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NEW OPENINGS

MUST ORDER Hot butter devilled shrimps

transformed into something slippery

and rich, a comfortingly neutral receptacle

for accompanying chutneys of sweet onion

relish and pungent smoked fish: finger

food of the highest order.

SMALL PLATES

There's more mess from bone-marrow

varuval: wobbling gobbets scooped from

the bone into a punchily

spiced, curry-leafed and

coconutty sauce, to be

smeared on flaky, buttery

roti. Even if you don't like

bone marrow, those roti are

reason enough to order this

dish; ask the delightful staff

and they might bring you some more to

use as cutlery for an extraordinary dish of

hot butter devilled shrimps, which tastes

almost Szechuan in its intensely spicy

explosions of tiny green peppercorns,

cracking in the mouth like gunfire.

You could take a three-course approach,

using the hoppers, crisp, crêpe-like dosas

and small-plate 'short eats' ahead of larger

dishes such as Ceylonese spit chicken

marinated in what tastes like a whole stall

of spices. There are puddings, too: moist,

lightly crunchy 'love cake' or durian ice

creams that do little to rehabilitate the

reputation of this strange fruit.

But for us, the joy of eating here is in

taking the small-plate approach; we also

love the black pork kari (a pork-belly

curry), robustly spiced mutton rolls in

batter, and remarkable lamb kothu roti.

Every mouthful of this deeply flavoured

food thrills your synapses and keeps you

alert: this is not an eating experience to

zone out from, not least because tables

are shared in the narrow dining room.

And the price is perhaps the most

remarkable thing about Hoppers. Because

a meal with half a bottle of wine, two

beers or an excellent cocktail could easily

cost less than £40 a head: unarguably

a West End bargain for food of tell-yourfriends-all-about-it

quality.

Next from the Sethis is a Fitzrovia

branch of Bao, the Taiwanese bun

specialist that JKS Restaurants

backs; they have also invested

in Lyle's and Bubbledogs - as

well as their own Michelinstarred

duo, Gymkhana and

Trishna. What a family of

sure-footed restaurateurs

they have become: completely

in tune with these de-formalised times.

Gymkhana won our Restaurant of the Year

award in 2014; this is a no-less-deserving

winner, and we can't wait to see what the

Sethis turn their hands to in the future.

Every mouthful of this deeply

flavoured food thrills your

synapses and keeps you alert