Bib Gourmand · Modern Indian Small Plates · Soho
By Monty Khas, Anonymous Critic. Pays every bill.
Great London restaurant stories tend to start somewhere improbable, and Kricket's starts in a shipping container. In 2015, Rik Campbell and chef Will Bowlby opened a 20-seat counter inside Pop Brixton, armed with a short menu shaped by Bowlby's time cooking in Mumbai. The queue was immediate. A decade on there are four Kricket sites across London, in Brixton, Soho, Shoreditch and Canary Wharf, plus a cookbook, and the Soho flagship on Denman Street holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.
What made Kricket matter isn't only its success. It's how much it shifted the way Londoners outside the diaspora think about Indian food. Small plates, an open kitchen, seasonal British produce, a serious bar, and a menu that leans toward India's coasts and south rather than the familiar curry-house canon: that format is everywhere now. Kricket helped write it.
The room
Soho is still the best place to experience it. The ground floor is long and narrow, almost a corridor, with low lighting and a counter running along the open kitchen. Grab a stool there: the cooks work inches away, plates come fast, and there's a pleasant, controlled chaos to the whole thing. Downstairs is darker and moodier, with bigger tables for groups that want to settle in. Either way, it's loud and buzzy, a place for energy rather than whispered conversation.
What to eat
Counter regulars start with pani puri shots, crisp shells you fill and knock back in one go, a fizzy, sour, citrusy wake-up call. Then the Keralan fried chicken with curry leaf mayo: crisp, aromatic, and the dish that converted a generation of Kricket fans. Samphire pakoras are the restaurant's signature British-meets-Indian move, sea-salty greens fried in a light, lacy batter. Bhel puri is fresh, crunchy and a little bit wild.
Smoked baingan bharta, the current house favorite, is deep and silky with real fire-smoke, the kind of eggplant dish that makes you forget you ordered meat. For something heartier, look for the chicken mappas, a coconut-rich Keralan curry that tastes like it took all afternoon, and order bread or rice to chase every last bit of it.
Lunch and pre-theater
At lunch, the thali is one of the best deals in the West End: several dishes, rice and bread on a single tray, built around the mappas or a grilled squash makhani for vegetarians. It's served daily, and it's the most efficient way to see what the kitchen can do in under an hour.
The pace also makes Kricket the smartest pre-theater dinner in Soho. You can eat well and still make curtain-up without sprinting down Shaftesbury Avenue.
Before you go
Book ahead for dinner, especially on weekends, when the room is packed from early evening. Vegetarians are well looked after, with the bharta, pakoras and squash makhani all strong enough to anchor a meal. And it's exactly the place to take a friend who claims they "don't really get" Indian food. Give them twenty minutes at the counter and a plate of that fried chicken.
A decade after the container, Kricket no longer feels like the new kid. It feels like a fixture, which is the highest compliment a city can pay.
The Quick Fix
What to order: Pani puri shots; Keralan fried chicken with curry leaf mayo; samphire pakoras; bhel puri; smoked baingan bharta; chicken mappas; the lunch thali
Pricing: Mid-range, with real Bib Gourmand value. The lunch thali is a West End bargain.
Best for: Pre-theater dinners, casual dates, counter-seat lovers, and friends who are new to Indian food
How it compares: More playful than Trishna; more coastal and southern in focus than Dishoom; easier to walk into than Gymkhana or BiBi; the small-plates format everyone else borrowed
See where Kricket Soho ranks: The Best Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi Restaurants in London: Our Top 10 for 2026
The food was always this good. We're just paying attention.