When we launched this magazine our mission statement was simple: to inspire.

We’d feature exciting new hotels, restaurants and bars that offered something extra in terms of design and service, in the hope that we’d inspire our readers.

Colonel Saab is a recently opened Indian restaurant located near to Trafalgar Square and it is inspirational.

From our point of view, this restaurant meets the brief!

The service is exceptional, the interiors dazzle and the food is on another level.

All good design should have a narrative.

Here the story tells of India past.

Every corner, wall, door and ceiling is covered with original artifacts gathered from the Indian continent, sorted and displayed to celebrate the great nation, the nobility and the Maharajas, the rulers and kings of the empire states of India.

And at the heart of this miscellaneous collection is a love story.

It tells of the love between the eponymous Colonel Saab, who served in the Indian army, and his young and beautiful wife.

Here and there are old sepia photographs of the couple; of them individually, of their extended family and of them with their young children.

There are love letters alongside their original envelopes, browned  with age and carefully displayed in glass cases.

There are several old souvenirs and trinkets that they sent to one another when apart, as a symbol of their love.

And centre stage is an original army uniform that belonged to Colonel Saab.

The Colonel Saab of the story is the actual father of the restaurant’s owner, Roop Partap Choudhary so effectively this is an homage to his parents.

Realising this, one can understand why so much attention and effort has gone into creating these charming, warm interiors.

It’s a design created with love.

The staff who work at Colonel Saab are well-trained professionals and all appear to have a genuine enthusiasm for their work.

Beyond the simple task of serving and order taking they are keen to give knowledgeable and detailed descriptions of every dish that arrives and will tell where the dish originated, its ingredients and how it is prepared.

This knowledge and passion for the food extends to the interior design and waiters will happily show guests around the restaurant, pointing out the more unusual and valuable items.

These include Tanjore art on wood from the 16^th century; handmade wooden doors from temples the of Gujarat and Nepal; fine porcelain 18^th century plates; Warli paintings dating back to 2500 BCE; three Bakhtiari and Kilim rugs; a precious Rabab lute; gilt Kimkhwab embroidery and a Mughal Zardosi embroidered fan.

Executive Chef, Sohan Bhandari, has created several new and unique dishes at Colonel Saab.

They are designed to reflect the flavours and ingredients that can be found across the Indian continent, as experienced by Roop Partap Choudhary, as he travelled across India retracing his father’s footsteps from when he served in the Indian army.

The menu is an ‘ode to Indian homemakers and traditional Indian cooked food.’

Memsaab’s Tasting Menu offers diners the chance to taste several of the restaurant’s best and most popular dishes in one sitting.

Standout dishes include a mouth-watering Marwad’s Raj Kachori (spiced chick peas and potato, trio sauce, pomegranate seed boondi, savoury crisp, herbal jam, black cumin chaat masala), Mishti Doi Cheesecake (a Bengali dessert of sweetened and flavoured yoghurt cake with jaggery syrup) and a delicately spiced Sunday Lamb Curry, served with the fluffiest of rice, light and airy naan bread and edge-crisped chapati.

This is the second Colonel Saab restaurant to open in the capital, the original opened in Holborn in 2022.

Soon after opening it was named Best Asian Restaurant At the Asian Curry Awards.

This is quite an accolade, as the judging panels are made up of Indian restaurant royalty, including many of Britain’s best Indian chefs.

There is no question that the food at Colonel Saab Trafalgar Square elevates the restaurant to being amongst the very best.

Equally the interiors are beautifully curated and provide the perfect setting for enjoying memorable service and delicious Indian food.

colonelsaab.co.uk