Kinky Boots Meets Colonel Saab In A Fine Dining Curry Collaboration.

As Kinky Boots meets Colonel Saab, Andy Mossack reviews another tasty dining/theatre combination.

It wasn’t all that long ago I had the pleasure of reviewing Colonel Saab’s first foray into theatre collaboration, designing a special menu for the Mrs. Doubtfire production which also included booking a ticket to the show. It helped of course, that the restaurant was right next door to the Shaftsbury Theatre.

This proved such a hit that the company has collaborated with another production – Kinky Boots – at the London Coliseum which is just a stone’s throw from their other iconic restaurant at Trafalgar Square. A restaurant which not only offers epic Indian fare but once again has created a set menu to artfully reflect the story of Kinky Boots and the characters and songs of the show.

Colonel Saab Trafalgar Square has an abundance of elegant and nostalgic memorabilia with Tanjore Panels from the 16th Century, Wall Rugs, Paintings, a plethora of clocks and truly magnificent Firozabad chandeliers.

The Kinly Boots set menu offers a cocktail and four courses with two options for each dish and a narration by your waiter of how the chef had been inspired by the story and characters of Kinky Boots to create the dishes.

Kinky Boots is a story of a chance encounter of a northern shoe factory owner with a gregarious drag queen and how they save the failing business by producing a new line of man-sized high-heel boots. It stars Strictly Come Dancing’s Johannes Radebe and X Factor winner Matt Cardle.

First up was “Kinky Boots” a smooth whiskey cocktail laced with elderflower, pomegranate and raspberry for the red of the kinky boot. It was served in a glass with one side left plain to show the character of Charlie the northern owner of the shoe factory while the other side was coated in raspberry powder to reflect the vivacious and joyous nature of Lola the drag queen. Our waiter was at pains to point out this represented the ups and downs of life.

My co-diner who is not a whiskey lover (unlike myself) was surprised to find it refreshing and delicious.

Next up was the amuse bouche aptly titled “Sex is in the heel” one of the show’s main songs. It was presented in a guava cone with tamarind chutney, raspberry sauce, and spiced cream topped with crisp gram noodles. The cone characterised the heel of the boot and was perfect to tickle the appetite.

The “Land of Lola” vegetarian starter was an elephant yam and beetroot tikki dish with a lime chilli pickle and linked to Lola and her red kinky boots. The other starter “History of wrong guys” was an Anglo-Indian chicken chop relating to the character of Lauren who is Charlie’s secret admirer. A Madras spiced pulled chicken cutlet with a salad and a tomato raisin sauce.

For the mains I chose “Everybody Says Yeah” the main song of the show, which was a Kerala beef pepper fry. Beef is not usually found in most Indian restaurants, but it proved to be a big hit at this one, so ties in with the song title. My companion went with “What Every Woman Wants” a Memsaab‘s chicken curry inspired by the chef’s mother’s family recipe. While the association with the show was perhaps a little less obvious, both dishes were delightful.

The dessert reflected the show finale “Raise You Up/Just Be” a magnificent pineapple jalebi with Chantilly cream, pistachio kulfi, and a crisp tullie with pistachio-infused oil.

Colonel Saab’s Kinky Boots menu was a perfect introduction to the show offering a sort of preview of the story and, whether familiar with the story or not, made perfect sense when watching the show. It also gives you a reasonable price taster into Colonel Saab’s glorious main menu, a delicious tour around India’s regional cuisines.