Leicester Square is not usually a spot for anyone but a desperate and / or foolish, tourist to eat, but this vegan/vegetarian restaurant is so good Nick could go in everyday
Haldirams began in 1937 as a small sweet and namkeen (savory snack) shop in Rajasthan. Today it has branches in over 80 countries and sells packaged foods and frozen meals online.
This branch opened earlier in 2026 and was immediately noted for the queues to get in. Then some kind of power failure in the Square caused it to close for a while, but now it’s back and the queues ( at least when we went at 3pm on a Wednesday) have gone. It’s still busy, though.
At the front is the sweet counter and a small selection of their packaged foods, but out back is where the action is, in a group of small rooms all brightly lit and cheerfully decorated. It was pretty full back there and looking around I reckoned we were the only people of European heritage there, which was a good sign.
You should know that Haldiram is vegetarian/ vegan and serves no alcohol. A number of the dishes also do not use onion or garlic, as these are considered by some to be rajasic and tamasic, rather than sattvic – which means they are detrimental to a spiritual progression – as well as for other reasons. Every dish on the menu has clear detail as to what it contains.
The menu is enormous and accessed via a QR code on the table. All the dishes have simple photos to help the uninitiated choose and everything looks very tempting.
Well, we were uninitiated but we did know that we wanted to share a Raj Kachori, which is a crispy fried pastry filled with potatoes, lentils, sprouted beans yogurt, tamarind chutney, and spices. It’s also insanely colourful.
First though a bottled drink made by Haldirams called Aam Panna. Deliciously cold, it’s apparently concocted from raw green mangoes, sweetened with sugar and spiced up with cumin salt and some mint. It’s sharp, sour and spicy all at once and feels like it’s deep cleansing you from the inside. Delicious
The Raj Kachori is wonderful too, the beauty is more than skin deep. The range of flavours is intense, I love the bite of tamarind, and the potato base is like finding an extra present at the bottom of your Xmas stocking.
With it we have Sweet Potato Bites, a generous plate of ‘balls’ deep fried and served with a green chutney. Good and crispy outside, creamy smooth inside and rather fiery too, Again delicious especially with that chutney.
For mains, we are overwhelmed by choice but we know we always like a Dal Makhani,but then who doesn’t? This luxurious Dal, usually enriched with frightening amounts of butter and cream, is Urad Dal cooked slowly for many hours until the lentils are soft and almost falling apart. It’s one of Dishoom’s best sellers and this one gives Dishoom a run for their money.
Perfectly spiced and the texture is just right, so we scoop it up with buttery, crispy nan bread just as we see everyone else doing. It must be admitted that we did also cop out after a bit and use spoons, too.
Next to it, a bowl of Shahi Paneer – cottage cheese in a cashew forward ‘gravy’. This we ladle onto basmati rice and mix with a little vegetable raita. The cheese is light and chewy and the sauce richly spiced. Brilliant.
Dal makes me a little ‘full’, it always does, but I still find room for Gulab Jamun Churros. I don’t know who thought of this Spanish/Indian mashup, but I suspect they now have no teeth left. You dip these insanely sweet in Rabri which is basically flavoured condensed milk. Again, faultless.
We rolled out back to the office where one of our Indian colleagues asked where we’d been. ‘Haldirams’, we said. He went all misty -eyed, ‘Oh the food there is so good, it reminds me of home.’
We won’t need reminding to go back
myhaldirams.uk
19–20 Irving Street,
London WC2H 7AU
Dining and Cooking