“Indo-Chinese food hasn’t had its moment in London yet, so it’s exciting to finally bring it to Frith Street.” Tangra’s executive chef Nikesh Sawant grew up in Mumbai, where Indo-Chinese food always came with conviviality and friendship. “The kind of thing you’d eat with best mates or after a late shift, full of flavour and fun,” Sawant tells Broadsheet. “That’s the feeling we wanted Tangra to capture – vibrant, social, and full of life, like a great bar.”
With its vintage Bollywood posters, graphic Hindi script, and a neon-red lighting installation on the ceiling, Sawant feels that the space – designed by Mumbai illustration and design duo Boomranng Studio and London-based Quadrant Design (Rosa’s Thai, Côte) – nails that same Mumbai spirit. “They’ve created a space that feels alive,” he says, “playful and transportive but still grounded in the everyday joy that inspired Tangra in the first place.”
The name refers to the Tangra neighbourhood in Kolkata, which became the city’s Chinatown and the birthplace of a particular style of Indo-Chinese cooking. This Soho restaurant is the new venture from the team behind Mildreds, the vegetarian London institution founded in 1988, which now has six sites across the city. While it shifts lanes in both cuisine and atmosphere, Tangra still draws from the Mildreds legacy. “Creating the menu was a real team effort,” Sawant says, with many of the chefs – who are from Indian and Nepalese backgrounds – previously working with him on dishes for Mildreds and Mallow (a plant-based restaurant from the same group).
Indo-Chinese food is often associated with bold, punchy flavours and dishes built around meat, but the combination of garlic, chilli, and wok fire also works well with vegetarian cuisine. “It’s actually incredibly adaptable,” Sawant says, adding that in India, restaurants have huge vegetarian menus that have evolved to cater to the world’s largest vegetarian population. “There’s so much room to play with spice, texture, and depth, while keeping the same bold, celebratory spirit at its heart.”
The menu – which is built for sharing – combines wok-fired dishes like chilli paneer and Manchurian kofta, with reinterpretations of Indo-Chinese classics and unconventional takes like moreish potato waffles glazed in honey chilli and served with pickled garlic mayo. There’s also momos (Nepalese dumplings), and bar snacks such as Chinese bhel, masala papad, and aloo corn chaat.
Some of Sawant’s reimagined dishes are playful nods to his Mumbai heritage: for example, a take on the Bombay chilli cheese sandwich, which uses thecha, a pounded burnt chilli relish, combined with cheese in a quesadilla.
The team has also created a beer to wash it all down with: a crisp, fruity pale ale produced in collaboration with Unbarred craft brewery in Brighton – as well as Indian-inspired cocktails like Spice Trader, which is spicy, juicy with mango and powered by mezcal and tequila. “The cocktails are just as bold, fresh, punchy,” says Sawant, “and built to handle the heat. Perfect for late nights and long stories”. Tangra will stay open until 1.30am from Thursday to Saturdays, serving a shorter late-night menu and a smaller list of £7.50 cocktails, including a coconut Negroni and Tangra Old Fashioned.
Sawant thinks the restaurant can attract a broad spectrum of customers beyond Mildred's vegetarian crowd and London’s South Asian community. “It's just as much for anyone in Soho who wants something exciting and different.”
Tangra
17 Frith Street, W1D 4RG
Hours:
Sun to Wed 11am-11pm
Thu to Sat 11am-1.30am
