Roop Partap Choudhary is to embark on his first UK venture this year. In early October the restauranteur will open an all-new Indian restaurant and bar in London’s Holborn. It will go by the name of ‘Colonel Saab and will be located on High Holborn next door to the Hoxton Hotel.
Brief Overview
The new 150-cover site encompasses a 100-cover dining room and mezzanine and two private dining rooms hosting up to 50 guests. Colonel Saab will open for breakfast through to dinner seven days a week with a brunch menu served at the weekend.
The food menu takes inspiration from Roop’s many travels during his childhood around India with his parents. The restaurant name is a homage to Roop’s father, Manbeer, who was known as ‘Colonel Saab’ during his time in the Indian Army.
The Food
The food menu, served from 8.30 am daily for breakfast through lunch and onto dinner. It will offer a varied and eclectic mix of dishes from around India – with inspiration on 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. From street food signatures to home-style Indian cooking and dishes inspired by royal kitchens, the menu at Colonel Saab will offer something for every palate and occasion.
The menu takes a contemporary viewpoint taken from a nostalgic palate of memories, aromas and flavours, 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. The food menu has been developed in partnership with renowned Indian food writer and cook Karen Anand.
The 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. In addition to this, patrons can get stuck into ‘Colonel Saab eggs Benedict’ – turkey ham, poached eggs, creamy korma sauce & toasted pau, 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 8 am to 12 noon, with dishes from £6).
The all-day menu will offer huge 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 is served daily from 6 pm and 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 roast chicken’ and Binny’s childhood chicken curry – paying homage to Roop’s mother’s delicious home cooking (small plates from £8, larger dishes from £14).
Drinks
Colonel Saab’s drinks bar, lead by award-winning bartender Antony Bertin – who has worked in some of France’s best cocktail bars (currently head bartender at the Aquarium Bar at the Castelbrac Hotel in Dinard), will serve a list of punchy cocktails designed to match and complement the food menu, with a collection of signature house cocktails named after Roop’s close family, alongside artisanal Indian-made gins, whiskies and rums. The bar (and private dining suites) will have a 1 am late licence on Friday and Saturday evenings.
The restaurant interiors are curated by Roop and his mother Binny and draw inspiration from colours and patterns of the late 1970s and 80s and the family’s own dining and living rooms back in India. The interior space has been designed to offer a luxurious yet creative and fun dining setting. It has stand-out brick red walls will display Indian artworks, with vintage Persian rugs and a 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 have been a real labour of love and will be a real feast for the eyes when the restaurant opens this September.
Ahead of the launch, Roop said, “I am excited to be able to finally reveal plans 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 I’ve loved visiting and eating my way around the capital for many years now, so when this central London site came up, it really was a no brainer for me.
The site is the old Holborn Town Hall and is a wonderful old building with bags of charm and personality of its own, and 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 September.”
Colonel Saab – Where and how?
Colonel Saab by Roop Partap Choudhary will open on High Holborn this September.
Address:
Colonel Saab
By Roop Partap Choudhary
193-197 High Holborn
London
WC1V 7BD
Website: www.colonelsaab.co.uk.
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