Gymkhana

Gymkhana is an Indian restaurant at 42 Albemarle Street in Mayfair, London, named after the social and sports clubs of colonial India.

The siblings Jyotin, Karam and Sunaina Sethi run it through their company JKS Restaurants, which began with the Indian seafood restaurant Trishna. Gymkhana, their second opening, came in 2013. Within months The Times critic Giles Coren gave it the first ten-out-of-ten score of his career, and the next year it won National Restaurant of the Year at the National Restaurant Awards and a Michelin star. In 2024 a second star followed, making it the first Indian restaurant in London with two.

The menu keeps to the classic cooking of northern India, from the tandoor and the grill house, made with richer produce than usual. Tandoori masala lamb chops are the best-known order, alongside kid goat methi keema, minced with fenugreek leaves, and a biryani of wild muntjac deer. The Financial Times critic Nicholas Lander credited Karam Sethi with dishes that take much labor in the kitchen.

The ground floor has wood paneling in the style of an old club, while the basement lounge keeps lower lights and a DJ. Samuel Hosker redesigned the rooms during a long closure after a fire, and the 42 Cocktail Lounge opened upstairs later, mixing drinks with Indian ingredients such as Banasura peppercorns and a chutney of weaver ants. A range of Gymkhana sauces, marinades and chutneys went on sale through Whole Foods Market, and branches have opened in Riyadh and at Aria in Las Vegas.