Colonel Saab

A Grade II listed public library from 1894 — Holborn Town Hall's original reading rooms — now houses one of London's more visually extraordinary Indian restaurants. Colonel Saab fills the heritage shell with museum-quality Indian art, chandeliers imported from the subcontinent, and a modern Indian menu that includes a nine-course tasting experience. The result is a venue that feels like a private collection opened to guests for the evening.

Owner Roop Partap Choudhary's parents spent decades travelling across India, and the artworks they collected now line the walls at Colonel Saab. Tanjore paintings hang in the private dining rooms. Persian silk carpets cover the floors. The chandeliers are Indian imports, not reproductions. It's a level of curation that most restaurants — even high-end ones — don't attempt.

Heritage Architecture, Indian Soul

The building's Grade II listed bones provide the structure: grand proportions, high ceilings, natural daylight filtering through the former library's windows. But the character comes from what Choudhary has layered on top. The interplay between Victorian civic architecture and subcontinental art creates something genuinely distinctive — not Indian-themed décor applied to a London space, but a building that feels like it belongs to both traditions simultaneously.

The 1920s Asprey's bar adds another layer of heritage. Original features from the building's various lives — library, town hall, and now restaurant — surface throughout the space, giving the venue a depth of story that purpose-built event spaces can't replicate.

Three Ways to Use the Space

Colonel Saab's layout offers real flexibility. The Memsaab private dining rooms handle intimate dinners and mid-size receptions with Tanjore paintings on every wall. The mezzanine overlooks the main restaurant floor, giving groups an elevated position with the room's full drama on display below. A complete venue buyout brings all spaces together for events of up to 130 seated guests, with the Asprey's bar anchoring pre-dinner drinks.

Each configuration has a different character. The Memsaab rooms feel like a private gallery dinner. The mezzanine is theatrical and social. The full buyout is a grand-scale experience where the building's architecture and the art collection together create an atmosphere that's hard to match in central London.

Modern Indian on High Holborn

Chef Sohan Bhandari's kitchen runs a menu that's modern Indian in the genuine sense — refined technique and contemporary presentation, not a watered-down version of traditional cooking designed for unfamiliar palates. The nine-course tasting menu is the flagship, but the kitchen works across formats from sharing plates to formal multi-course dinners.

Colonel Saab occupies 193-197 High Holborn, steps from Holborn station and within easy reach of Chancery Lane and Tottenham Court Road. For corporate planners in particular, the central Holborn location places the venue in the middle of London's professional heartland — close to offices in the City, Midtown, and the West End.