Restaurateur Devinder Singh has brought northern India to north London via the south of Italy with his new concept, which fuses dishes from his childhood with stone-baked pizza. East West aims to disrupt the pizza scene with toppings such as masala jackfruit and butter chicken with truffled oyster mushroom.
The restaurant is located close to Tufnell Park tube station and has taken over the site of the Stingray café on Fortress Road. East West seats 48 diners over two floors, decked out in terracotta and blue accents with exposed brick and mosaic tiling.
The concept marries the traditions of Italy with India to produce an innovative take on pizza, which sees punters feasting on novel creations such as saag paneer pizza with grilled artichoke and crispy onions. Indian classics also get the Italian treatment with the likes of zingy murgh kofte polpette and paneer bruschetta, while arancini arrive stuffed with paneer, tandoori chicken, butter chicken and more. The flavours on the kids’ menu are rather less challenging: ham and tomato pizza followed by a scoop of ice cream, washed down by homemade lemonade.
The drinks are creative riffs on the East-meets-West theme, such as the Chai Martini and a Punjab to Moscow Mule featuring spiced ginger beer, galangal citrus syrup and vodka, while there are French and Italian wines, too. Desserts, however, stay loyal to Singh’s origins with Indian classics such as gajar ka halwa and gulab jamun, made using Singh’s family recipes.
Commenting on the inspiration behind East West, Singh said: “I am a huge admirer of how Italians from the southern regions, Puglia in particular, make their pizza and the light and gentle base found throughout the area provides the perfect stage for punchy Indian flavours.” East West aims to exploit the best of both countries to offer north Londoners a new food concept that will hopefully make fennel pesto and butter chicken pizza the next big thing.