Lahpet restaurant review: Forget Dishoom, this is the Covent Garden restaurant to book
Covent Garden can be a nightmare when you’re hungry. It’s either the same place you’ve been a million times or a punt on somewhere new that’ll probably not have enough staff and a queue out the door. Our advice is to swerve the never-ending line at Dishoom (where do they all come from? Don’t they know there are better Indian restaurants?) and head behind it, down the alleyway which leads to Lahpet. One of the capital’s only restaurants specialising in Burmese cuisine, its dishes take a bold and enticing approach.
I doubt many Burmese elders have dining rooms like this, however: Lahpet is fitted with cool metal and wood fixtures that lead the eye to an open kitchen. Fancy but not cold.
Back to those bold and enticing dishes: the braised mutton curry is the house speciality. Our waiter seems anxious that we eat it straight out of the oven to get the most from the spice rub that unwraps with new flavours with every chew. It feels like it’s been made by a grandma who’s spent decades rubbing pieces of meat together. There’s cumin, tamarind and daikon pickle, and great chunky pieces of steaming meat. (“Eat quickly,” we’re reminded again. “Before it gets cold!”)
Fried bream comes complete with the fish’s blackened head. The rest of it is perched provocatively atop a colourful mound of ingredients including double fried beans, peanuts and greens. It is a joy to behold, the tomato, shallot and soy glaze lending an acidity to the chunks of fish. The restaurant recommends sharing multiple dishes (I do too) but you could have these two and leave sated.
Elsewhere, Lahpet’s insistence on not playing to the crowd is noted, and we’re down with it. Don’t miss the Lahpet Thonk (tea leaf salad). The main characters are the earthy pieces of pickled tea that have a flavour profile not a million miles from cannabis. They are the focal points of an enticing jamboree of supporting flavours, including fried beans, chilli, dried shrimp and sesame seeds. It’s a sign of how this recently-opened restaurant’s owners Dan Anton and head chef Zaw Mahesh take an uncompromising approach to bringing the flavours of Myanmar to London. Sod the Dishoom queue, I’ll be back for more.
To book go to the restaurant’s website