congokid's London indian restaurant reviews


Masala Zone Marshall Street Soho 020 7287 9966 Oxford Circus	Lunch £14.00 ($25)	Located beside the now closed Marshall Street leisure centre, in whose marble lined pool I regularly swam, Masala Zone is in what used to be the main outlet of the Cranks vegetarian restaurant chain. It's been given a facelift to reflect its latest incarnation, and modern seating is laid out over two levels with small wooden tables and wicker seated wooden chairs. Painted terracotta walls are decorated with stylised flowers and animals, as well as scenes of London, picked out in white. Masala, literally spice, Zone, has been created by the owners of Chutney Mary to provide real Indian food on a budget and the menu features the latest buzz from the subcontinent, street food, as well as a range of thalis, noodle bowls, and even masala burgers. I ordered chaas (£2.40), a fat free yoghurt drink flavoured with cumin seeds and coriander leaves, special fish cake (£3.75) and a mild chicken regular thali (£6.70). The fish cake, of salmon and haddock with fresh herbs and chillies, came with leaf salad and coriander chutney and arrived smelling fresh and packed with fishy flavours. The coriander leaf chutney was cool yet tangy and a nice touch was that the leaves, three or four different lettuces with some thinly sliced tomato, were dressed lightly in oil, which is so often an oversight elsewhere. It was wonderful to the last forkful. The thali came in little steel dishes on a steel tray and as well as the mild chicken korma there were roasted aubergines, spiced potatoes, dal, rice, half a poppadum and spoonfuls of sweet pineapple chutney and yet more coriander chutney. As well as regular thalis there are grand thalis with raita, kachumber (Indian salad), chapatti and a canapé, and ayurvedic thalis. I found the poppadum slightly on the tired side, but everything else was loaded with spicy flavours which, though not uncomfortably hot, had me surreptitiously wiping my brow. By the end though I felt that I should have done with just the thali. A grand thali (priced £8.50 to £11.50) must be big enough for two for lunch. The dining room was very busy on a Thursday lunctime but emptied rapidly at around 2.20pm, and service was friendly, attentive and relaxed.
Painted Heron Cheyne Walk Chelsea 020 7351 5232 Fulham Broadway	Dinner £25 ($40)	The Painted Heron is the latest attempt at operating a restaurant at this Thames side venue which has seen others come and go in recent years, including a well-respected Thai one. This incarnation deserves to succeed not just because of the quality of the cooking but also the inventive combination of ingredients that makes the Painted Heron very different from the usual high street curry house. It even looks a world apart, with a maze of small white painted dining rooms, each minimally decorated with modern artworks, the floorspace outlined by a thick nautical-looking rope where the boards meet the skirting, while square tables laid with white linen are teamed with black leather chairs. Head chef Yogesh Datta, trained in classical Indian cuisine, changes the menu daily. We started with expensive but well put together Bloody Maries (£6), and after a shared dish of various kinds of popadums served with a selection of chutneys, we moved on to first courses of baby octopus and squid with coriander and lemon, marinated lamb cutlets and, for me, dosa pancake with crab. Main courses included whole roasted sea bass, a duck curry and for me rack of lamb, and we also ordered side dishes of mixed vegetables, mushrooms with spinach, new potatoes with mint and pilau rice. A bottle of Sandford Estate shiraz completed the meal. The food was of the highest quality and, apart from the rather unexciting and slightly limp popadums, everything was beautifully executed in particular the crab pancake. With most starters between £5 and £6, and main courses at £10-12, prices aren't prohibitive, but in spite of this and good reviews elsewhere, there were very few other customers on a Saturday evening and the staff, who provided excellent service, seemed to have little to do. Website
New Tayyab's 83-89 Fieldgate Street Whitechapel	Dinner £10 ($15)	Not far from the hubbub of Brick Lane, Tayyab's has been in business since 1974. This premises in the network of streets off the Whitechapel Road still betrays its pub origins. Serving traditional Pakistani and Punjabi food, it draws its fans from a broad range of ethnicities. The tables, which are crammed together in the large, bright dining room, cater to a multicultural stream of diners who wait patiently along the central aisle, while waiters bearing dishes push past. It's chaotic, but it works. The venue is unlicensed, so my party of five brought bottles of various Spanish and Australian red wines with us. After spicy popadoms, we ordered and shared a broad selection of dishes, including starters of chicken tikka, mutton tikka and masala fish. Main courses included karahi gosht (lamb), karahi keema, karahi chicken, karahi chicken keema, karahi dhal gosht, with side orders of karahi bindi (okra) and plain rice. The dishes were well prepared and there was evidence everywhere of fresh herbs and spices, but I found that while most packed a punch, the intensity of the chilli spicing rather overpowered my taste buds. Each dish is very reasonably priced and the total bill for five came to only about £50. The service is busy and snappy, yet friendly. One of my party had booked our table, but the Tayyab's popularity means a short wait is inevitable. Website.
Mela Shaftesbury Avenue 020 7836 8635 Leicester Square	Dinner £30 ($45)	A double office leaving-do prompted us to look for a local upmarket curry. Mela, which had been named the Evening Standard Indian Restaurant of the Year award for 2001, and was located virtually around the corner, seemed a good choice. Located on a relatively quiet stretch of Shaftesbury Avenue, away from the Chinese restaurants, the restaurant is oddly shaped inside with angles galore. The brightly painted walls (azure, dusty pink and red) are decorated with traditional spangled rugs and artefacts, while the modern wooden furniture hints at a curry with a difference. The menu, created by celebrity chef Kuldeep Singh and his team of homegrown cooks, celebrates Indian country style cuisine, and many of the dishes wouldn't be found in the typical high street curry emporium. We ordered a selection of starters, as well as main courses from the list of traditional, tandoor and tawa (traditional street cooking) dishes. A few adventurous souls tried the cocktails - the margarita was deemed a disaster, and red and white house wine made an appearance. I opted initially for Kingfisher beer, but later sampled a glass of very good French Merlot. My starter of Gurdaspuri whitebait (£3.75), marinated in crushed garlic and whole red chillies, thinly batter fried and served with a minty dip and oniony salad, was delicious and not as fiery as I'd feared. Other starters included Baingan Ka Keema Bharwa Pakora (£4.25), aubergine stuffed with spiced lamb mince blended with cheddar cheese in a gram flour batter, and Aloo Palak Ka Thepla Bhajjia (£3.25), finely shredded potatoes and spinach spiced with fennel seeds. For my main course I chose Tawe ki Bathak (£10.25) - breast of duck, pot roasted with coconut, coriander and cumin and flavoured with mint and coriander. This was very tasty and very hot, which got the sweat glands going, but not tender as advertised on the menu. Also on the menu were Murg Tikka Makhanwala (£8.95), chicken tikka cooked in creamy tomato sauce and Burra Champ Madiri (£10.95), lamb soaked overnight in rum, spiced with garlic, byadgi chillies, fenugreek leaves and mustard. Service was friendly but rather slow and confused despite there being no shortage of staff, including obviously senior members. Even though there were 11 in our boisterous, after-work party, I don't think we were over-demanding or difficult. The three or four cocktails arrived at different times and I had to wait until my companions had almost finished their coffees before mine arrived, and learn that armagnac wasn't available. But overall, I liked it and look forward to trying some of the other exotic dishes, although probably with a smaller group. Website.
Café Naz 46-48 Brick Lane E1 020 7247 0234 Aldgate East	Dinner £20 ($30)	A second visit to Café Naz a couple of years after my first revealed some changes - not least to the look of Brick Lane itself. Many of the more traditional Indian dining houses have acquired modern decor, although several retain their faded camp glitz. In the early summer evening the streets were crowded with locals and tourists seeking the flavours of the subcontinent in the East End, while most of the restaurants were buzzing and very busy, underlining the street's renown. Inside Café Naz, the brightly coloured dining room has doubled in size while further capacity has been added up a flight of stairs. The menu has grown, too, but still offers Bangladeshi specialities as well as several vegetarian dishes from South India. I bypassed the onion bajis and tried a starter of battered, deep fried fish, served with a salad garnish. The fish was well cooked but the batter wasn't remarkable. One companion had a delicious onion baji and the other a dish of tartly tamarind spiced chickpeas. I followed up with chicken in a creamy sauce with almonds from the chef's recommendations, together with pilau rice and bombay aloo, while my companions both had the meat thali, consisting of several small bowls containing rice, meat, chickpeas, vegetables, lentil dhal, yogurt and nan bread. My chicken was beautifully cooked and flavoured, although the potatoes were spicier than anticipated and I had to keep wiping perspiration off my face - I love good Indian food but sweat with embarassing ease, although the Café Naz menu indicates if dishes are mild, spicy or very hot by means of little chilli symbols. One friend tried a local beer while the other two of us, after a very ordinary but cheap glass of house red, moved onto a bottle of Australian cabernet shiraz (£12.50), which coped well with the exotic flavours. Altogether the bill for three came to just over £60. Cafe Naz is a safe bet in a street where many of its competitors employ a greeter to stand outside and hustle the punters in. I noticed from the menu that it has expanded to several other locations including some outside London, although the Brompton Road outlet seems to be no longer among them.
Blue Spice 448 Fulham Road SW6 020 7381 2588 Fulham Broadway	Dinner £20 ($30)	Formerly the East India Tandoori, which underwent a gradual transformation in recent years from traditional to trendy curry house, losing the flock wallpaper, cramped rows of tables, sticky carpet and ubiquitous Indian soundtrack, Blue Spice finally burst onto the scene with a total refit and expansion into the premises next door at Fulham Broadway. Light years from its roots, the latest incarnation is bright and clean with a wooden floor and modern decor. One thing that hasn't changed is the high quality of the food available. The menu now offers Anglo-Indian dishes as well as regional specialities, tandoori delicacies and traditional curries. Among the items I've tried over several visits are the bhaja calamari (£4.75), tasty and unusual salmon samosas (£3.75) and chunky onion bhajis, tangy tamarind lamb (£8.75), passanda chicken (£6.95) and chicken rogon josh (£5.95), bombay aloo (£3.20) and chana massala (£3.50). The ambience is lively as the place has always been popular with the locals, and service is relaxed and smooth.
Café Naz 46-48 Brick Lane E1 020 7247 0234 Aldgate East	Dinner £15 ($25)	A refreshingly modern restaurant set amongst the dozens of sticky carpeted and flocked venues in a street famed for its curry houses and recent terrorist bombing, Café Naz offers contemporary Bangladeshi cuisine. The decor behind the large glass windows is colourful and clean and the staff and service friendly and polite. Another difference is the relatively short menu, whereas further up the street one is literally overwhelmed by the sheer vastness of the choice on offer. With over 100 dishes available, you wonder if any of them can be done really well. Naz's food is fresh and piquant, sauces are tasty without being cloying, although portions can be on the small side. Special mention goes to marinated lamb chops (£7.95), murg malai (boneless marinated chicken with mild creamy fenugreek sauce - £8.95) and ayre biran (fried darne of fish served with coconut rice and salad - £10.95). I virtually survived on takeaways from this place when I lived in the area for a while in 1998/9. Recently opened is a slightly more expensive outlet on the Old Brompton Road in West London.
Café Spice 16 Prescott Street E1 020 7488 9242 Tower Gateway	Dinner £30 ($45)	The original of what is now a pair of restaurants, the other being located in Battersea, this was hailed by several reviewers as being at the cutting edge of Indian cuisine in London. The menu is certainly a rung or two above the corner curry house, with wild boar sausages (£5.25) venison (£8.50), tilapia (£9.25), tuna (£4.85) and barbary duck (£8.50) all putting in an appearance. I found even the mildest dishes to be rather high on the chilli quotient, although the quality of the ingredients and standard of cooking are evident. The acoustics meant I was an unwilling eavesdropper on the conversation a couple of tables away. Fare from the Lavender Hill branch is also delivered by Room Service. A recent order from here made a welcome change fron the usual sludge thrown together by some local sweat kitchens, although the presentation left a lot to be desired. Much of the contents of the containers ended up on my entrance hall carpet as I paid the courier.
Khans 13-15 Westbourne Grove W2 020 7727 5420 Bayswater	Dinner £15 ($24)	This large room is unusual for its skyscape painted ceiling. The menu is cheap and extensive, but the quality of the food was a disappointment. Also delivered by Room Service.
Mumtaz 4-10 Park Rd NW1 020 7723 0549 Marylebone	Dinner £20 ($30)	Cosy local venue, the Mumtaz has been serving good Indian food to its Marylebone and Paddington based clientele for years. The dining room features engraved perspex panels and traditional music, and can be rather intimate, but the service is always gracious and the food excellent.
Khyber Tandoori 56 Westbourne Grove W2 020 7727 4385 Bayswater	Dinner £25 ($40)	Relatively upmarket tandoori offering highly seasoned dishes, including chicken with gold leaf.
Chutney Mary Kings Road 020 7351 7694 Fulham Broadway	Dinner £30 ($45)	Upmarket Anglo-Indian restaurant where the menu tells you how hot each dish is by the number of chili symbols (see left) beside it. None for mild, two for very hot. I was sweating after a meal rated mild, while my macho friends asked the chef to bump theirs up to five-chili rating. Food also delivered by Room Service.
Karahi West End Lane West Hampstead 020 7794 0228 West Hampstead	Dinner £30 ($45)	Simple modern setting for some very fiery food which borrows from the subcontinent and blends this with the flavours of Africa.
Golden Orient Berwick Street Soho 020 7437 1817 Tottenham Court Road	Dinner £20 ($30)	Just the place for those late Friday, post-pub curries. Small and unpretentious and not expensive.
Gopal's Bateman Street Soho 020 7434 1621 Tottenham Court Road	Dinner £20 ($30)	Delicious traditional fare is the mainstay of this small, mid-price, otherwise ordinary Indian restaurant. A return visit (October 1999) revealed that standards have not slipped. Again the food was very tasty and a colleague commented on how good the nan bread was.
Prices are per head for two-three courses, sharing a bottle of wine or a beer or two where appropriate
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