Indian: Vama

Vama
438 King's Road
SW10 0LJ
Tel: 020 7351 4118

Date of Last Visit: Saturday, April 12, 2008

The Victims: K&A

The Damage: £50 each?

The Background:K & A are leaving me. I'm devastated. There's something nice about having someone (K) around who you've known since you were 18. (A's not so bad either.) They are heading back to New York. Shortly. Like within the next thirty days. This is our first of what will hopefully be many farewell dinners. 

They've picked Vama, a Chelsea Indian restaurant, despite telling me on the phone that they really want some fish and chips. I triumph over London Transport YET AGAIN and figure out how to take the tube to the bus to the restaurant all by myself in my new shoes–gray, patent leather, Mary Janes with a heel. I am trying to save my feet as much as possible. I seriously still do not understand how women walk in this city. I am constantly carrying around "traveling shoes." (Proving, yet again, that you can take the girl out of Long Island, but you can't take the Long Island out of the girl.)

The Food: We are off to a solid start…complimentary bhajis are on the table when I arrive. We get some tikka masala, some spinach and potato thingies that arrive as deep fried fingery looking things (not what I was expecting) and some more bhajis. We're happy, more or less.

The Mains: I order one of their specials, lamb cooked in a spicy spinach sauce. While the spinach sauce is great, the lamb is stringy and old looking. Hmmm. I push it aside. K gets some more tikka masala, which is nice, but my local curry house does it better–and cheaper. A gets a chicken dish whose name escapes me. All in all, it's all "nice." They're nice. It's fine.

The Verdict: Fine. But I probably won't be back.