MAAI By Nikita - Clapham, London (Review)
Our Rating: ★★★ | ££££ (£85pp) - A double champion's debut restaurant that feels like dinner at a friend's house. Outstanding mains, unmissable desserts, and cocktails you really should not skip (How we rate restaurants).
We have been fans of Nikita Pathakji for years. We first fell for her cooking, watching her win MasterChef in 2022, and then had the absolute privilege of squeezing around a table at one of her legendary home supper clubs, the kind of evening where you arrive as strangers and leave feeling like part of the family. So when we heard she was opening her own place, we had a lot of feelings.
Mostly excitement, if we are honest. But also a small pang of something else. A restaurant means a permanent home for her food, which is wonderful, but did it also mean the end of those magical supper clubs we loved so much? We really hope not. Maybe one day, once the dust has settled, she will host another. For now, we will very happily take a table at Maai.
We should be upfront about one thing. We visited just a couple of weeks after Maai opened, and we know that reviewing a brand-new restaurant this early, especially a family venture still building its team, can be a little unfair. We simply could not wait. And honestly, the food more than held its own. The fact that the family turned the entire site around in three weeks makes it all the more impressive.
The trophies proudly on display
A little about Nikita
If you have somehow missed her, here is the short version. Nikita won MasterChef: The Professionals back in 2022, and then earlier this year (2026) was crowned Champion of Champions on Great British Menu, becoming the first chef ever to claim both titles. Her CV reads like a tour of Britain's best kitchens, with time at Bibendum under Claude Bosi, Core by Clare Smyth and Kitchen W8, plus her first head chef role at The Princess of Shoreditch.
Maai, which means "mum," is named after her mother, Rima, and it is a proper family affair. It grew directly out of those sold-out supper clubs the family hosted at home, and that same spirit runs through everything here. The food is Nikita's take on modern British dining, ingredient-led and full of the flavours of her heritage, threaded through with influences from across South East Asia, Japan and India. It sits on Clapham's pretty Abbeville Road, in the old Brook site, and from the moment you walk in, it feels warm, relaxed and genuinely personal.
The meal
Our meal was lovely. There is a tasting menu and an à la carte, and we went for the à la carte so we could pick our way around the menu.
What really makes MAAI sing, though, is that the hospitality is done family style in the truest sense. Nikita is in the kitchen, her sister Isha runs the cocktails, and mum Rima looks after the room. You feel that care the moment you sit down. It is the supper club warmth we fell for, now with a proper roof over it.
And while we are here: do not, under any circumstances, skip the cocktails. Isha, who has a background in chemical engineering, treats the drinks list like her own little laboratory, and every one we tried was crafted to perfection. We stayed on in the lounge bar after dinner and worked our way through a Buttered Popcorn Old Fashioned and a MAAI Colada, both of which were superb. The lounge is open for drinks and bar snacks on its own, too, and we suspect we will be propping it up fairly regularly.
Squid "Tako Yaki" Doughnuts and Brioche with Lime Pickle Butter
Cured Sea Bream, Kalamansi Ponzu, Green Apple
Details
Website: www.restaurantmaai.com
Instagram: @maaibynikita
Email: info@restaurantmaai.com
Address: 33 to 35 Abbeville Road, London SW4 9LA
Opening hours: Wednesday 6 pm to 10 pm | Thursday to Sunday 12 pm to 2 pm and 6 pm to 10 pm (closed Monday and Tuesday)
Booking: Via SevenRooms
Menus: à la carte, a tasting menu (£85pp), a set lunch, and a Sunday roast inspired by Nikita's Great British Menu dish
The lounge bar is open separately for cocktails and bar snacks if you just fancy a drink
The nearest stations are Clapham Common and Clapham South
What we ate
We went à la carte and shared our way across the menu. Here is what we had:
Food
Squid "Tako Yaki" Doughnut
Brioche and Lime Pickle Butter
Cured Sea Bream, Kalamansi Ponzu, Green Apple
Roasted Halibut, Malay Fish Head Curry, Okra, Aubergine
Moen's Lamb, Pea and Coconut, Dill Yoghurt
Chaat Masala New Potatoes
Dessert
Strawberry and Buttermilk Choux
Banana Pudding
Cocktails
Buttered Popcorn Old Fashioned
MAAI Colada
We opened with a handful of the smaller plates. The squid "tako yaki" doughnut is a playful little bite, and one that has followed Nikita all the way from her MasterChef days through to her supper clubs, so it felt fitting to start there. The cured sea bream with kalamansi ponzu and green apple was a bright, fresh way in before the bigger dishes arrived.
Then came the two plates that stole the night for us.
Roasted Halibut, Malay Fish Head Curry, Okra, Aubergine
Moen's Lamb, Pea and Coconut, Dill Yoghurt
Moen's Lamb, Pea and Coconut, Dill Yoghurt was absolutely outstanding. The flavour was bold, the lamb brilliantly cooked, and you get to enjoy two cuts: neat slices on top and some soft, pulled meat tucked underneath. The pea and coconut brought a gentle sweetness, and the cool dill yoghurt pulled it all together. This was one of the best things we ate all evening.
Roasted Halibut, Malay Fish Head Curry, Okra, and Aubergine is the dish that won her Great British Menu, and it absolutely earns its place. The Halibut was perfectly cooked, the curry had a proper, welcome kick, and the stuffed chilli it comes served with was a highlight in its own right, especially dunked into whatever sauce you have left. Our advice: do not leave any of that sauce behind.
Stuffed coconut and potato chilli
We rounded things off with dessert, and this is where we may have lost our heads a little.
Banana Pudding took us straight back to the Magnolia Bakery banana pudding we adored in New York City, the one we genuinely still think about, and we could have happily eaten bowl after bowl of it.
Strawberry and Buttermilk Choux was the lighter, prettier counterpart, and it disappeared just as quickly. A lovely way to finish.
Strawberry and Buttermilk Choux
Banana Pudding
Overall thoughts
We are going to be completely honest with you. We are huge fans of everything Nikita does, and after getting to know the family, pitching this as a cold, critical review would be unfair. So we will not pretend otherwise. What we can tell you is that the service is wonderful, the food is genuinely outstanding, and we think you should give Maai a chance.
For us, the mains and the desserts were where it really shone, so that is where we would point you first, and the cocktails are absolutely not to be missed. We visited very early in Maai's life, while the kitchen team is still being built out, so we are fully expecting it to keep growing into itself over the coming months. We cannot wait to go back and watch it happen.
For now, Nikita and her family are doing an incredible job.
Looking for more London recommendations? Browse all our London restaurant reviews over on our London restaurants page.
Buttered Popcorn Old Fashioned and MAAI Colada
Map
33 to 35 Abbeville Road, London SW4 9LA
