Award-winning Indian restaurant Khai Khai has received a glowing food review in The Guardian, bringing it another share of the national spotlight with dishes described as 'outstanding' and 'incredible'.
Its restaurant critic Grace Dent was full of praise following a visit there, describing "the kind of food you pause halfway through eating so you can text friends about it". Her review of Khai Khai referred to one murgh tikka dish as "really quite astounding".
The restaurant boasted a whole new dining concept when it opened on Newcastle Quayside in 2020, initially as a takeaway until lockdown restrictions eased enough for its proper launch and it won the title of UK's Best Innovative Restaurant Concept at the British Curry Awards within its first year. The traditional smoke and fire style of cooking used in its 'retro Indian comfort food' dishes has helped it earn a central spot in the city's dining scene.
Read more: the fire and smokeplay behind Khai Khai's success
This so-called 'smoke-play" cooking method in a Josper oven, with red-hot coals and burning wood, infuses dishes with a unique smokiness. The restaurant has built up a loyal customer base while also enjoying celebrity attention.
Harrison Ford dined there last summer during a break from his shoot for the latest Indiana Jones movie and Gordon Ramsay popped in while filming on the quayside for the just-aired TV project Future Food Stars. The celebrity chef even claimed Khai Khai's popular Old Delhi Butter Chicken dish to be the best version he'd tasted.
And it now seems The Guardian critic Grace can be said to number among the restaurant's fans too. She also picked out the butter chicken dish in Friday's review, published just ahead of the weekend, which she agreed is "very, very good".
She wrote that she had wanted to try Khai Khai for more than 18 months, after hearing word-of-mouth recommendations. Also referencing Kenny Atkinson's nearby Michelin star House of Tides and Solstice, suggesting the latter is more deserving of two stars, she said that she initially felt "queasy" at the term 'smoke-play' then added "but I am now a huge fan of Khai Khai’s signature tandoori broccoli which looks wildly charred, as if it had been chipped out of a crack in a Pompeii pavement, encrusted with chilli flakes and pistachio, and littered with microgreens".
She went on: " It turns out to be so wonderful that I spent the whole of the next day wondering how they did it" and she added: "Broccoli should not be this delicious." She had picked from the a la carte menu and found the murgh tikka chicken dish, in the smoke-play small plates section, to be "puzzlingly incredible", saying "the depth of charred flavour combined with the softness of the meat is really quite astounding. It’s the kind of food you pause halfway through eating so you can text friends about it."
It was a glowing review save for a mention that some Josper-smoked aubergine was "the only disappointment". She said the "friendly, absolutely jam-packed" restaurant "serves reliably good food without seeming to break a sweat" and ended by saying: "I, for one, am ready for the Khai Khai roll-out. The high street needs its help."
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