Kricket Shoreditch - Kafé, Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in London

JAIPUR GLOW

The walls are soaked in a Jaipur-inspired pink hue, a shade that makes everything and everyone glow. Your skin blushes in its radiance, your date looks like they’ve been softly lit by an Oscar-winning cinematographer, and even your cocktail seems to be posing for a Renaissance painting.

The candles don’t just illuminate, they sculpt the space, drawing you closer to your Friday night date. It’s the kind of restaurant that makes even a mediocre date feel like the beginning of something cinematic. Proceed with caution: they may look different under the harsh reality of your kitchen’s LED strip lighting.

And let’s be honest this place is sexy. Not the “obnoxious red leather booth” kind of sexy, but the “low-lit, mysterious, ‘maybe I am the main character’” kind. The flickering candlelight, the moody pink tones, the whispering and hums all conspire to make you feel like a more handsome version of yourself.

That being said, I wish the interiors pushed just a step further—into the fantastical, the futuristic—deepening the magical world of Kricket. It already nods to the past, but why not fully embrace a contemporary Jaipur fantasy? Give us a giant reflective sculpture, oversized abstract tapestries, projection art—something that truly blurs the line between history and sci-fi daydream. Just a thought.

Now, let’s talk about the food.

The sea bream is a showstopper, reclining in a golden splash of curried sauce like it knows it’s the main event. The sauce? Fragrant, punchy, swirled with streaks of oil and reductions that look like a Turner painting. It’s rich, indulgent, and spicy enough to make you sweat just a little. But in a way that feels…intentional. The kind of heat that makes you bite your lip, pull your collar and ask, “is it me or is it getting hot in here..”

Then there’s the Keralan fried chicken, its batter shattering under your teeth like edible glass.

And while we’re here, Dishoom, watch out. For too long, it’s been the go-to for Indian-inspired dining in London, but compared to Kricket, Dishoom feels nostalgic, backward-looking, like a sepia-tinted postcard from a past era. Kricket Shoreditch, on the other hand, is something else entirely. It’s contemporary, self-assured, and effortlessly cool, defining itself as a restaurant that looks forward. Plus, let’s be honest—it certainly trumps the cold, shivering wait that normally comes as part of the Dishoom dining experience. While queues snake down the street outside Dishoom, diners at Kricket are already basking in its candlelit glow, cocktail in hand, lost in conversation, with no goosebump in sight.

Kricket doesn’t just feed you it seduces you. It lulls you into thinking you’re sexy too. It tricks you into believing that your date is completely transfixed by your wit, when really, they’re possibly hypnotized by the candlelight bouncing off their Negroni.

By the end of the night, you’ll half expect a director to call ‘cut.’ But no one does, and that feeling is...

Saw this recommended in Topjaw and decided to give it a go. Was really looking forward to it but I was ultimately disappointed. Whilst the food wasn’t terrible it wasn’t memorable. I think if you have no familiarity with Indian food, this place will be very enjoyable, but if you are, it’s just so-so. We had the chicken gassi and the sweet potato curry and the chicken curry was not flavourful. The sweet potato curry was more delicious in comparison but felt like an ordinary, tomato forward butter chicken. The papads with green mango chutney was also confusing. 80 percent of it was yogurt slathered on top which wasn’t mentioned on the menu, with a thin layer of mango chutney at the bottom. The yogurt element was not mentioned on the menu so when it showed up we thought it was the raita. The rasam starter was lovely though and probably the most flavourful part of the meal for me.

Also, we had asked for rice when we ordered and also asked the server whether we ordered too much food and she said no, but then later when the rice didn’t arrive she told us the rice would have been too much so she deducted it from our order. I would have appreciated being able to make a decision on what carb I chose to accompany the meal, especially as I had asked when ordering about the quantity of food initially, specifically to avoid this scenario.

In terms of service it was clear they were understaffed on a Friday night, but were working hard for their customers. The women servers were especially hard working and their work ethic was very appreciated considering the circumstances. Though one of the servers had served the mains early and just as I took my medication (which I’m meant to take before food), the untouched plates were quickly whisked away after being sat on our table for three minutes as they explained it wasn’t our order, and they made a mistake.

The ambience was really perfect for a date night spot. Loved how cosy it was. Just a shame the food was so forgettable. I recommend this place if you’re not familiar with Indian food, but if you are, it is disappointing and very pricey for what the dishes are. Really disappointing as the food...

I booked Kricket for a special occasion on a Saturday evening, a party of 4 people. I booked for 8:30pm and arrived at 8:31 pm.

The table was still being prepared and we were made to wait for 15 minutes before being seated. We were seated faster since I asked the waitress when our table would be available and she mentioned she’d rush the person preparing it. I wonder why they wouldn’t rush to begin with.

Once we were seated, I asked the waitress for advice on what to order. It was her first day so she didn’t know the menu well and called someone else. Eventually, someone arrived who could hardly speak or understand English, to their credit it was loud, but folks on our table had to ask him to repeat himself and we had to repeat ourselves a lot in order to understand them.

We’d previously been at a great bar where the service was exceptional, so this was high contrast of a lot worse.

By the time the food arrived, it was okay. But my expectations were needlessly high since the service wasn’t great.

By the time we wanted to go, I had to interrupt the waitresses as they were just having a chat in order to pay my bill. It was near impossible to grab anyone’s attention.

I rarely write bad review. And I believe it was more poor timing or a tough night than it is a bad restaurant. But I won’t be booking this again for a special occasion, the...