Still missing you, Kastoori: the unforgettable flavours of Tooting's best restaurant

Some famous restuarateur type has said he's about to open a new fried chicken place in Tooting.

Obviously it will be a posh fried chicken place - a la "gourmet" burger joints - and thus a bit pricey.
Much more annoying was his claim that  - until he arrives - Tooting had no "name" restaurants.

Maybe it doesn't want or need "name restaurants", whatever they are. Sounds a lot like a place where you pay extra because it has a fashionable name. Or am I wrong?

Or perhaps he's right. But Tooting DID once have several of the finest Indian vegetarian restaurants in London. And the best of all was Kastoori.

A sad sight - all that's left to remind us of
Tooting's finest  vegetarian restaurant, Kastoori.

How often we'd hit the tube to Tooting Broadway and walk up the high street to this very special vegetarian restaurant.

From the outside, Kastoori looked like any old 1970s style British-Indian restaurant. It occupied part of a big old store, the front of which had undergone some pretty hideous transformation later on, in a typical outer  London high street retail style.

Inside it also seemed bland - rows of tables with yellow covers, high backed chairs, just another rather overdone suburban Indian restaurant.

Onle when you started reading the menu did you begin to realise how different this place was.
There was some explanation of the history - how the owner's family, originally from Gujurat province I think -  had been based in East Africa, how this subtly changed their Gujurati approach to cooking. And just as you were reading this, Mr Thanki senior, the owner, would tend to come over to introduce himself and perhaps make gentle menu suggestions.

The food was very good, and truly different, even in this street of excellent south Indian establishments. The starter dahi puri "taste bombs" were in themselves a reason to visit. But then the amazing tomato and banana currys, the masala dosas, and - my personal favourite - the bean curry, all were excellent and very different from your average Indian vegetarian fare. Something about the spices they used, perhaps.

Mr Thanki was always keen to tell you about his family background. There were stories about cooking for maharajahs in India, or  about how people came from all over the world to Tooting for  a Kastoori meal. And now it has gone.

We worry about the family - Mr Thanki , I think , had diabetes. Some of his sons worked in the restaurant, there was talk of them re-opening a Kastoori somewhere nearby. But we've heard nothing since that delightful last meal.