Brigadiers — Restaurant in London

21st June 2025

Brigadiers shouldn’t be this good. One of nine “independent” restaurants - including BAO, Bleecker Burger and Homeslice; did they think we just wouldn’t notice? - among the units either side of a walkway bisecting Bloomberg’s billion-pound, two-building European headquarters smack in the middle of the City, each demarcated by homogeneous management consultancy beige-on-black signage, it offers commercial bookings for up to 200 people and private rooms complete with flat screens and Sky Sports. As much as a place can be “inspired by the army mess rooms of India”, you can’t really imagine the military regiments over there wearing chinos and light blue Charles Tyrwhitt shirts, lining their stomachs with self-pour espresso martinis from the tap and £9 popadoms while they watch the Club World Cup.

Mercifully, we went on a Saturday, and it was actually quite nice. We sat on the terrace, on the Bloomberg Arcade itself, which though not exactly charming, was quiet, and points vaguely west, meaning on the clear and balmy summer evening that it was, as the waiters were in no hurry to move us along, we saw the sky move slowly through the full first third of the colour spectrum as we perused the menu and chatted and ordered and drank and ate and chatted and ordered some more.

First up were the achari chicken skins, Afghani lamb and lasooni chicken skewers, and the Indo-Chinese paneer lettuce cups. I’m a sucker for anything “Indo-Chinese”, its appearance on a menu implying a kind of confident alchemic ability in the chefs through tireless trial and error in the kitchens of ancient multicultural kitchens to combine uncomplimentary ingredients into a coherent and delicious end product utterly unreplicable in my own ethnically homogeneous household. That’s would be a bit of a stretch here - the paneer had just been splashed with a bit of soy, but very skillfully and tastily - and so despite the high quality of the skewered meat and their thoughtful marinades and dipping sauces the chicken skins, crunchy vehicles for dollops of spiced minced glory, were my favourite.

In case you’ve not worked it out by now, Brigadiers is not your local curryhouse. In fact, there weren’t any curries on the menu at all - not a korma, jalfrezi or vindaloo in sight. Instead, after much deliberation, we got an aubergine biryani, tandoori lamb chops and wood-fired kid goat shoulder, as well as a dal markhani and naans between us. I don’t think any of them quite hit the same heights as the starters - although the silky, cumined, gingery goat came closest - but I’d have been happy with any of them as my own individual main. It all just felt like really high-quality cooking of high-quality ingredients in not overly complicated or complex but time-honoured and well-honed flavours , and the fact we were able to graze across all of them over a couple of hours - as well as the extremely decent cocktails too - made for a very pleasant...

We made a reservation before attending this restaurant. As we arrived, we were taken to our seats at the main dining room, whilst also being given the opportunity to fill up their cloak room.

The main dining room is an elegantly designed area, slightly dim, giving a slightly cosy feel, albeit busy, and certainly is impressionable.

We leaned towards the set lunch menu, which is a 3 course meal, with a few options of food to choose from, at a set price per person.

We started off with a range of pappadums and chutneys, which was a great set of crispy goodness. The chutneys, also with a lovely taste, ranging from spicy to sweet.

For starters, we had Indo Chinese Chilli Paneer Lettuce Cups and Smoked Pumpkin, Methi Thepla, Corn Kachumber.

These two starters were a great way to start the courses. The lettuce cups had a lovely blend of flavours, including a creamy goodness of paneer ending with a satsifying crunch of the lettuce. The methi thepla really did have a great smokey flavour with a refreshing cool ending.

For mains, we had Tawa Prawn Biryani and Tandoori Aloo Gobhi Vada Pao.

The biryani was accompanied by a cooling raita. This really had a strong spice, so the raita is needed. This dish really was an unexpected explosion of flavours coming together, which was fantastic. The vada pao, coming as a pair, had a delicious tandoori taste to the aloo gobhi, fried perfectly and a light taste of chilli to finish off the taste.

The biryani was especially hot, as mentioned, above, so what better to end the meal with a couple of cool cups of kulfi. We went for the Saffron Kulfi with Badam kheer and Coconut Kulfi with wood roasted pineapple.

The kulfis were refreshing and cool, with the coconut version having a strong taste and an unusual but fun tasting pineapple. The saffron kulfi is a gorgeous taste paired perfect with the kheer, giving an alternative texture to the dish.

The staff were friendly and attentive, making you feel at ease on arrival and additionally providing necessary information when required.

Overall, this is fantastic place to have a great meal for a special occasion, I strongly recommend a visit here. Each meal was prepared carefully with the flavours rich, giving a joyous feeling.

The options of an a la carte and set menus provide a great flexibility for all types of visitors. The restaurant has a sports area where you can watch major sporting events, which i’m sure is a lot of fun with great live sport and fantastic food - I will certainly try to revisit Brigadiers to watch...

Brigadiers has become another restaurant that jumped all the way up to be one of my favourite restaurants in London. Everything they have from the food to the service was top notch.

I found no gaps that can make the restaurant lacking in any way.

I brought my wife here for her birthday and she loved the food so much. We tend to be critical of Indian restaurants in London as many restaurants just make Indian food for the locals in UK without doing justice to the rich and diverse culinary history of India.

But Brigadiers really married the diversity in Indian cuisine with the sensibilities of peoples' palates in London. The crowd of people who came there really shows how they succeeded in attracting both Indians and Western customers.

They took actual dishes that are found in India, then applies their twist on it to make a new interpretation of what the dish can be. They succeeded really well there. We ordered their lamb pao sliders, which is a take on the mince goat meat pao from Mumbai. We also ordered their beef short rib that uses Indian pickle as base flavour. Their goat meat with lacha paratha amalgamated Kerala and Punjabi cusines. The beef biryani for two has enough beef chunks in it with a bone marrow that made the rice get a very rich taste (maybe too rich).

I will definitely recommend Brigadiers to anyone and will bring others here again.

Edit: We visited Brigadiers again and this time we brought family over. Along with going for our favourites from last time-the beef shin biryani and the kid goat lachha paratha- we also ordered the wagyu seekh egg roll, chicken chops and they were top notch.

We also ordered the prawn biryani but it was a let down as it tasted more like a Thai fried rice with its unorthodox use of kaffir lime leaves that overpowered the taste buds. I will recommend people to not order this item.

I don't know why but I have to note the toilets were messy this time around. We were hosting the family and toilets not been cleaned regularly can leave people on a sour note.

Nonetheless the experience was still very positive that reflected our initial experience. I will therefore give them the benefit of the doubt here. I will still go back as this spot continues to be one of the best Indian restaurants...