Restaurant review: Abi Ruchi

Abi Ruchi restaurant, Church Street

There is something defiant about eating out on a Sunday evening. A willful disdain for the onset of the working week, a determination to stake out one’s territory on the glowing embers of the weekend, a conscious commitment to, if you will, ‘rage, rage, against the dying of the light’.

We take Friday and Saturday as our right, and sometimes wilt under the pressure to maximise our allotted days of leisure.  These are the times that we may attend pre-arranged functions or social events, battle for space in restaurants and overpriced bars, perhaps be required to negotiate a group of drunken, riotous revellers on the tube.

Sunday evenings are more relaxed.  Rarely planned, they are a time for impromptu gatherings of old friends.  But these ad hoc occasions can turn out to be the best, precisely because we are released from any expectation that we should be enjoying ourselves.

We visited the South Indian restaurant Abi Ruchi (42 Stoke Newington Church Street) when it was still October, but most definitely winter.  I couldn’t be sure exactly when the weather crossed the boundary between wondering if you should wear a coat, and wishing you had worn a scarf, but it had done so, and I was hoping a curry would be both a warming and reinvigorating complement to the drawing in of the nights.

In the event, it fulfilled these criteria, but did so much more in addition.  The dishes here have a homely quality, but with a richness and complexity that belies their affordable prices.

We started with a Ruchi sangaman (a variety of deep fried vegetable bites, £8.95, serves two) of which the stand out items were the vegetable samosa and plantain, along with chicken pakoda (shredded deep fried chicken, £3.50)

What really made the meal, however, were the main dishes.  Each featured a blend of spices calibrated to bring the out the best of the other ingredients, ranging from the sweetness of the bekal meen kootan (£6.50, king fish smoked tamarind curry), to the earthy notes of the lamb ulathiya masala (£6.50) and nadan chicken curry (£5.15).  These curries did not lack the all-important spicy kick, but none was overpowering and there are mild options for those who prefer them.

A side order of muttakros (cabbage) and carrot (£2.95), stir fried with mustard seeds, curry leaves and coconut was also delicious. Nadan Dosa bread (£1.75 for two) and lemon rice (£2.50) provided an ideal accompaniment.  At £2.50 a pint, Kingfisher on draught was very reasonably priced, while wines and bottled Indian lager are also available.

With excellent value meals and attentive and welcoming staff, the relaxed unpretentiousness of Abi Ruchi combines the best aspects of the neighbourhood Indian restaurant with an intriguing and well-executed South Indian menu that’s about as far from the bog standard curry house as you can get.  It’s no mystery why this has become a local favourite, loyal customers returning again and again.  I certainly will do, not least because there were many items (such as the fish soup starter and tempting range of vegetable curries) that I did not have the chance to try.

At times Church Street can seem a parody of itself – the kind of place where you might raise eyebrows by buying the wrong sort of granola.  But as we emerged from the restaurant into the frosty winter air, I was reminded of everything I like about it, and why its variety and independence make it such a unique place in London.

Our meal at Abi Ruchi was perfect for a cold Sunday evening – which is not to say that I won’t be attending on other days of the week or at other times of year.  I may also be ordering a takeaway in the not too distant future.

Related story: Namo