Babur restaurant in Forest Hill is a cocktail lovers heaven

Babur has been a long-standing restaurant in Forest Hill for 37 years, offering a mix of traditional and contemporary dishes to its diners.

The menu has many of the staples one would expect from an Indian restaurant, like naan breads and poppadom’s, however anyone thinking this restaurant is purely traditional should think again.

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The menu has many contemporary dishes that I wouldn’t normally notice when dining at an Indian restaurant like griddled scallops and the steamed shoulder of lamb in beetroot rice.

Babur is a 37-year-old gourmet Indian restaurant in Forest Hill (Image: Emily Davison)

I went on a Thursday evening and the restaurant was packed with customers and I could tell this was a popular restaurant for many in the area.

Alongside the regular A La Carte menu, the restaurant also offers special menus during holidays and events and even has a Sunday buffet.

Buffet costs £21.95 for adults, £14.95 for children between 7 – 12 years and children under 7 eat for free.

One waiter said: “A lot of people come here after a day at work for a few drinks and some food, we always have a lot of customers no matter what day it is”.

We began our meal with some poppadom’s and a selection of four dips to try.

This included the classic mango chutney, a chilli dip, a garlic dip, and a ginger dip.

The dips were a mix of spicy, sweet, and savoury, although I did favour the garlic dip especially.

Crab bonda (Image: Emily Davison)

They had a very large cocktail menu that they have been working to expand on for the last 20 years. They had many options from gins, whisky, sparking cocktails and dessert cocktails.

Upon speaking to the restaurant staff, I discovered that the most popular cocktail was the Currytini, a blend of Bombay Sapphire Gin, fresh curry leaf, green chilli, dry vermouth and lime cordial.

The cocktail was one of the first that the restaurant created in their menu.

I personally didn’t opt for this cocktail on this occasion, but instead I chose to sample the strawberry sparkler which is a combination of strawberry liquor and prosecco.

It was sweet, but not too sweet on account of the slight tang of the Prosecco.

My dining partner tried the pineapple hookah which is a mix of sagatiba cachaça, roasted cumin, caramel, pineapple and fresh clove smoke.

Steamed shoulder of lamb with beetroot rice (Image: Emily Davison)

You could definitely taste the clove in this drink which gave it a very smoky flavour, and it was not your typical Pina Colada.

For starters we tried the crab bonda which small crab dumplings with a mint coriander puree.

They were more of a dough-like consistency and came as a row of four.

They were a nice starter to begin with, as someone who is a big seafood fan, and it was the right amount of food not to fill me up before the main meal.

My plus one tried goat shoulder tikka which came with black cardamom, green tomato and aubergine mash.

The meat was tender and you could really taste the cardamon flavours coming through.

For mains we had a garlic naan bread to share along with pulao rice and the portions were sized for us both.

I tried the chicken lababdar which was made with creamy tomato, fenugreek and mace.

I found this started to have quite a sweet flavour, it wasn’t a spicy dish at all and I found that I shared it with my plus one on account of the sweet flavour.

Pulao rice (Image: Emily Davison)

It had a lot of flavour, and the meat was cooked well, but I personally wouldn’t have been able to finish the entire portion of this alone. My plus one tried the steamed shoulder of lamb with beetroot rice.

I was quite surprised that my plus one decided on another lamb dish, but who am I to argue?

Again the meat was cooked well and according to its website is marinated for 100 hours. It had a very good texture and pulled apart as you ate it.

For dessert I was really intrigued to try the mango brulee, as I felt this was a prime example of the restaurant's contemporary side.

Mango brûlée (Image: Emily Davison)

It was an interesting combination and was honestly the most unusual dessert I’ve ever tasted.

It was the texture of a brulee but with the flavour of mango. As someone who usually goes for Mango Sorbet after an Indian, I really enjoyed the novelty of this dessert.

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We finished off with a final round of cocktails, I tried the White Garden which is a mix of Jasmine-infused Absolute Vodka, Elderflower Liquor, Cointreau and Lychee.

The drink was a mix of both floral and fruity and the Lychee flavour was very prominent in the drink.

All in all, it made for a nice evening out, the food was all cooked well and arrived promptly, the cocktail menu was fantastic and I will definitely be visiting again.