A new modern Indian restaurant from hotelier Roop Partap Choudhary, will open at the old Holborn Town Hall site on Thursday 7th October. To celebrate the soft launch, the restaurant will be offering 50% off (food bill only) from 7th October to 13th October. Make sure you book as spaces are likely to go quickly`!
Colonel Saab is the first London restaurant from award-winning entrepreneur/hotelier Roop Partap Choudhary. The new 150-cover all-day modern Indian restaurant is located at the historic Holborn Town Hall site on High Holborn, next door to the Hoxton Hotel. The site boasts a 100-cover dining room and mezzanine, as well as two private dining rooms each hosting up to 50 guests. Colonel Saab will open for breakfast to dinner seven days a week, with an Indian-style brunch menu served at the weekend. The food menu takes inspiration from Roop’s many childhood travels throughout India with his parents, whilst the decor is designed in collaboration with his mother, Binny – or MemSaab. The restaurant’s name is a homage to his father Manbeer, who was known as ‘Colonel Saab’ during his many years spent in the Indian Army.
What’s on the menu?
Food – a tour of India via the stomach
The food menu has been developed in partnership with renowned Indian food-writer and cook, Karen Anand, alongside the restaurant’s resident head chef, Sohan Bhandari and takes a contemporary viewpoint taken from a nostalgic memory of dishes, aromas and flavours. Served from 8.30am daily for breakfast through lunch and on to dinner, the menu offers a varied mix of dishes from around India – with inspiration for ingredients, spice and flavour taken from the many places across India that Colonel Saab and his wife Binny were stationed during his time in the Army, and Roop’s own childhood. From street food signatures, to home-style Indian cooking and dishes inspired by royal kitchens, the menu at Colonel Saab offers something for every palate and occasion. From a quick breakfast-on-go, to a leisurely work lunch or a special birthday celebration into the early hours in one of the restaurant’s private dining spaces.
Signature breakfast dishes include Caramel & banana paniyaram, with jaggery sauce – hot, crispy bites from south India usually savoury, but served sweet and stuffed with banana and caramelised unrefined cane sugar syrup and a house special The Indian Fry Up – featuring a Masala omelette, chilli chicken sausage & curried baked beans served with toast (breakfast will be served daily from 8am to 12 noon, with dishes from £6).
The all-day menu will offer huge, crispy dosas from south India, served with a choice of meat, seafood or vegetarian options, alongside rice dishes served in tiffins, allowing customers to experience the theatre of Indian dining at their table. The dinner menu will offer a choice of small plates to share through to larger individual plates, with dishes such as, Bharli Vangi – Maharashtrian baby aubergines in a chilli peanut sauce, Nizami Murg roast chicken and Binny’s Chicken Curry (small plates from £8, larger dishes from £14).
Drinks – cocktails & partying
Punchy cocktails designed to match and complement the food menu, will be on offer, with a collection of signature house cocktails named after Roop’s close family, alongside artisanal Indian-made gins, whiskies and rums. The bar will have a 1am late licence on Friday and Saturday evenings, for late night revellers.
The Design
The restaurant interiors are curated by Roop himself with his mother Binny, taking inspiration from colours and patterns of the late 1970’s and 80’s and the family’s own dining and living rooms back in India, the space offers a luxurious yet creative and fun dining setting. Stand-out brick red walls display Indian artworks, with vintage Persian rugs and combination of modern and antique furniture throughout – including a vintage Asprey drinks cabinet dating back to the early 20th century, all collected by Roop over the last decade. Colonel Saab’s interiors are a real labour of love and will be a real feast for the eyes when the restaurant opens this October. Ahead of the launch, Roop comments,
“I am excited to be able to finally reveal an official open date for Colonel Saab. It’s been almost a decade in the planning and after this last year or so, it’s great to have some positive news to share. London was always my first choice to open a restaurant outside of India. You have one of the best and most diverse dining scenes in the world and the site at the old Holborn Town Hall is a wonderful old building with bags of charm and personality of its own, so provides the perfect venue for Colonel Saab. We have big plans afoot and can’t wait to welcome guests to the restaurant when we open this October.”
Colonel Saab will open on High Holborn on Thursday 7th October.
50% SOFT LAUNCH DATES: 7TH OCTOBER – 13TH OCTOBER *50% off the food bill only, booking essential.