About Kanishka

Atul Kochhar is at the forefront of fine Indian dining. He is an established restaurateur, television personality and author of cookery books.

Kanisha opened in March, 2019 and Atul appointed his protegee, Ashok Kumar as Executive Chef.

The restaurant is named after King Kanishka, an emperor of the Kushan dynasty known for his military, political and spiritual achievements.

Atul was the first Indian chef to receive a Michelin star in 2001 and won a second in 2007. He is the Chef/Patron of seven British restaurants which promote the best of Indian gastronomic fare combining modern techniques and traditional recipes and ingredients.

Ashok Kumar was featured in The Great British Menu, London and Southeast region in 2024 where the theme was celebrating the Olympics and Paralympics with a banquet hosted by the British Ambassador in France.

We were in London for a very special reason, we were going to a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace, so we decided to have a special meal to celebrate this and because we had eaten lots of times at Sindhu on P&O Cruises (Atul’s restaurant on board), we booked Kanishka.

We decided to go for the Tasting Menu which was £105 each but decided against the wine pairing as we’re not very big drinkers, so we ordered a bottle of wine instead.

As it happened, both Phil and I had different menu choices for each course, most probably because he loves fish and I am definitely not a fan!

The first course was Nashta, which is the one in the background – the outer casing was very crispy and crunchy and the filling was smooth and moreish, almost like a humous texture and taste. The front two were complimentary and everyone received those, the one on the right was VERY spicy and they were both mouthfuls of tastiness.

Then it was onto the next course:

I had the kebabs, which didn’t look like the kebabs we normally get from our local van in the layby and Phil had the crab. The kebab had lots of different textures which all blended together extremely well and the pomegranate seeds really made it pop! Phil said his crab was delicious, he wished he could have ate more!

So, I ordered the DHUYEN KI BATAK – home smoked Margret Duck breast, orange and spring onion chaat but forgot to take a picture of it! I have to say, this dish was superb, probably my favourite one of the night. The duck was cooked to perfection and together with the refreshing orange segments and spring onions, it tasted wonderful. Phil loves scallops and this was one of the best ones he’s had and together with the chicken jus, was incredible. He did wish though that he had a slice of bread to mop up that delicious sauce.

I had the chicken tikka pie which definitely didn’t taste like any other pie I’ve had! It was absolutely delicious. Phil enjoyed the John Dory and was impressed with the tomatoes which came from the Isle of Wight!

Phil’s lamb chop was ‘melt in the mouth’ and the spices were just about the right amount, not too spicy so that the taste gets overwhelmed. My butter chicken was amazing, there were side dishes that came with it and there was quite a bit of it, especially after eating all the previous courses! This has made me change my order when I go to an Indian now, I always order the butter chicken rather than the Chicken Korma!

Indian desserts are usually not very good but these were on another level! Refreshing and light after such a lot of food!

Thoughts

This was an amazing meal and we felt it was good value at £105 each. The staff were very attentive and friendly. There was a smell of varnish as they were in the process of redecorating, but as we were sat downstairs we couldn’t smell it whilst we were eating.

Overall, a wonderful dining experience.