The Famous Curry Bazaar — Restaurant in London

TL;DR: very mediocre Indian food for a premium price in an unpleasant atmosphere

I had quite high expectations for the Indian food in London. Unfortunately, this turned out to be one of the biggest disappointments of my journey.

It started with the Indian restaurant owners in brick lane chasing you down the street to make special offers of 20% with free drinks. I find it annoying and therefore decided to go to one of the few restaurants where the waiter at least stayed on their side of the street (and after taking a detour to explore the neighbourhood further).

Once we got in, it almost felt like they wanted to chain us to our chairs. Especially when they started laying their table cloths on our laps. I don’t mind the action per se, but the urgency with which it was done made it clear that there was little difference between this restaurant and those with the chasing waiters. They also immediately wanted to sell us something before we had a chance to take a look at the menu, obliterating my hope for a calm dinner experience.

When we were ready to order we were the only occupied table in a room with three to four waiters, but it took quite some time before someone noticed that we were ready to order. At least we got to enjoy some tranquillity at this point. Eventually, we managed to order some food and “recover” from the hectic arrival.

That is, until a group of youths came by that were lured in with loud promises of 20% discount and free drinks. This completely disturbed my inner peace because this meant that this restaurant was really no different than the others and our determination to come here practically meant that we would pay a 25% premium (not taking into account any free drinks). I am aware that fairness is not something that can be claimed, but it did emphasise that I made a wrong decision by entering this restaurant and it significantly disturbed the experience for me.

When our starters (somosa and paneer tiki) were served, we got some additional sauce (on top of the ketchup that was already on both plates) without any explanation. Not sure if this was supposed to help counter the dryness of the paneer (which had a rather bland taste), the fat of the somosa or just as a dressing for the (dirty) salat that was served with both starters. The somosa were not too bad, but the paneer was just not very tasty (not even with sauces).

Our main dishes (butter chicken and tandoori lamb chops masala karahi) were okay. However, there was more bone than meat on the lamb chops and the butter chicken was a little too sweet for my liking. I did like the sauce of my chops and the fact that the chicken was not entirely dry. We also ordered some garlic and cheese naan, but they were a little thick for my liking. Furthermore, the cheese naan felt like a failed attempt at pizza and the garlic naan did not really taste of garlic.

At the end of our dinner some guy with a loud car stopped in front of the door and pulled out a snake from the trunk. This drew all (but one) of the waiters out on the street. After the snake disappeared in the trunk of the car again, we wanted to pay because the rain had lessened, but none of the waiters payed attention. It took us a few minutes to get one of the waiters to present us a bill and another few to actually pay.

Finally, I also visited the restrooms before we went. I was just shocked how filthy it was. If you think brick lane is filthy at points, you haven’t visited these restrooms yet… There is this saying that you have to visit the restrooms to see how clean the kitchen is. Funnily enough, the kitchen is directly next to these restrooms and because the door was not closed, this saying is not as hypothetical as one might hope.

Sorry for my rant, but I had to let...

Worst food ever. They dont know the dishes and how they should taste like. For example we ordered Chicken Tikka masala and they gave us that Red colour dish which you can see in the picture. It is full of Artificial colour which is unhealthy to any human body and also very sweet in taste. When confronted them that chicken tikka masala will never be sweet. They argued with us for a long time and agreed that it was their mistake. Later they sent us the original chicken tikka masala which you can see in the last picture. Also we ordered an appetiser named chicken tikka. But they gave a huge chicken leg piece which you can see in the second picture. They never know what is the name of the dish. They simply bring whatever dish is available and name it as the dish which we ordered. Never go to this place at all. This place and also the whole street looks super shady. Especially indians dont go. We know the authentic taste of our indian cuisine. So with experience i could say they totally failed to deliver.. its an bangladesh restaurant but still. Everything was worst. Not recommended at all. A total bald guy waiter tries to make a fool out you. Tries to oversmart but failed many times. At the end they have added an extra dish in the bill which we never ordered. Gave us an extra 8£ on the bill. When claimed they were sorry about it and then changed. They exploit and think not everyone would read out the bill but yeah always look out to your bill. And ask them to remove the extra 15% service charge which they dont deserve . Avoid that street and that restaurant. Also they dalse claim that they are the best restaurant in the town by wrong hoardings. As soon as there was a police raid on that day , they removed that board from outside the restaurant and tried to hid it from police but still they ended up caught. They have penalised them for that. This explains how worst is their credibility....

There was a lot that went wrong here. In short: We got lured in with free beer, got told later it is on the condition everyone orders a main course. Beer was way overpriced. Service was terrible, waiters very pushy. Toilets very dirty.

Long story: There was someone waiting in front of the restaurant, who started a conversation with us, promising free beer inside the restaurant. As we already ate before, we thought we could go in for a small snack. After entering, we were guided to a table and the beer was brought to the table almost immediately. We could here it was canned beer they put in our glasses. After discussing the menu and almost all of us ordering at least an appetizer, we had to wait quite a long time for the food to be prepared. At any given time there were three to four waiters just standing around (We were the only four people in the entire restaurant). Those waiters were very pushy, always picking up the almost empty glasses or plates, wanting us to order more, but we kept refusing. After all, the service was not very good, one of them even touched our food with bare hands, and we paid roughly 68 pounds for 1 main course, 1 appetizer and 4 beers. The food was okay, but not at all worth the high prices. And 6.90 for a canned beer 0,4l is just unacceptable. A quick journey to the toilets in the basement was also not very pleasant, they were very dirty, and didn’t look well taken care of. They just lie to lure you into...