Fatt Pundit: a celebration of Indo-Chinese food in the heart of Covent Garden

Discover the punchy flavours and bold dishes of Indo-Chinese cuisine at Fatt Pundit’s Covent Garden restaurant.

In a city in which you can lay hands on pretty much any cuisine with ease, it can be hard for a restaurant to feel like it’s breaking new ground — but that’s exactly what Fatt Pundit’s Indo-Chinese menu did when it opened its Soho branch in 2019.

Serving a distinct cuisine that can only be found in a handful of other Indian restaurants in London, Fatt Pundit puts this particular subset of Kolkattan culture front and centre on our plates.

Since opening its Covent Garden restaurant on Maiden Lane in 2021, it has settled in as one of the area’s more distinctive dinner options — here’s what to expect.

Fatt Pundit Covent Garden: the full review

The food

Hailing from the Tangra area of Kolkata, Fatt Pundit’s food sits at the meeting point between Canton, Guangdong and Kolkattan cuisines — a celebration of the food created by Chinese immigrants as they moved to the city in the 19th century.

Like many restaurants in London, Fatt Pundit has leant into the small plates format — but this is a situation where it makes sense. As a diner, we’d recommend trying as wide a range of the food on offer as possible.

We’d strongly encourage starting the meal with a dish of momos — those pillowy dumplings filled with steamed meat and vegetables common across South Asia.

Biting into our kid goat momo — a puff of tender meat subtly flavoured with garam masala and garlic — we didn’t regret the decision.

Next up was the crackling spinach — a dish that more than lived up to its name, the spinach lightly battered and fried until crispy, then bathed in a dressing of sweet yoghurt and topped with fresh pomegranate seeds.

The contrast between the crispy spinach, inky deep, the creamy yoghurt and the sharp tartness of the pomegranate is, to be quite frank, close to the best version of this dish we’ve come across.

Subsequent dishes were no less impressive — the Kolkata chilli duck came in crispy strips coated with a glaze that was as fiery as it was sweet.

Hot on its heels were the rabbit wontons, their delicate casings giving way to a spiced filling that had just the right amount of intensity thanks to the inclusion of black beans and burnt garlic. That’s all before we get to lamb chops with black bean dust — the charred exteriors giving way to the tenderest of meat in a single bite. It was, in short, a revelation.

The drinks

The drinks menu is small but equally inventive, with an array of light and fruity cocktails such as the Guava Chilli Sour and the Plum and Tamarind Cooler that are the perfect foil for the flavour-filled food. There are beers and wines too, with enough options to suit most drinkers.

The look

It was a sure sign that the interior was going to be something special when the restaurant’s opening was pushed back because a consignment of furniture imported from India had been delayed.

Walls are lined with shelves weighted down with Chinese ceramics, and rich jewel colours and understated lighting add to the appeal — it’s comfortable, erring on the casual side of things but with a lot of personality.

The London x London Take

Fatt Pundit’s Covent Garden site has had time to settle in since it opened in 2021, and the kitchen’s confident, punchy take on Indo-Chinese cooking still stands out in a part of town saturated with more familiar options. We’d point first-timers to the momos, the crackling spinach and the Kolkata chilli duck, with the small-plates format making it easy to cover plenty of ground across the menu.

This is a reliable pick for a lively, flavour-forward meal a few minutes from Covent Garden itself, whether that’s a pre-theatre dinner or a proper sit-down with friends. Book ahead, particularly at weekends.

Rating: 4.5/5

Fatt Pundit Covent Garden: need to know

• Address: 6 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 7NA
• Nearest station: Covent Garden or Charing Cross
• Price: ££
• Opening hours: Vary across the week, roughly lunch and dinner sittings Tuesday to Sunday, closed Monday — check current hours on the website before visiting
• Booking: By phone, email or online via the Fatt Pundit website
• Website: fattpundit.co.uk/covent-garden
• Visit date: Not specified in the original source — please confirm or update