu is available for carnivores and vegetarians at £13.50 each for 7 dishes - you won’t leave hungry and it’s good.

Service was sharper than we expected from reading the reviews here. Though we were a large party - it might not have been so were we a couple. Will try that way again . . . . just to be sure! :-)

its quite exciting to eat indian style tapas. its different to other indian restaurants. portions quite small but the taste is amazing. would definetly go back again