The story
Amaya is a modern Indian restaurant at Halkin Arcade, 19 Motcomb Street, Belgravia, London, and it holds one Michelin star for 2026. The kitchen is built around grilling, and the cooking happens in full view of the room.
The tandoor, the tawa griddle and the sigri charcoal grill sit in the open kitchen. Meat, seafood and vegetables are marinated in aromatics drawn from India's regional cuisines, then cooked to order. Jumbo ocean prawns come off the tandoor smoky and spiced with ginger and tomato. Seared scallops sit in coriander and coconut sauce, and tandoori lamb chops arrive with naan finished with truffle.
Dark wood and warm lighting frame a generously spaced dining room. A long table seats 12 for larger groups and business dinners. A separate private dining room seats up to 14 and is hung with Indian artworks.
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
High quality cooking
Part of the MW Eat group (Veeraswamy, Chutney Mary and the Masala Zone mini chain), this classy Belgravia grill restaurant tucked down a passage beside the Pantechnicon has been plying its trade since 2004. Swathes of polished dark wood and seductive lighting create a contemporary, luxurious feel to the generously spaced dining room, which is bookended by a smart bar area and an open-to-view kitchen with tandoor ovens and tawa grills in full view. Several notches above your average curry house, it continues to tease and satisfy, experimenting with herbs, spices and ketchups via a line-up of bijou grazing dishes. Smoky and spicy jumbo-sized ocean prawns, fired in the tandoor are succulent, fleshy and spiked with ginger and tomato, while seared scallops are pearly pucks of similar stature in puddles of fresh coriander and coconut sauce. Oysters, crumbed and grilled, sit plumply in coconut milk (from whole nuts cracked open in the kitchen) with ginger, turmeric and chilli. Meat receives similarly impressive treatment: a marinade of spices and cheese helps to point up a beautifully tender black-pepper chicken tikka (with chilli paneer, date and sesame), while subtle spicing gives heft to a pair of juicy tandoori lamb chops, accompanied by puffed-up naan bread, glistening with ghee and showered in truffle. For a short season, there could also be chicken biryani with wild garlic, cooked in its sealed pot and opened at table to wafts of herby, garlicky steam. A typical meal might kick off with crispy cabbage and noodle salad with nuts, pomegranate and grapes bound by a splash of balsamic vinegar, while desserts are given an Indian twist – perhaps a miniature lime tart sharing the plate with a blueberry compôte infused with anise and a wobbly limoncello jelly. Service, led by a gracious maître d’, is quick and efficient. Contemporary cocktails mingle with a carefully assembled, spice-friendly wine list including almost two dozen selections by the glass (from £11).
3 Rosette Award for Culinary Excellence
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