Susmita's

Susmita's serves Odisha cuisine, from the eastern Indian state that rarely gets a look-in on UK Indian restaurant menus dominated by Punjabi and Bangladeshi cooking. It started as a pop-up, built around the head chef's own cooking, before customer demand turned it into a permanent restaurant on Lower Bristol Road. The kitchen has grown since - the team now runs to a dozen chefs on a typical evening, all still working from that original regional focus.

The menu runs from street-food snacks like pani puri and vada pav through Odisha specialities such as jhal mudhi, baigan bharta and pitha, alongside chicken malai tikka, lamb biryani and paneer butter masala for anyone after more familiar ground. Breakfast runs weekends only, 9 to 11am, with lunch and dinner served daily - dinner until 10pm most nights. Dishes are cooked with hand-ground spices rather than pre-mixed pastes, which is part of why regulars describe the flavours as noticeably different from the average curry house.