Salaam Namaste — Restaurant in London

Salaam Namaste is a sleek, modern and contemporary little restaurant in Bloomsbury, specialising in modern Indian cuisine. The interior is filled with shades of beige and brown, with deep purples too. There are leather chairs and deep wooden tables, giving it a sophisticated, slightly fancy feel.

The team is all passionate and very friendly, ready to give recommendations and checking in your meal.

The drinks menu has a good selection of wine (not too extensive as to confuse) and cocktails, as well as a handful of beers and soft drinks. The cocktail part of the menu features ten cocktails, each inspired by Indian cuisine and refreshing flavours. There are also four mocktails for anyone avoiding alcohol.

The Summer in Paris (£7.95), was a very sweet, tasty number. Ciroc, Cointreau elderflower and lychee juice give this cocktail the taste of sweets, quite literally. It’s delicious alongside the dishes. The Kiwi and Cucumber Martini (£8.95) was a refreshing choice for alongside dinner, with absolut vodka, cucumber, fresh kiwi, elderflower and lime.

The mocktails were really juicy and tasty too! A great soft drink option instead of the usual diet coke, or sticking to water. The slushy kiwi (£5.95) with fresh kiwi and pineapple juice was great – the kiwi added juicy bursts to the pineapple juice. The vanilla berry (£5.95) was bursting with juicy flavours too, from the mix of fresh raspberry, blackberry, vanilla sugar, cranberry juice and apple juice. The vanilla really shines through.

The food at Salaam Namaste focuses on traditional flavours, adding a contemporary twist. On the menu you will find a few classics, and plenty of curries, biryanis and grill dishes. There really is plenty to choose from, and we found the decision tough!

Popadoms are obviously a must at an Indian. The ones at Salaam Namaste were slightly salty, and came with the most amazing tomato chilli dip, made with garlic and onions. It was incredible – apparently a popular one and can only be found here. . You can’t really go wrong with mango chutney and mint dip too, but it really is all about that chilli one.

The Bombay Onion Bhaji (£4.95), a crisp fried onion cake with potatoes and mix vegetables, tamarind chutney, was delicious.It was soft in the middle, with a fab crispy coating. Fantastic with the tamarind chutney.

We also tried some Tandoori lamb (part of the Tandoori Rattan @ £7.95) to start, which was a little tough, yet superbly spicy and aromatic.

On to the mains, and the Tandoori Rubiyani Duck (£14.95) was a real winner. Gressingham duck breast marinated in yoghurt, cheese and carefully selected spices, charred in tandoor, it was served with roasted Tiger prawn, tangy potatoes and cucumber salad.The duck was so tender and deep in flavour, the king prawn was juicy, and the vegetables absolutely delicious.

We have never even see a date & ginger naan (£2.95) before and so this was a must try. It was slightly sweet and sticky, and was great for dipping in, and mopping up the spicy tomato-based sauce from the duck.

The Tandoori Ajwain Salmon (£14.95) was great – rhe salmon was marinated with yoghurt crushed ginger, garlic, mint, coriander & fresh stone ground spices and served with a plum tomato relish. The salmon was tender too, flaking easily. The coriander flavour shone through, and it was super tasty.

There are also desserts, many pretty creative numbers, each tempting us, from the pistachio and mango kulfi to the mango and coconut brulee cheesecake. Pretty full, we tried the trio of ice cream, with cinnamon, tiramisu and coconut flavours. The ice creams tasted premium in quality and very creamy. It was a refreshing way to end the meal.

Salaam Namaste is a beautiful, contemporary sleek Indian spot, with a modern menu – plenty of classics and even more twists. The service is very on the ball – we felt extremely looked after, as did each of the tables around us look so too. We had a great evening at this Indian restaurant...

My family and I dined at the establishment on 29th June 2025. While the food was passable, it leaned towards the pricier side for the quality offered. However, my intention in writing this review is not to critique the cuisine or the restaurant itself, but rather to highlight an unfortunate interaction with a member of the staff.

Upon arrival, there was no one present at the reception or front desk. Later, I sought out a staff member because I wished to discreetly inform them that I would be covering the bill for our lunch, as I was hosting a close friend. I eventually located the waiter downstairs and leaned in slightly to quietly convey this request. To my surprise, he abruptly recoiled.

A short while later, he asked, “Are you Bangladeshi?”—likely prompted by my accent and the fact that we were conversing in our native language, which he appeared to recognize. I clarified that we are not from Bangladesh. Up to this point, the exchange was tolerable, but I was taken aback when he remarked, “Making physical closeness to an unknown person is considered bad manners here in England.” I found this comment both unnecessary and inappropriate, especially given the minimal proximity involved and the context of the interaction.

As someone who has worked as a project manager for a multinational corporation in the UK for over a decade, I found his response not only unprofessional but also discourteous. I assured him that my intentions were entirely respectful and appropriate. Despite this, his demeanor remained cold—he served our meal without a single smile and deliberately avoided any form of polite farewell as we left.

The behavior displayed was disappointing and detracted significantly from our experience. It cast a shadow over what should have been a pleasant outing. Regrettably, I cannot recommend this restaurant to others based on...

I was here for dinner last evening-25th April 2023 and hadn’t had a good experience. Reason- couldn’t eat 2 main courses ordered and nothing better was done for it even when requested. First of all, we came with high hopes after reading its good reviews and the first impression after we entered the reatsurant was, “not bad”. I used the ladies and was not informed that the tap doesn’t work in the ladies restroom, I had soap all over my hand so had to go to men’s toilet to wash it off. 1 star minus here.We were hungry and targetted the food so ordered. Chiken tikka as a starter was a 5/10. Had the inside part without flavour, less soaked in marinade.We ordered other items too but worth mentioning is the Biryani- both mutton and jackfruit biryani. It was super duper hot and was burning me and my daughter from inside after a minute of ingestion. I asked the waitress why it was so hot and why we were not informed. No proper answer but only apologized.She said she will do something about it and came back later with the same dishes. Turns out they mixed sugar and served the same to us again. It was a real bummer. We never ate sugary biryani in life before this.Our frustration filled our hunger and we left after paying the bill of 131 pounds.I hope this review makes them aware that they have to inform the spice level to the customer.When wrong spice level and customer cannot eat the food they should not re-do the food the customer couldn’t eat before and and re-serve the same. If they do so, shouldn’t be charged too since customer couldn’t eat. The food was overall not good at all. I am sure London has other better restaurants serving authentic Indian cuisine with staffs trained on focus on customer centricity.I would advise readers to look...