Hawkyns restaurant review, Amersham: When two classics become one

The humble curry is often referred to as Britain's favourite dish, but why is Indian and British food not fused together more often? Emma Henderson heads to the town of Amersham to get a (sophisticated) curry fix

Hawkyns restaurant is inside the Crown hotel, formerly a coaching inn. The creams and browns make for a warm and cosy interior

I’ve always thought it odd that you can get chips at a curry house, or perhaps an omelette or something else that awkwardly sits on a restaurant’s menu. But for people, like my dad, who don’t like curry (as if such person exists), these odd little items become a much welcomed saviour when friends suggest a group dinner to the local Indian.

But Indian restaurants have been a much loved permanent fixture of our high streets since the 1960s. So why has it taken so long to merge the two: British classics with the colours, heat and spice of Indian food.

That’s what twice-Michelin-starred chef Atul Kochhar has done with a new menu. He’s best known for combining Indian and British flavours – you might recognise him from BBC2’s Great British Menu – and has brought it to Hawkyns restaurant in Amersham. The new partnership is rather fitting as the restaurant is named after Sir William Hawkins – commander of the first East India Company ship to anchor in Surat, India, 1608.

And Amersham couldn’t be more quintessentially English if it tried. “It’s basically the Cotswolds on the edge of London,” is how a colleague described it when I said I was going. And he was right; it looks rather like Chipping Camden, a doppelganger of towns, if you will. And it’s so English that it was used for the location of classic British rom-com Four Weddings and A Funeral.

For any curry fan, the menu forces you to make difficult choices, from the heritage beetroot starter with avocado, pomegranate and sweet potato chatt to the madras spiced mackerel with mooli remoulade, fennel and apple. I went for the jasmine tea smoked duck ham, duck bhel, cherry gel, frisee and pepper salad. The dish is light and delicate, but with only a handful of miniature rolled pieces of the cured duck meat that are a little lost by the texturised salad leaves and accompanying gels. The same can’t be said for the soft shell crab starter – which is the size of a child’s hand – and dominates a small bed of noodles and sweet pear chutney.

Atul Kochhar is the head chef

More tough choices come when you see the gin menu. As with many restaurants, they've jumped on the artisan gin bandwagon. There's 18 on the list. Yes, 18 different gins. From London's Sipsmith to Spain's Gin Mare, each has it's own different fruit and floral accompaniment. I went for the King of Soho with a slice of grapefruit and basil; fruity and smooth.

My main dish – sea bass with bombay aloo, kachumber and coconut turmeric foam – solidified the fusion flavour partnership for me. It could have benefited from more of the Bombay aloo, but the addition of the turmeric foam bolstered the light spiced flavour.

The heritage beetroot with sweet potato chaat starter

The braised pork cheeks and belly vindaloo – which comes with coconut savoy cabbage and chorizo fondant potato – uses soft and tender meat, which is (as the name suggests) more heavily spiced, but isn’t offensive as some vindaloos tend to be. Instead, it’s mature and sophisticated. Obviously it’s not like your typical curry – swimming in sauce, waiting to be mopped up by a peshwari naan – instead a generous tablespoon of the sauce sits in the middle of the well-balanced dish which doesn't drench the meat. Substituting the beloved nann is the chorizo potato fondant, providing a much-loved source of carbs.

As a staunch chocolate lover, I was obviously going to choose the cardamom chocolate fondant over the saffron yoghurt millefeuille or the coconut mousse. Luckily for me, chocolate lends itself wonderfully to spice. It’s served with a scoop of rose flavoured parfait that dilutes the richness of the chocolate for non-purists, unlike me.

The sea bass is the star of the show with Bombay aloo and tumeric foam

The food could even be pushed a little further to include more traditional dishes like dahl (my favourite) and it seems there is room for it to grow. But while the managing waiting staff are competent and friendly, the staff delivering the dishes are young first-timers who struggle to remember the names of the dishes, which is endearing if not a little painful to stumble through.

But what’s not painful is the interiors. The restaurant sits inside a traditional 16th-century Elizabethan coaching inn and has been thoughtfully brought up to date by Ilse Crawford’s interior design of upcycled chunky wooden tables and cream walls, which make it feel warm and rather cosy and fits well into its country chic setting. It’s a refreshing step away from over-designed restaurant interiors, with gaudy walls and quite-frankly terrible art that makes you feel uneasy.

Three courses for two comes to around £75 plus gins, which start at £4.25 each

Service***
Food****
Atmosphere ****