Avinash Shashidhara to open Talli Queen in Shepherd’s Bush

Avinash Shashidhara has announced he is opening a pub in West London this summer.

Talli Queen will take over the site that used to be the Queen Adelaide pub on Uxbridge Road, and will open in July after a light refurbishment.

The pub will take inspiration from Indian drinking establishments called toddy shops and will offer a selection of Indian bar snacks, while an adjacent dining room will serve lunch and dinner from an open kitchen. It will offer 100-120 covers, including outdoor seating.

This is the chef’s first restaurant, which he is opening with his business partner James McLean, who reopened the Oarsman pub in Marlow in 2021.

Shashidhara said: “Talli means tipsy in Hindi and everyone calls [the pub] the Queen, so we knew we couldn’t change the name completely. We’ve picked a fun and quirky name that fits a pub serving Indian food.”

The Talli Queen will offer a wide range of beers, including craft beers and cask ales, as well as a strong focus on cocktails using spirits from India, including gins, rums and an Indian spirit called Mahua distilled from fermented flowers.

Bar snacks will include small plates such as chilli beef, mussel skewers, spicy carrot toasties, crab buns and papadi chat, while the menu in the dining room will centre around a charcoal-fired grill and tandoor, taking inspiration from Lucknowi kebabs.

On Sundays Shashidhara intends to offer Indian Sunday lunch with big cuts of meat cooked on the grill, such as slow-cooked lamb shoulder or Indian-style porchetta and tandoori chickens.

Shashidhara told The Caterer: “We want to keep it simple, but we don’t want to make it an Indian version of a British pub.”

“In terms of the economy right now, I feel people are turning to pubs to socialise,” he added. “We’re going to focus on quality and seasonality, but we’re a pub so it will be less formal and less intimidating – I don’t want people to feel it’s too niche.”

The chef oversaw the opening of Pahli Hill Bandra Bhai in 2020 as head chef, serving traditional regional Indian dishes, including his papadi chat starter, which was served at the banquet of the Great British Menu in 2023.

Pahli Hill was awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2022.

Prior to that Shashidhara worked at Claude Bosi’s Hibiscus and the River Cafe.