London Curry Houses & Exotic Meals
Brick Lane & Upper Tooting Road Indian Restaurants & Global Cuisine
Aug 15, 2007
Eating out in London doesn’t have to be expensive. It’s possible to get discounts at top restaurants and find good pub food in the English capital, but the cheapest deals are usually found by rolling the sleeves up and preparing to head into the uncharted territories of curry houses and other immigrant-run eateries. Stylish, they usually are not, but filling is a completely different matter.
London curry houses: Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi dishes
The UK has a huge Asian population, some of whom are recent immigrants from the Indian Subcontinent, but many of whom are second or third generation. As a general rule, this means that any area with a large Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi community has an excellent selection of curry houses.
Certain dishes will crop up in most of these restaurants – vindaloo, chicken madras, lamb korma, jalfrezi, dhansak, biryani and chicken tikka masala are just some names to expect. Ironically, some of them don’t even originate from the Subcontinent (vindaloo was initially a Portuguese dish, for example).
There are some upmarket curry houses, but the best ones tend to be found outside of the tourist areas, are run by members of the Asian community, and have distinctly untrendy décor.
Some areas – particularly Brick Lane in East London and Upper Tooting Road in the South West – have a high concentration of curry houses, and standards tend to be pretty high across the board. Picking which to go to can be the hard part.
If in doubt, go for the one that looks full, and has members of the local Asian community eating there. These may not necessarily be the best-looking, but they’ll usually have the best meals at astonishing value. A great example is Lahore Karahi on Upper Tooting Road. It’s very drab and simple, while the waiters have dirty-looking white shirts on. It’s nearly always full, though, and the food is superb.
The nearest tube (underground) station to Brick Lane is Aldgate East, followed by Whitechapel, Liverpool Street and Old Street.For Upper Tooting Road, get the Northern Line down to Tooting Broadway and walk a minute or two up the hill.
Exotic meals in London
Much the same theory applies to other exotic meals. For global cuisine, go to the area where there is a big community from that part of the world. Stockwell, for example, has some excellent Portuguese restaurants, while Brixton is good for Caribbean cooking and there are some fantastic Chinese establishments tucked away in Soho.
More cheap eats in London: Restaurant discounts and pub food
