Tayyabs — Restaurant in London

Born and bred in East London, i am as asian as they come. In my late 30's i grew up with Tayyabs and have witnessed their transition.

The OG's of East London will be able relate to this review. If you know you know, be sure to hit like on this review.

Credit is given where credit is due, Tayyabs were the first people in East London to introduce halal beef/cheese burgers. My uncle used to buy me a burger everytime we passed their restaurant after an evening at the East London Mosque. Their counter was near the window and the burgers were served through the window back in the early 90's.

Anyway, i digress, I've been to Tayyabs many times before over the years this time it was a revisit after 7 or more years. My experience was so bad and dissapointing i have had to leave a negative review.

The business still appears to be held within the Tayyabs family however the generation that has taken over now are bringing the business down fast and hard.

Service is appalling. Asian customers are second class citizens. The racism is rife, it is nothing short of racism. All English / white customers are given priority. We were not attended to and i had to get up from my seat and go to the main counter to pay for the bill.

The food is the worst Pakistani / Punjabi / Indian food i've had. I love a curry as i grew up eating it. This was no curry, there was no salt, no spice and the lack of flavour was astonishing. They were clearly catering for a particular palate, which explained the kind of customer clientele they had. This explains why Tayyabs never has south asian customers. Clearly i didn't receive the memo in time otherwise i would have avoided it.

People who have only eaten at Tayyabs i suggest you explore London. Even the curry served in a chicken and chip shop will serve you tastier curries than Tayyabs.

The mango chutney was so watery it was very tricky keeping it on the papadom. I ordered a mago lassi which never arrived and their naan bread is no naan, it appears their naan was machine made & round more like a roti than a naan bread.

The water jugs are prefilled with water, kept in the open on each table for god knows how long. What if something is dying in there and we dont even know about it?

Their water glasses are dirty, a lot of water marks indicating they have not changed their glasses in a very long time.

The 3 sauces, chilli, mint and mango chutney were left open on each and every table.

Their Lamb chops was very hard, stringy and chewy. Not the best quality meat for lamb chops.

Paid £15 for 3 peices of small Tandoori King Prawns. I love King Prawns, for it is a must have when visiting indian restaurants. I was so bitterly disappointed and so was my wife. Very chewy, not succulent and it was tastless.

Who gets the rice wrong? Tayyabs did! They use a very cheap quality brand of rice. Their regular non-asian punters will never be able to tell what they're eating and will be none the wiser. The rice was horrible far from pilau rice and the portion was so small did not justify the price tag of £4.50.

The Popadoms just made it in terms of taste however again the £1 per Poppadom is a extortionate.

The Karahi chicken tasted like marshmallows in a tasteless sauce. Far from being a Karahi.

There was absolutely nothing i liked about Tayyabs. In fact i was left feeling very angry, Tayyabs was a household name back in the day. I had a real connection to Tayyabs only to receive the kind of food and service i received when i went there with my family.

I appreciate they don't serve alcohol but they do encourage you to bring your own. They will provide you with wine glasses, helping you drink your drink whilst corkage is free.

The only reason why Tayyabs is still surviving is because they are very popular across z-list punters from the city. Reviews and advertisements in magazines and newspapers across London. Ultimately the Tayyabs word of mouth is still going strong.

No amount of reviews like mine will have any impact on Tayyabs.

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Date: 30th April 2025 Cost: £35pp

What words can be written about Tayyabs that haven’t been written before? I’ve read many of them: the potted, almost mythological origin stories of the place and subsequent rags-to-riches histories of the two generations of the Tayyab family to have run it; the slightly boastful claim of Jay Rayner to have worked out – via a visit to the restaurant kitchen – and then printed as a “scoop” the secret spice mix marinade of the lamb chops; the news articles about one such chop getting launched into orbit in order to promote someone’s novel; the family interviews accompanying award wins; and the endless collection of dubious amateur reviews available online, to which I’m about to add.

Yet the institutional glory – its online shop sells branded caps, postcards and ‘chop-o-holic’ t-shirts – of Tayyabs still must be seen to be, if not believed, at least fully appreciated. It’s huge – having incorporated so many adjoining pubs, cafes and sweetshops over the years that Theseus might have struggled with it – purple, and pure chaos. Amongst the sights (random unrelated news articles in frame with celebrity mugshots on the walls and an incredible moustache on one of the waiters), sounds (the sizzle of hot-plated dishes whizzing past one ear and the peals of Amy peer-pressuring me into drinking an individual bottle of birthday Prosecco deafening the other) and smells (Laurie was told he smelt of cigarettes when he got home, such was the smokiness of some of the food coming out), I didn’t quite know what to do with myself. So I ordered a shitload of starters for the table and just went along with it all.

There were popadoms (obviously), veggie samosas, pakora, cubes of chicken tikka bites, loins of masala fish and enough of those chops – the main reason I’d picked the restaurant in the first place – that everyone who wanted to could try one and I wouldn’t be left with regrets if they really were as nice as all those words I’d read had said they would be. They were and they weren’t. They were kind of skeletal, the sort of chops that look nice and generous but then once you’ve gnawed any meat away they’re the same shape as when you started. The flavour though, in fairness, was excellent. I was just in the middle of making mental speculations as to the spices when about forty waiters swarmed around the table with our mains, plonking them anywhere there was room with no heed whatsoever as to who ordered what: on top of unfinished starters, window sills, peoples laps, the floor.

It wasn’t quite that bad, but it was, like I say, pure chaos. We’d asked for extra dhals, bhindi and paneer too – as well as rice and naans – so after a quick initial adjustment you kind of just ate what was in front of you, because if you picked up a dish another would instantly take its place and you’d be stuck holding something instead of eating. Also I didn’t really want to share my ‘Dry Meat’ (actually the name of the dish) anyway – by far the best thing I ate all evening. The ‘dry’ was relative – like someone caught in a monsoon with an umbrella and anorak – and the meat was more lamb, more mysterious exotic spicing, but fewer osseous obstacles this time; just beautiful, almost brisket-like tenderness. Other standouts were the tarka dhal, the bhindi, the naans and, weirdly, the leftover picked-at pakora from the starters. A lot of the rest was very decent Punjabi fare, but not trek to Whitechapel-decent, and I think most of the others would say the same. I’m glad we did though, even if to just experience it off the page.

[Top tip: avoid the enterprising bottle-shop next door and its unpriced drinks if you want to spend less than you would on booze than in your averaged licensed...

My wife and daughters went in and got seated in the private booth area, this seemed like a great idea at first until a gentleman on the next table kept staring at my 2 year old as she was enjoying her Poppadom. We decided to ignore him. The tables had Glass spring water bottles rather than jugs of water. It would have made sense for the waiter to clarify whether customers want Bottled water or Jug water because after tasting that "Spring water" it tasted pretty much like the Tap water. Very disappointed to be charged £3 for that. The waiters are very unfriendly robotic South Asian Bangladeshi origin, they are methodic in how they operate and seem very rushed to process the orders, I felt we had to quickly decide on the choice of food options there is never any recommendations or advice or even asking customers "are there any allergies" or "would you like any drinks, why not try our mango lassi". This is how customer service works, you build conversations at the same time you can make an additional sale which is win win for the business. Once we placed the order we had to wait around 20-25 minutes for our starters and mains, very disappointed as customers on the tables besides us also ordered some grilled and their food came before ours despite ordering after us. Apparently they had no Puri's which is quite bizarre considering it was only 2pm on a weekday. Starters were great especially Sheek Kebabs, Lamb Chops and Chicken Shish, it's a shame they do not add Lamb Shish or Mutton Shish, for the price they charge for Mixed Grill atleast 4 Pieces of Lamb Shish should be included. Dry Meat was good with the exception of the odd Garlic bite, ruins the tastebuds. Naan Breads as expected, Chips were super beats some of the Local Perfect Fried Chicken's, good crunch, salt and a good portion. Overall Bill came to £58/59 and my wife wanted to check whether we was charged for large dry meat and bottled water but this waiter seems to have a problem with customers asking questions he muttered "what do you want to see", seriously had no idea what his problem was because the restaurant was not even busy, on top of that the waiter did not even ask whether I wanted to pay service charge he just printed the bill out when I mentioned can you take off service charge he muttered under his breath "oh you should have told me earlier it's a problem now I need to go and print it off again". Like seriously, do your job and stop moaning. Maybe ask your customers first don't expect service charge when your service is rubbish, not once did he or anyone come up and ask "is everything ok, do you need anything, is the food alright" but these same waiters keep running back and forth to caucasian customers like they are serving royalty. As I take my wife and girls here quite frequently it feels like you get better service and respect at Local PFC's. This surely has to change, the owners need to come back down to Earth and recognise the values of every...