Chaopraya Eat-Thai in Marylebone

Name Chaopraya Eat-Thai

Address 22 St Christophers Pl, London W1U 1 Phone 020 7439 1330
Web site http://www.eatthai.net/
Main dish price range £10-15
Rating 3 Stars. Solid pick, you won't be disappointed.
Recommended dishes Stir-fried wide rice noodles

The first Thai restaurant I went to in London, a Thai Kitchen in South Ken, was so bad that it might qualify as the worst restaurant meal I've had in my life. Thai food is supposed to be comforting, the kind of thing you do on a Sunday night when you can't think of anything else -- so a bad Thai meal is like a kick when you're down. Needless to say, I've bean wary since then.

So Chaopraya Eat-Thai was a pleasant surprise. A completely different animal from its Busaba cousin, this place recalls comfortable neighborhood Thai restaurants from back home, albeit with food one notch above.

Nestled among the "disgustingly cute" shops of St Christophers's place, the décor is basic, and despite a some seriously economical chairs, not at all modern. No matter. The young service was prompt and friendly, and the food very decent indeed. The menu recommends a lamb massaman curry which was just ok (but then I've never gone in for massaman and shouldn't have ordered it). A stir friend wide rice noodle dish was much better.

Nothing was spicy enough, but nothing in London ever is.

Pham Sushi on Whitecross Street

Name Pham Sushi
Address 155 Whitecross Street, London EC1Y 8JL
Phone 0207 251 6336
Website http://www.phamsushi.co.uk/
Price range £20 per person
Rating 3 stars
Recommended dishes Scallops new style, Crunch tuna roll

I admit that when my friend M. started raving about a sushi place that I walked by every day on my way to work, on the market street Whitecross, I was a little skeptical. How good could it be? But then I thought about my two favorite sushi restaurants in New York, Jewel Bako in the East Village and Ki Sushi in Brooklyn, a relatively unassuming place (well, they do have a waterfall inside, but the outside is stucco and clearly a former storefront or mobster social club or something else inapposite) on (yes, again) Smith Street. Jewel Bako is beautiful, but also not the place everyone flocks too. And I've been to Nobu and Nobu Next Door and that's good and all, and I admit I've never been to Yasuda where I've heard the sushi described as being "like candy." But really, what I want out of a sushi restaurant is delicious fresh fish served at the appropriate temperature (i.e., not freezing cold) in delicious combinations.

Pham Sushi definitely delivered. Not fancy at all but not quite what I think people here mean when they say "cheap and cheerful" it's a bit too brightly lit but not ridiculously so. The starters were ordered were good -- edamame (hard to mess that up), miso soup, and Japanese spring rolls, pork gyoza, and a really good salad. And the fish is great. We had scallops and three different rolls, all of which were delicious. For £20, on my way home from work, I'll be going back often, and I won't doubt M. again.

Madhu's in Southall

Madhu's

Southall station

Kerela, Bitter Melon

Name Madhu's
Address 60 South Road, Southall UB1 1SW
Phone 020 8574 1897
Web site http://www.madhusonline.com/
Main dish price range £6-9
Rating 4 Stars. Go there, it's really good.
Recommended dishes Keema Mutter (spicy minced meat), Bhindi Masala, Anything with Karela (such as Karela Chicken)

The Indian food in London is, as a rule, bad. I suppose that this is for the same reason that the vast majority of Chinese restaurants in the States are bad: they are part of a genre defined during the vast waves of immigration of the 60's and 70's, a time when the culinary expectations of the western world were rather bland, and imported cuisines would have had to adapt accordingly to survive.  The restaurants were opened as business enterprises to serve the needs of the mainstream masses, not to recreate authenticity. Also, in both cases many of the immigrants came from regions not particularly known for their food. The Chinese immigrants to the US were mostly from Fujian, and the Indians in Britain mostly from East Pakistan, which is now Bangladesh.

Chinese food in the US has taken spectacular turns for the better in recent years, as waves of more sophisticated upper middle class engineer immigrants have demanded better food and brought with them the waves of distant relatives required to open restaurants which provide it. This can be seen, to a certain extent, in the Chinese restaurants in London as well. But bland Indian food has become so much a part of the British cuisine, that any major shift would be unthinkable. A quality, authentic Indian restaurant would simply not survive in most towns around here because it would not be able to serve in good faith Chicken Tikka Masala, a dish unheard of India.

So, for decent Indian food in London, a would-be eater must retreat for curry shops the center and venture to the suburbs where curry-and-chips eaters give way to authentic South Asians. Southall is one such stop. Twice now on my way to Heathrow I've opted for the "Connect" rather than the "Express" train and hopped off at where the station signs change to Hindi for a brief walk down a street which resembles a non-existent orderly, cold India.

I must confess I've only been to one restaurant on Southall's South Road, because on my second trip there, I could not bear myself to miss out on another  meal at Madhu's, however good the alternative may be. Madhu's is a nice restaurant, with well-intentioned white-linen dining tables crammed just a little too close together. The service is truly authentic  south asian-- friendly, hospitable, and just a little incompentant. The same pretty young hosted seem equally overwhelmed by request for a table both when I had made a booking and when I had not.  The food, however, is excellent.

Madhu's is owned by a pair of brothers who immigrated to England, like many south asians, by way of East Africa. Many Indians fled the de-colonization and partition of India and the subsequent massacres for a more stable life in the British dominions of Kenya, Tanzania, and elsewhere. A few decades later, as those countries gained independence and chaos, the Indian families, retreated further, right into the heart of Britain.

Like most Indians, Madhu and his brother presumably arrived in England with their cultural identity firmly intact, but unusually they picked up a few East African notes along the way, which can be seen in the menu. There's a sprinkling of Afircan names (a "Nyamah" Choma, anyone?), but a liberal use of Afircan ingredients, particulary Kerela, also known as Bitter Melon. It's used in India, but more so in Africa, and as it turns out, it goes great in curry, where it's strong flavor holds up well to the powerful Indian spices.

Overall, I'd say this is one of the best Indian restaurants I've ever eaten in, including the many meals I've had in India itself. The quality of the ingredients is high, the flavors spot-on, and the eclectic menu breathes authenticity. The service and décor is good, but not too good to spoil the "ethnic" experience. Highly recommended.

Nyonya in Notting Hill

Name Nyonya

Address 2A Kensington Park Road, London, W11 3BU
Phone 020 7243 1800
Website http://www.nyonya.co.uk/
Main dish price range £6-9
Rating 4 Stars. Go there, it's really good.
Recommended dishes Beef Rendang, Singapore Laksa, Roti Canai

I often say that the Malaysian Pennisula is one of the last bastions of true diversity, with its Malay, Chinese, and Indian communities living cheek-by-jowl in large numbers. The people known as Nyonya's are a clear example of this: long-time Chinese residents of the Malay port of Malacca, who have integrated the regions various cuisines into an entirely delicious synthesis which has come to define Malaysian food on its own.

I spent half a year working in Kuala Lumpor, and came to love the food like little else. So its no surprise that as I headed into Notting Hill one weekend morning, I aborted my  plans for a western brunch and dived into this very promising looking restaurant.

It's owned and operated by the Yeoh family, which emigrated from Singapore, as is described on the web site linked below. The decor is modern, with minimalist table tops and severe looking chairs set within plate-glass windows overlooking the street. It's a nice space, but most truly excellent ethnic restaurants would be too focused on the food to take this much care. Perhaps we can credit the division of labor within the Yeoh family for this excellence on multiple fronts.

And the food is excellent. I ordered Beef Rendang, one of my favorite Malaysian dishes. It's a unique beef stew, originally from the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It's difficult to cook, especially for westerners, because the process is quite opposite from most of our dishes. We usually sear meat to seal in flavors before combining it with liquid to cook. Rendang begins with beef cubes simmering in liquid (usually coconut milk), which steadily boils down to leave the meat alone searing in the pan. By the time its finished with a dousing of sauce, the meet is both perfectly succulent and nicely caramelized. Since leaving Malaysia, I had never had a good Rendang... until now.

The other dishes we ordered were a Laksa, and an order of Roti Canai, were both well executed, although I feel that both were toned down significantly. The Laksa's I recall eating at lunch in Kuala Lumpor left my shirts covered in sweat and curry sauce alike, the dish at Nonya was significantly more civilized. The Roti dish a favorite of any traveller to south east asia, is a piece greasy fried bread to be dipped in a chicken curry sauce. It was good, but could have been more greasy.

But these are minor nits on the food. Nyonya is one of the two best ethnic restaurants in London I have eaten at so far, and by far the most accessible to western sensibilities. It is highly recommended.
Check out some more resources on this place at the Randomness Guide to London's page on Nyonya.

(Photos stolen from people on Flickr)