Emma and I have lived in Finsbury Park for over a year now and since moving in, we have kept saying that we needed to try Jai Krishna, the Southern Indian Vegetarian BYOB Restaurant. I am not the biggest fan of meat curries but I absolutely love vegetarian curries – plus the fact that it is BYOB (and let’s be honest now, who doesn’t love a Bring Your Own Booze establishment?) – just made it sound glorious.
Finally, one year later, on a Friday night we decided to try it.
Across the street is an off-licence that sells all sorts of craft beers, normal beers, ciders and wines from all over the world. So we got a couple of interesting beers and crossed the street into this authentic Southern Indian gem.
It is a small restaurant with a very chilled out vibe. As we sat and looked through the menu at all the vegetarian delights, I no longer felt like I was in the middle of London but instead felt like I was back in Asia at a local family run restaurant.
We started with the Masala Dosa £4.95 which is a thin, fried pancake filled with spiced potatoes and onions and it came with a coconut sauce and a chutney on the side. It was very flavourful but very filling.
We ordered a Spinach Dal £3.55, a Chilli Paneer £5.25 which tasted a bit like a sweet and sour mixture with paneer (not really my thing), a Malai Kofta £4.95 which was a curry with kofta made out of paneer (had quite a potato-like texture to it), a Pilau Rice £2.25, and a Garlic Paratha £2.25.
There were lots of burst of great Indian spices and flavours that were absolutely gorgeous. The spinach dal was without a doubt my favourite thing. I could have just had that with some plain rice – but obviously (as when trying any new restaurant find) we had to order a few dishes to try them all out first.
With everything that we ordered and our bellies full to the brim – it only cost us £14 each. I definitely recommend for an authentic South Indian food experience.
