Menuwatch: Heritage, Dulwich, London

Family recipes are behind the Dulwich restaurant, Heritage, presented with an Anglo-Indian twist

Opening a restaurant during a pandemic was never going to be ideal, particularly if restaurants are required to close just as you plan to seat your first diners. But there have been some unexpected upsides for Heritage Dulwich chef-owner Dayashankar Sharma.

As the dishes he has developed for the new restaurant, situated in London’s leafy West Dulwich, aren’t designed to travel, he decided to create a new delivery menu. Such was its success that he has established a whole new revenue stream by setting up a satellite kitchen and separate delivery brand.

“We planned to open in December 2020, but lockdown happened, so we had to think differently,” he explains. “My food is not designed for takeaway and delivery, so in order to survive we had to create a whole new menu.”

The menu for delivery brand Jhakaas features three sharing feasts (one of curries for £45, grills for £48, and vegan for £40) along with a small selection of dishes including Delhi butter chicken (£12.50) and Jhakaas lamb chops (£16.50) that have provided a useful way to introduce the restaurant to local diners.

“Once we reopened, locals already had a taste of the food, so it worked out positively, but we had complaints about not continuing delivery,” Sharma says. “We did it to survive, but our kitchen is too small to service both a restaurant and takeaway to the right standard. Our priority is in-house diners, so I’ve opened another takeaway and delivery site using a different brand, Jhakaas, meaning fantastic.”

Sharma has thrown his experience of working in lauded London Indian restaurants Tamarind in Mayfair and Zaika in Kensington as well as the Grand Trunk Road in Woodford into his own project. He offers his own take on recipes sourced from across the subcontinent that have been handed down from generation to generation, hence the name Heritage.

The menu served by the six-strong brigade is split into small plates, kebabs, mains and sides, with Sharma taking traditional dishes and reimagining them for the local audience. For example, the Goan stuffed fish small plate (£8.95) will be familiar, but here it is coated in semolina and shallow-fried, as is typical, before being paired with coriander pesto and a seasonal garnish. “As we’re in England where people are used to fish and chips – I’ve included something green, like peas, to complement it, so I use blanched green vegetable and my own coriander paste,” he explains.

An Anglo twist can be also be found with the Jodhpuri tawa chicken (£8.25), a highly spiced dish with plenty of garlic, chilli, coriander and tamarind, which is paired with a cumin potato mash to balance the heat.

An eye-catchingly large area of the menu is reserved for the kebabs, which Sharma says are all prepared using unique recipes. Take the shatkora jhinga prawns (£18.50), which are marinated in a lime pickle before being cooked in a clay oven to generate some serious depth and intensity.

“Lime is very popular in the Bengal region, so I put the lime in a brine solution with salt, turmeric, sugar, lemongrass and chilli, and leave it for a month,” Sharma says. “We then make a sauce with red pepper, garlic and chilli powder cooked slowly over fire. Once cooked, the pickled lime is added before the prawn is marinated and cooked in the tandoor.”

A dish described as “unmissable” by The Guardian’s Grace Dent is the dhal makhani (£7.95), a traditional black dhal that is prepared overnight in the tandoor once the last of the kebabs have been served. The black lentils are boiled and left to simmer slowly after service. “We then use ginger, garlic, fenugreek, Kashmiri chillies and butter in a separate pot and add to the dhal before cooking for another one or two hours,” Sharma adds.

Desserts return to more of a fusion, with the more traditional rice and jaggery pudding (£6.95) accompanied by sweet caviar alongside gulab jamun cheesecake (£7.50), which features a sweet Indian cheese and a rose jelly topping.

“I wanted to try an Indian version of cheesecake and it came out so well it’s always on the menu,” Sharma says. “My son is in the kitchen too and he helps out with the desserts.”

This is a family affair, celebrating culinary traditions while embracing modern thinking.

From the menu

Potato and quinoa cake: fresh ginger, homemade smoked cheese stuffing and mix chutney £7.75

Keralan grilled duck: duck breast, mustard, black pepper and honey with plum chutney £17.75

Salmon methi kebab: Scottish salmon fillet, fenugreek leaves, mustard and crushed red chillies £16.95

Sorsebata maach: sea bass fillet with mustard and poppy seed sauce, stem broccoli £15.50

Murgh makhani: smoked chicken supreme cooked in creamy fresh tomato and fenugreek sauce £15.25

Gosht dum biryani: classic lamb dum biryani with aromatic spices, raita £17.95

Broccoli ke kofte: apricot- and raisin-stuffed broccoli dumplings in roasted tomato gravy £13.50

101 Rosendale Road, West Dulwich, London SE21 8EZ

www.heritagedulwich.co.uk