Silka Restaurant

Dinner here wasn’t outstanding but it was pleasant. The basement location is nice and calm, well insulated from the noise of the street. Service was prompt and the food arrived reasonably quickly. The food was decent but not overly memorable.
The toilets are a bit odd in this restaurant. You walk into what feels like a house of mirrors and then you push the walls, which open into stalls.
I wouldn’t go out of my way to visit this restaurant but would eat here again if I was in the neighbourhood.

Urgh.
Let’s start with first impressions — this place has no atmosphere. It looks like it used to be a canteen or something and is all pastel colours and cheap chairs, with the bonus of being underground.
Let’s continue with the service. After being asked by 2 different people what we wanted to drink within 30 seconds of getting through the door, we spent the rest of the evening struggling to flag anyone down, whether for the order or the bill. Although the menu tells us that the waiters will be happy to explain any of the dishes, I had a question about one that I wasn’t familiar with and the waiter wasn’t able to describe it or even answer direct questions like whether it had vegetables in it and what they were.
Didn’t enjoy the squid starter at all — the squid portions were really small and the bell pepper was overpowering. My passanda was fine but the lamb was a bit tough, and my boyfriend’s lamb chops were seriously dry looking and accompanied by kebab shop salad. The naan was disappointing, being pretty flat and crispy rather than bounteously fluffy. And the rice was undercooked in parts.
While not incredibly expensive, it does come to slightly more than an average Indian restaurant bill — which is completely not warranted.
All this is particularly unimpressive because the website gives the impression of it being quite a sophisticated joint — this is certainly not the case.

The staff were absolutely lovely, and the restaurant was incredibly clean and modern, but I was really rather unimpressed with the food here. Apart from the lime pickle and aloo paratha, the whole meal was incredibly bland: my paneer dish tasted under-​seasoned, oily, mainly made up of vegetables with very little paneer, and the only real flavour was very subtle coriander (which, given it was in a tomato gravy, was impressive for the wrong reasons…); the dhal was almost tasteless, and the chutneys for the poppadums tasted synthetic and full of sugar. Also, while I don’t particularly go for spicy dishes, these dishes were mild beyond the point of actually having any spice in them at all, even pepper. I was unimpressed and won’t be returning, despite how good the service was.

We are here on a stop before visiting the Shard. When we arrived, they had to turn the lights on. The service was ok. We ordered two cocktails and two appetizers. The portions were good and the food was very good and well seasoned. The cocktails were well presented and tasted good. Overall a positive experience and we would visit again if we had more time.

Hubby and I have passed this place so many times and just looked the other way because from the outside, it looks like a shady looking spot and just another curry house. I had heard about the good reviews so decided to try it out. I was very impressed with the meal I had.
We started with papadoms, and then I ordered the ayurvedic meal with vegetables, and hubby ordered a chicken tikka dish with naan. Food was filling but not too heavy and tasted really great. I would be very happy to come back again!

Endroit sympa, facile à trouver, proche station métro. Le personnel est attentif et serviable. Les plats sont assez variés et bon marché. Pas mal d’option pour les végétariens, prix abordables.

I love the food. The chef accommodate my request to make a spicy dish Vegetable Jalfrevi not spicy. It was super delicious. Everyone told me to try some Indian food in London. I was really happy I did and was really satisfied. I got chance to talk to the chef on the way out. He was a very nice gentleman. I recommend this place. Very close to the Tube too.

I’ve been passing this place a lot and noticing their £7.95 2-​course lunch menu. Because of the price and the fact that it is in a basement, I assumed this might be a slightly ropey curry house. However, the basement is quite pleasant! Linen tablecloths and napkins, also ambient music that may actually have been drum & bass — unusual…
The food is very decent, standard starters like samosa, onion bhaji, deep fried prawns. The mains were quite tasty, especially the fish curry, and come with a choice of rice or naan. But the real point is: for £7.95, this is great value, and it came with very good service. Quick enough to eat within a lunch hour but as we were (sadly) the only ones in there, no rush either.
Also — coke in glass bottles!

Marked down as 3 stars only because of the confusion with using the taste card. the info states 2−4−1 on all food, but the restaurant manager only wanted to do this with the main meal. with 3 of us this did not make much of a reduction on the bill. Having got that out of the way the food was very good and there was an excellent light meal menu although this did not get a look in. The service was excellent, the restaurant was clean and the kitchen is in view. we will visit again if in the area.

We were on our way to the New Year’s Eve gig by Bellowhead at the Royal Festival Hall and needed to get something filling and tasty on board before the long evening ahead.
We made our booking in advance to ensure we could use B’s Taste card and we were waiting by the door at 6pm for the staff to open up. Fortunately they were pretty prompt and we were ushered downstairs to the modern basement room which has a view into the kitchen; all very pleasant on the eye but a little chilly and we got a table next to a mobile radiator.
I have eaten here as a «stop gap» a few times using the Taste card and have always had a decent meal and this was no exception. Even though there were 3 in our party the staff seemed quite happy to let us share a couple of starters and a couple of mains to take advantage of the 2 for the price of 1 deal.
The menu has all the curry house classics with a good selection of seafood and vegetarian dishes. Interestingly at this time of year there are a number of healthy platters should you feel the need to be cutting down on your pork life.
I liked the paprika chat (small puris with potato and lentils covered in a minty, chilli sauce) a lot, an ideal sharing dish which went very well with the Cobra beer. The mixed starter was ok, nothing to write home about but no complaints either.
The mains of spring chicken from the grill and a chicken shashlick were both fine, plenty of flavour and well cooked. The side of begun was ok but was a bit broken down and mushy but I’m informed that many folk like it that way. Our pilau rice was good as was the nan bread.
We had mentioned that we were on a bit of a tight schedule and our order was taken quickly and the food arrived without much delay. We were back up the stairs and on our way to the Royal Festival Hall well fed and watered just before 7.30, smiles all round with our wallets still well intact.
If you are in the Borough Market/​London Bridge area in need of some tasty Indian food and are in possession of a Taste card this would be my number one choice.

For pictures and more:

Another theatre, another pre-​theatre dinner. This time I went to the Menier Chocolate Factory to see The Number (a very weird play about clones, making me think how awful it would be to have clonal copies of myself around. I wonder if I would like myself?). But this is not a theatre blog and I shall return in medias res and describe my meal at Silka next to Borough Market. Silka is an Indian restaurant serving relatively light Indian food and it is on Taste London for a 2for1 offer. It is a basement restaurant which is hard to miss with an inconspicuous white door facing Southwark Street.
On its website it claims to be the calm and soothing antidote to hectic London life which proved to be more than true, not because of the overall atmosphere which is even though not unpleasant certainly not quite what they promise, but because of the power failure half way through our meal. The little emergency light was quite soothing, especially for us as we had already received our food. I am not sure the other people waiting for their food were equally thrilled, as of course also all kitchen work ceased. We left about 25 minutes after the power failure with no signs of the electricity being restored and I have no idea how the evening ended for the poor diners. They might very well still be there waiting for their chicken tikka
But now to the food: Silka is not the best Indian in town, but it’s not bad especially when used with a Taste London offer. Of the 4 dishes we had, one was actually really good while the other three were nothing to write home about. A complete failure was the vegetable side dish Begun (4) the ‘baby’ aubergines were not baby at all, they were greasy and tasteless. A little bit of salt would already have gone a long way
The spicy crab cakes (4.75) as a starter were really spicy and actually quite nice. The crab was mixed with potatoes and coconut resulting in an interesting combination of flavour and texture.
The second starter (lemon sole wrapped in banana leaf, 5.25) could have been successful if the fish had not been completely overcooked. I wonder how you can mistreat a poor fish to this extent, it surely did not deserve that! It certainly was not ‘gently steamed’ as stated in the menu The remains of the steamed-​to-​death fish were coated in a coriander/​mint pesto which I really liked. Shame about the fish really.
The Keralan Fish Curry (8.95) was boring. There was nothing obviously wrong with it, the fish for example was comparably tender but it just lacked some proper seasoning and flavour.
The Haryali Chicken Tikka (8) however was a success. What you think is broccoli is actually grilled chicken coated in a paste of green peppers, chili and pistachio. The chicken was soft and succulent and very flavoursome. And it is certainly the greenest food (apart from green vegetables) that I have ever eaten.
The service was attentive and friendly. However, when the power failure happened they could have been a bit more pro-​active and e.g. offer some free drink or similar to the customers who had to wait forever for their food.
Silka is definitely not an outstanding restaurant, but it’s decent and with Taste London offer well worth a visit if you are in this area for a quick bite to eat if you feel like Indian food.

Silka is a bit out of the way, but only a bit, being on the Southbank side of London Bridge and just across from London Bridge station.
My meal started with papadam, served with 4 condiments, including excellent lime pickle, though the tamarind sauce was a bit sweet.
My main course was Lamb Biriani, which was very well flavored, including fresh scallions and cilantro. the lamb was very tender, which is rare in Biriani, showing an attentive kitchen. Speaking of which, Silka has an open kitchen and candle lit décor. It has a short but adequate wine list and full bar. The service was attentive (though I was there fairly early.)
Definitely worth a visit if you’re in Southbank or the City.

Descend down a staircase from the entrance by Borough Market into an amazing subterranean space.
Silka restaurant is conceived as a calm and soothing change to London? s hectic life. Depth is created through the back-​lit wall cladding made from different exotic timbers such as indian rosewood, ebony and makore. The frosted frames surrounding the show kitchen and bar emit a soft glow and are the main light source for the space. The design is inspired by the horizontal and layered landscape with clouds hovering above, decorated in a modern, minimalist style the basement restaurant is in keeping with the sophisticated mix of clientele it attracts.
The cuisine emphasizes healthy Indian food with a touch of the west harbouring a mix of modern specialities and traditional Indian dishes. A lot of the cooking is based on Ayurvedic health principles, which is probably a big draw if you’re into that sort of thing, but for most customers the appeal will simply be that the food’s gorgeous.