Heat, Meat And Chilli Muffins: Brunch With A Southern Indian Twist Lands In Marylebone
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Last Updated 27 September 2019
The weekend brunch menu at Ooty promises so much. Literally, so much. The technically-four courses include a sprawl of elements at each stage — course 1 alone: a bowl of spicy granola, frothy palm yoghurt and berry compote; croissants, muffins, scones, jam/cream — and come flanked with sides, bulked up with breads or heralded by little extra pre-course buttermilks. It must be, we figure, all miniature.
Nope.
It's not just the quantity that's staggering: the menu talks a hot, fragrant game and delivers on it, light, lacy-edged dosa after flaky cumin croissant; the meaty heat of the keema mattar pao's minced lamb through to the fluffy warmth of the chilli muffin. Stand-outs, at a push, were the egg dosa with chettinad duck, the lime leaf seafood stew with its series of tiffin-box-stacked sides, and the cumin croissants. But those are standouts by a whisker; the menu sets a high, gorgeously-spiced and generously-sized bar.
And Ooty's not short on charm itself. Luxurious but loveable: all greens and velvets and pink succulents. If there's a fault, it's that it's so empty on a weekend lunchtime — but the brunch is relatively new, and a few weeks of word-of-mouth about those cumin croissants and that curry leaf buttermilk should fix that.
Prices are Marylebone on paper — £35 for the four-course brunch, or £30 for vegetarians — and spending that much on food that our grandma used to whip up for us is always going to feel disconcerting. But you'd be pushed to find many places in central London offering better value for buck. Even the bottomless prosecco option (something that mostly equates to paying in advance for 1.5 bottles of fizz that you're then going to feel obliged to stickily plough through) comes in at £15, so just about worth it if you're planning on sinking more than one glass. Better still, £5 gets you bottomless zesty, gingery juices.
Ooty's got the big, expansive take on just what a breakfast can cover that you get in southern Indian food — sweetness, heat, dried fruit, fish, coconut, cumin-y croissants, bright green beans scattered with nigella seeds. It's rich, exuberant, friendly, generous and we are, completely, smitten with it. Run, don't walk.
Chances are that by the time you leave, it'll be with a stately waddle.
The brunch at Ooty runs on Saturday, 11.30 am -3.30 pm, and is £35 for four courses or £30 for four course vegetarian brunch. Bottomless juices are £5 and bottomless prosecco is £15. Ooty, 66 Baker Street, W1U 7DJ.
