For the next two months, Dalston’s Acme Fire Cult will temporarily reinvent itself once again, this time as a curry house.
Following the success of the chophouse reconceptualisation chef Andrew Clarke trialled at the tail end of last year, this iteration of the live-fire restaurant will amp up the Indian-inspired flavours that have long been threaded through the restaurant’s menu.
“It’s important for us to tell people why we’re doing it,” Clarke tells Broadsheet. With around 60 per cent of the restaurant outdoors, winter can be challenging. “2025 was a difficult year, and we just want to try things without losing sight of who we are and what our identity is.”
That identity, he says, is still rooted in live fire, but increasingly shaped by his travels. “I’d like to think of it as well-travelled food,” Clarke says. “When I go to India, and around the world, there are things I get inspired by, and we bring that back. Some of those ideas find themselves on the menu, and somehow we make it cohesive. While not authentic, it’s authentically Acme.”
The limited-edition menu is mostly inspired by Clarke’s journeys along India’s western coastline, from Mumbai to Kerala and Goa. “While we call it a curry house, it really just means we’re leaning into our Indian-inspired dishes a little bit more,” he says.
Highlights include a pig’s head vindaloo – “vastly different to the vindaloo we understand from the curry houses on the UK high street”, says Clarke – closer to the Portuguese Goan original: heavy on the vinegar and garlic, and enriched with Kashmiri chillies and curry leaves. “It’s fiery, but not terribly hot.”
There’s also mackerel recheado, inspired by a Goan masala Clarke fell in love with while spending time in the region. “Racheado actually means stuffed,” he explains. “We’re doing a fiery stuffed Goan mackerel with British fish, grilled over fire and served with the season’s winter tomatoes.”
Other dishes include smoked vadouvan chicken in a French-Indian style curry butter; venison and pork seekh kebabs; and a spicy, tomato-heavy lamb chop railway curry “that’s arguably the one everyone’s been raving about”, says Clarke.
While he’s still tinkering with the recipe, Clarke is also excited about dessert: a masala chai Basque cheesecake infused with black tea and warming spices, designed to add a touch more warmth to those enjoying the heated terrace.
Acme Fire Cult’s Curry House menu will run throughout January and February.
