I love curry – chiefly eating it but also talking about it, very occasionally writing about it, and sometimes cooking it. I’m lucky enough to live in the UK where we love our curry, but this is usually a type of cuisine known as BIR, or British Indian Restaurant food. It’s incredibly popular but I do enjoy hunting out the places that either do BIR exceptionally well, or eschew it and do something a little more desi – a Hindi word that can be roughly translated as “home style”.
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London
Lahore Kebab House
2-10 Umberston Street, London E1 1PY
At the mention of curry in east London, one’s mind is drawn inevitably to the restaurants of Brick Lane. I tend to eschew these establishments with their touts and their deals involving indecently expensive poppadoms as better food is easily found elsewhere, and none more easily than at Lahore Kebab House with its brightly lit frontage right on the Commercial Road a short walk away.
This is a distinctly unfussy establishment, with two large dining rooms and occasionally chaotic service catering to the whole spectrum of late evening diners. A view straight into the open kitchen greets the arriving curry-hound, who will be led to a bare table containing laminated menus. If you turn up with booze from the next-door off licence (for this is a BYO establishment) a bottle opener will usually be provided although you may have to go hunting for this. Large screen televisions relay desi tv and, more often than not, cricket.
The service is brisk and somewhat casual which is not inappropriate in the setting, and food ordered has a tendency to arrive with some haste.
LKH is rightly known for its dry lamb, which delivers a low-key yet intense spice blast with minimal masala, as befits the name. I have lost count of the number of times I have enjoyed this dish here.
I always suspect the tarka dhal served here needs more salt, but am reluctant to add any as I know it’s bad for me. The butter naan is always a delight and requires numerous serviettes (which you often have to ask for) to consume with any degree of decency.
This keema was served bone dry with little oil present and accompanied by a potato. This was an excellent keema, but I know other diners have not always been so lucky. Given the churn of this place I suspect experiences can vary, but it is a favourite and I shall never be put off from returning.
Halal Restaurant
2 St Mark Street, London E1 8DJ
This Aldgate stalwart has been around for a long time. Not quite as old as Britain’s oldest Indian restaurant Veeraswamy, it celebrated its eightieth birthday in 2019 making it surely the oldest curry house in the east end.
Largely dependent on city trade, the reopening after the first covid lockdown was not kind to them with city folk staying away from their offices. A tweet from the proprietor’s daughter went viral:
…and was followed by a review in the Times by Marina O’Loughlin and a host of other various attentions that happily carried the venerable Halal through the worst of the dreadful covid period.
Chillies Tandoori
7B-7C St George’s Circus, London SE1 6HS
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Gopal’s of Soho
12 Bateman Street, London W1D 4AH
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