The Guardian
Grace Dent tipped the London debut from Birmingham-based chef Aktar Islam as “one of the restaurant openings of 2026”, serving 300-year-old Awadhi cooking from the royal courts of Lucknow in a “charmingly eccentric”, higgledy-piggledy listed townhouse near Borough Market.
A meal here is a “wholly gorgeous experience”, she says. “The food may be labour-intensive and styled with precision, but, thankfully, it’s still ruddy delicious and generously portioned. They aim to stuff you.”
Highlights included a slow-cooked dal Bukhara in which urad lentils, butter and cream “meet in spectacular decadence”, while the star of the show was mutanjan dam biryani: “a mountain of fragrant rice with melting, slow-cooked oxtail and bags of sweet carrot”.
Grace Dent - 2026-06-14Daily Mail
Tom Parker Bowles encountered “some of the most spectacular Indian food I’ve eaten in years” at the first London restaurant from Birmingham maestro Aktar Islam of Opheem fame, in an “elegantly rambling” Borough townhouse.
Every dish here is very different, “but united by the art of its spicing”. “Come hungry,” Tom advised. “You won’t want to waste a morsel.”
He worked his way through a vast split prawn lavished with a buttery, garlic-heavy sauce; a whole chicken leg, complete with claw, drowned in a magnificently creamy cardamon and saffron sauce; goat curry of “astonishing depth”, and dal Bukhara with “torrents of cream and butter”. “The crowning glory of this most astonishing lunch” was mutanjam dum biriyani – a mound of gloriously seasoned rice studded with carrots and topped with wobbling chunks of oxtail.
Tom Parker Bowles - 2026-07-12
