Annaluxmie - Coconuts & Seafood

Annaluxmie often looks quiet, which had wrongly led us to think it probably wasn't very good. We tried it for the first time recently and went back again five days later - it was that good!

Annaluxmie specialises in Sri Lankan, South Indian and Chettinadu foods, so dishes featuring seafood and coconut are the stars of their menu when it comes to the Sri Lankan and South Asian dishes, whereas Chettinad lends itself more to meat dishes.

Chettinad cuisine is from Tamil Nadu state in South India. It is one of the spiciest and the most aromatic in India and famous for its use of a variety of spices used in preparing mainly non-vegetarian food (chicken, lamb and fish; not pork and beef). The dishes are hot and pungent with fresh ground masalas, usually with generous amounts of peppercorn, cinnamon, bay leaves, cardamom, nutmeg, green and red chillies. The Chettiars, a merchant caste in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, migrated to nearby Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, leading to Chettinad cuisine becoming popular in Sri Lanka. The people of Chettinad speak Tamil. Today there is a dispora of Chettinad people who live in places such as the USA, Singapore, Malaysia and Rayners Lane.

To start we've tried Annaluxmie's devilled king prawns and the devilled squid. Devilled dishes are a staple of Sri Lankan cuisine. Here you can choose from devilled chicken, fish, prawns or squid, which essentially means stir fried with tomatoes, onions, peppers, chilli and ginger. Both the squid and prawns were delicious and packed a firey punch.

Next up we had the garlic fish curry, chunks of fish cooked in special South Indian spices, tamarind, garlic, shallot and tomato gravy. It was subtly spiced with nice tender chunks of fish and really tasty. We had it with coconut rice, which complimented if perfectly. The rice was made with fresh grated coconut and tasted fantastic.

Of the vegetarian dishes we have tried dahl makhani (rajma dhal, black dhal and channa dhal all mixed in garlic butter and garam masala) rich and delicious; and bhindi masala (okra cooked with Bombay onion, tomato, chilli and garlic), which was excellent and an ideal accompaniment to the seafood curries. The paneer palak (spinach puree and paneer cheese sautéed with onions, garlic, tomatoes and single cream) we found too creamy and a little sweet for our tastes and Indian chickpea staple of channa masala was very good. I tried a dish called ennai kathirikai for the first time here. The menu said this is fried aubergines with sesame and peanuts in gingerly-oil flavoured gravy, so obviously it was going to be a heavy dish, but still we did find it a bit too oily for our tastes. 

The masala dosa here is fantastic and so are the roti. We tried the chilli roti and it was packed with fresh green chillies.  

Annaluxmie is very reasonably priced. Both times we've eaten there we've had beers and eaten a feast and it's come to £20 a head, including tips. The service is very friendly and you can tell they really want you to enjoy the food and dinning with them. We'll be going back again soon to explore more of their menu.

Address: 436 Alexandra Avenue, Rayners Lane, Harrow, Middlesex, HA2 9TW
T: 020 8866 4960  W: www.annaluxmie.co.uk