Having only been open for a couple of weeks, Pink Turban is the newest restaurant on the strip. The site had been bordered up for over a year and I'd been impatiently waiting for it to open. Oh, it was worth the wait - this place is super Bolly bling! They have spent a small fortune on the interior. It's bizarre to see something this flash on the Rayners Laee high street. I was recently at the new Cinnamon Soho restaurant and I'd say they'd spent 10 times what they spent on outfitting that restaurant.
The restaurant is split over two levels; a stylish ground floor dinning area and the piano room downstairs, which is designed to wow. The chairs and tables in the piano room are stark white and the lighting is pink, there's a wall of bulbous disco lights (not on - perhaps for later in the night?) and a big white piano. Art work is specially commissioned Raj portraits on silver canvases.
The menu is one of the strangest I have ever seen. Apparently they are in a soft opening phase that will last 3-4 months. At the end of this they will refine the menu, but for now they seem to be trialling everything they could imagine people might want. There's Indian boiled eggs with cheesey naan soldiers, sushi, wasabi prawns, £65 rock lobster and Indo-Chinese dishes alongside a full Indian menu. The couple on the table next to us were laughing about the £10,000 bottle of Chivas Regal on the drinks menu. Pink Turban is definitely punching above the normal casual Rayners Lane curry strip restaurant style.
We thought it would be safest to stick to the Indian options so ordered tandoori paneer and vegetable cutlets for our starters. The paneer was delicious - full of flavour from being marinated with a nice chilli kick. The cutlets were beautifully presented and served with a spanking fresh mint chutney. The cutlets were a refined take on sabudana vada sago-potato dumplings, an Indian snack typically consumed in Maharashtra. The basic ingredients are sago and potato and these ones had a modern twist of dried apricots. They had a cloying texture so I found them quite heavy, but they tasted good. 
For mains we had lamb rogan josh and a chickpea and okra dry curry with plain rice and garlic naan. I found both the lamb and vegetable dish heavy. But then rogan josh should be, so can't really fault them on that.
Rogan means "oil" in Persian, while josh means "heat, hot, boiling, or passionate". Rogan josh thus means cooked in oil at intense heat. Rogan josh is a dish from the Kashmir region of India, where it was introduced by the Mughals (hence the Persian in the dish name). Rogan josh should be a bright red colour and original rogan josh recipes would have Kashmiri red chillis (which are similar to paprika). Pink Turban’s rogan josh was indeed red. It was packed with tender lamb with the only vegetable being a little onion (as it should be), so it was nice to have the dry vegetable curry to complement it. I found the dry vegetable curry quite rich too, so I think they need to lay off the oil/ghee a bit.
Luckily we were in no hurry as our waitress was adorable, but still has a lot to learn. We had to ask for water three times. When asking the third time, she said, "Yes, sorry, you asked already. It's just all this," and gestured with an overwhelmed expression to the wine and cutlery. When asked what beer they have she said, "I don't know, I am new. That table (points to a big table on the other side of the room) ordered Peroni." We had some nice rose to enjoy as we waited, so it really didn't bother us. She was really sweet, constantly smiling and obviously trying hard to get to grips with things, in what is there soft opening phase, so we actually just found it amusing.
Pink Turban has me intrigued. I'm regretting not trying the Indian eggs with cheesey naan bread soldiers, so I'll definitely be going back again soon. I'll do another blog post after trying some of their more unusual dishes. Based on our experience I'd say go and check it out while they are still in the long soft opening phase. After that some of the stranger dishes might drop off the menu. If anyone tries the sushi let me know what it's like!
Oh, and it was good value. We had two glasses of a Argentinian malbec rose, followed by a bottle of Casillero del Diablo rose with all the food listed above and it came to £60.
Rogan means "oil" in Persian, while josh means "heat, hot, boiling, or passionate". Rogan josh thus means cooked in oil at intense heat. Rogan josh is a dish from the Kashmir region of India, where it was introduced by the Mughals (hence the Persian in the dish name). Rogan josh should be a bright red colour and original rogan josh recipes would have Kashmiri red chillis (which are similar to paprika). Pink Turban’s rogan josh was indeed red. It was packed with tender lamb with the only vegetable being a little onion (as it should be), so it was nice to have the dry vegetable curry to complement it. I found the dry vegetable curry quite rich too, so I think they need to lay off the oil/ghee a bit.
Pink Turban has me intrigued. I'm regretting not trying the Indian eggs with cheesey naan bread soldiers, so I'll definitely be going back again soon. I'll do another blog post after trying some of their more unusual dishes. Based on our experience I'd say go and check it out while they are still in the long soft opening phase. After that some of the stranger dishes might drop off the menu. If anyone tries the sushi let me know what it's like!
Oh, and it was good value. We had two glasses of a Argentinian malbec rose, followed by a bottle of Casillero del Diablo rose with all the food listed above and it came to £60.
Address: 439 Alexander Avenue, Rayners Lane, Harrow, HA2 9SE T: 0208 8686888
W: pinkturban.info
W: pinkturban.info
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