The Sepoy Club, Broad Street, Bath

Funky boutiques, upmarket nail bars, down-home takeaways. A friendly, independent coffee shop here, a late-night convenience store over there, a dedicated knob shop across the way: if you’re traversing the route from The Podium to George Street, Broad Street – worlds apart, in character and personality terms, from the prosaic parallel line that is Milsom Street – is literally the way to go.

So how does a restaurant that looks like one of those super-polished brasseries that line the streets behind London’s Sloane Square fit in to the higgledy-piggledy Broad Street backdrop? Like this…

The Sepoy Club – named after the Indian soldiers who served in the British Indian Army during the colonial period and paying homage to Zora Singh Brar, British Indian soldier and grandfather of Sepoy Club owner Manpreet Singh Brar – magpied its way into the vast space vacated by the Ask Italian chain in 2020 and opened on Broad Street in May last year.

Few restaurateurs would be brave enough to take on such a vast, cavernous space; heck, there’s room for 200+ covers within the clean-cut, brickwork walls. But neat, subtle partitioning between distinctly different mood-areas from bar to booths to flexible party-on areas and elegant ambient lighting create the very opposite of the Tardis effect; our table for two in the modern brasserie-style dining area to the left of the main entrances whispered ‘bistro’ rather than ‘buzz’ – a neat trick for any city centre restaurant to accomplish on any night of the week, let alone a busy Friday.

Just when you think you know all there is to know about Indian restaurant menus in Bath (and crikey, there’s a lot to know about them, with a couple of truly excellent examples doing truly excellent things), along comes a new one to add to the portfolio. And The Sepoy Club menu, in many ways, offers a new Indian experience that blends fusion, familiarity and the promise of fine dining beyond successfully.

There are Duck Seekh Kebabs, Venison Doughnuts and Beetroot Croquettes amongst the starter array; a Fauji Canteen Goat Curry and a Sikandari Lamb on the mains. Of course, you can take the Jalfrezi/Rogan Josh/Biryanis (etc) route if you so wish. But sneaky sideways glances left and right of our table told me that the Sepoy Club chefs are masters of the art of upgrading even the au fait to the oh, fabulous; exciting times indeed.

We started with Barra Lamb Chops – a speciality of the house for good reason, tenderised to an almost buttery consistency by a raw papaya/ginger/garlic marinade and gently bathed in a masala wrap – and Chicken Chop: a succulent chicken joint (a supreme, perhaps?) fresh from another marinade that subtly packed a big flavour punch with fenugreek, turmeric, ginger and lashings of garam masala in particular quietly vying for attention.

In a way, I feel sorry for a kitchen that sets the bar this high with starters: expectations for the main event are now sky-high, tastebuds are suitably tingled, anticipation is piquing. Had we peaked too early? Most definitely not.

Bring on Goan Prawn Curry, the intrinsically rich, mellow sweetness of the coconut gravy thrilled by sweet/tart kokum and citrussy curry leaves. Gimme a second southern Indian classic: Dakshini Fish Curry packed with chunks of sweet, white fish fillet, the coconut milk earthed, this time around, by potently aromatic mustard seeds and bold coriander. And then, back north again for a third main dish of fresh, fat pan-seared scallops in a richly aromatic tomato/onion based Lababdaar sauce/gravy thickened with ground cashews, slightly spicier/tangier than Lababdaars I’ve met before… and all the better this version was, for that.

We had coconut rice with the Goan/Dakshini curries (the Lababdaar came with a tidy little pile of its own pilau) and a peshwari naan to share too – all those who say you can have too much coconut don’t know what they’re talking about. But we didn’t order side dishes, as The Sepoy Club don’t offer sides apart from rice, breads and – yes! – chips in plain, masala and chilli garlic format. Tempting though those chips are, why would you go there, here? Portions are generous and perfectly-balanced as they are – so much so, in fact, that neither the Sizzling Brownie nor the fascinating Lady Kenny (named after Lady Canning, wife of the governor general of India during 1856-62, don’cha know) made it to our table; we opted for a couple of very British speciality coffees instead (Irish and Royale, if you’re interested) to ‘settle digestions’ that were in no way unsettled.

Fresh and modern, old-meets-new, aspiration, inspiration and a welcome addition to Bath: that’s how – and why – The Sepoy Club has made a perfect home on Broad Street.