On Saturday a group of like minded food and lifestyle bloggers got together for a fab evening of food and drink at the Inito restaurant in Liverpool Street London , We were invited there by Nitin Dattani who is co founder of the place.
Visiting Inito was like a culinary journey through the streets of India. The restaurant has been decorated with a "no frills" deco portraying an urban setting of an India dabba. Rustic wooden tables with benches and cushions, metal signs and corrugated iron and crates were tastefully placed to create an ambiance to give you a wonderful street food experience.
On arrival we were greeted and seated at our table by Bruce who is the brainchild of this amazing restaurant from the planning, setting the place up and for the amazing decor of the place.
The menu has been created by Chef Saurav Nath, who has worked in Michelin star restaurants such as Benares and Gymkhana. We were told that we would be provided with a sampling menu, little were we to know that the evening was going to be a culinary marathon of amazing mouth watering dish after dish.
Soon our starters of Aloo chat, Masala dosa and Chicken lollipos arrived. The dosa were impressively crisp and the potato filling was delicately spiced and delicious. Chef Saurav was very kind and even shared his secret with me for the ultimate dosa batter and furthermore gave me a tubful to take home too.
The vegetarians were also served Aloo Tikki chaat, a spiced potato cake served with tamarind chutney, green coriander chutney and yoghurt chutney garnished with nylon sev.This was absolutely delicious and I could have stopped at a plateful of this only.
We next ventured onto a traditional street food Pani Puri which is served on every street corner in Mumbai. Small crispy puffed puris filled with a chickpea and potato filling and drenched with a spicy mint pani. In Mumbai it is commonly known for people to compete with each other who can consume more than 25-30 of this puffy snacks in one sitting!!!As each puri is popped into your mouth the street vendor makes you a new one, how he keeps account of how many you have eaten is a science of its own!!!
Next course was Aloo papri chaat , a tangy potato and chickpea dish chaat served with lashings of tamarind and yoghurt chutney and garnished with crispy nylon sev a fried chickpea savory noodles. We also sampled Bhel Puri another famous Indian street food made from puffed rice, masala peanuts, tamarind chutney and nylon sev. I found this a little spicy with slices of green chillies in it and had to gulp almost three cups glasses of water much to the surprise of my European friends!!
Already having devoured so much food , there was more to come yet as we were served Roti wraps, these were traditional Indian rotis filled with various different fillings. For the vegetarians there was the paneer wraps filled with delicious spicy paneer, spinach, kidney beans, tomatoes and lettuce drenched with a spicy sauce. The non vegetarians enjoyed a selection of prawn, chicken and lamb roti wraps.The Roti wraps were served with a platter of sauces.
At this point our stomachs were really feeling the tightness, but Chef Saurav was insistent that there was more to come. After a short break we were served succulent Paneer tikka and amazing Pav bhaji a freshly baked bun served with a vegetable ragout and garnished with delicately sliced onion salad.The non vegetarians enjoyed a patter of tandoori lamb, tandoori fish, garlicky prawns and chicken called Pav sliders.
With all these amazing food and flavors out taste buds were on fire. Never have I had such an amazing fusion of taste.The hospitality and service we received at Inito was superb and even when we said no more food now, Chef Saurav persuaded us to try the final main course before moving onto desserts!!
The vegetarins were served Palak Paneer a wonderful spinach and cheese dish sauteed with cumin and garlic and Baigan aur mirch ka salan, aubergine and jalepeno sauteed in a peanut and onion sauce served with the most amazing vegetable biryani. I just wish I had had more room in my bursting stomach to eat the whole portion.The non vegetarians enjoyed Murgh Makhni a chicken dish cooked in a creamy tomato sauce and a lamb curry.The biryani was exquisite cooked in the traditional way in the oven with a dough covering to keep it succulent and moist making each grain of rice separate. It was served with a lovely cooling yoghurt raita.
At this point we were all on serious food overload, and the mention of dessert had us almost wising we had left room for it. However as Indian hospitality goes, the host will will not let you leave without feeling you have done justice to every dish so along came the desserts not 1 not 2 but 4 different desserts.
First came the Auguri Rasamalai, delicate cheese balls in a sweetened milk sauce, garnished with pistachios followed by warm Gulab Jamun a fried round doughnut type ball soaked in a cardamon sugar syrup.Following this we were presented with a Garam masala chocolate fondant with Horlicks ice cream and a citrus sauce and finally cooling Rose and cardamom kulfi. What an awesome gastronomical experience we had.
We would all like to thanks Inito for inviting us for this amazing feast. I can't wait to return to Inito again with my family. Next time I will limit my self to 3-4 dishes to give them full justice.
If you would like to visit Inito you can find them at:
Inito
31 Bell Lane
E17LA
Tel: 0207 2477145
I was invited to Inito for a meal, all views opinions and thoughts are of my personal experience. I was not asked to write a positive review.
The bloggers who accompanied me to the restaurant are:
I am now very hungry after reading this lol. it all looks so so tasty
ReplyDeletewow just as well you had the refreshing icecream to finish of with, its always nice and eases the filled feeling when you have something cool like that
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful selection of dishes! We went to a fine dining Indian restaurant recently and were amazed by the food on offer.
ReplyDeleteWow that IS a marathon of food!
ReplyDeleteLove the street food styling of the restaurant. I bet it's popular.
what an epic food mountain it looks amazing! .. the wraps do look so tasty
ReplyDeleteoooh great stuff and I am so jealous of you all
ReplyDeleteOooh I'd love to reveiw this restaurant, how lucky you were. Looks so good.
ReplyDeleteMy mouth is watering Indian food is my favorite. I enjoyed my trip to Indian so much and this is a wonderful memory of that
ReplyDeleteThat looks so yummy! So much food though but I'd definitely plough through it all to get to that Horlicks ice cream.
ReplyDeleteThe food looks amazing - wish we lived closer!
ReplyDeleteInito restaurant sounds like my kind of a restaurant. They are serving so many of my favourite street foods.
ReplyDeleteThose Roti wraps looks absolutely amazing, no wonder you felt so full x
ReplyDeleteWow this looks absolutely delicious - I'll definitely be there next time I'm in London - I want to go right now!!
ReplyDeleteThis restaurant looks amazing, I adore Indian food and I will definitely be visiting this place especially as it's quite close to me.
ReplyDeleteOoh this looks delicious!! I'm heading to London best week so I'll make sure I take a look x
ReplyDeletemmm that looks like my kinda food! I'd not heard of them before! x
ReplyDeleteWhat gorgeous looking food, I'd love to visit! xx
ReplyDeleteCannot thank you enough for introducing me to this fabulously authentic Indian food heaven Nayna, it was an absolute pleasure dining with you and all the other lovely bloggers, I hope this is just one of many more such amazing dinners together! Wishing Inito great success!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great sounding restaurant - it is definitely makes me want to visit and have a meal! x
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