Address 87 New Road, E1 1HH
Phone 020 72470648
Web site http://needoogrill.co.uk/
Main dish price range £5-15
Rating 5 Stars. Just as good as Tayyabs-- believe it.
Recommended dishes Daighi Slow Cooked Dry Meat, Needoo's Peshwari Nan, Daal Baingun
Nick and I have recently gone to Paris for a couple weekends-- what London food lover can resist it?-- and while researching where to engorge ourselves on that side of the channel, I've been spending a lot of time on the Chowhound message boards. And that's, curiously, how I learned about the Needoo Grill. On the London section of Chow, Needoo Grill is enjoying something of a glory ride, with all sorts of foodies saying that this restaurant is better than New Tayyabs-- the famed, lines-out-the-door, addictive Punjabi kebabs house. And it certainly has the credibility to make that believable: Needoo, which is around the corner in from Tayyabs' little kebab kingdom, was founded by a former Tayyabs chef. Just walking past you catch a whiff of the same sort of meaty deliciousness. (See our the blog's take on Tayyabs here.)
Meat Lovers: A peak inside the kebab counter at Needoo Grill. |
Can I eat this everyday? Daighi Slow Cooked Dry Meat. |
Needoo has a whole slew of kebabs, as well as the same, sizzling lamb chops beloved around the corner. (Here they're almost good as Tayyabs-- but a bit on the anemic side-- available 4 chops for £6). Seek Kebabs are on offer too, tender and juicy and only 90p each. Our favorite dish though is the Daighi Slow Cooked Dry Meat (£7 for small portion, £13.80 for large one). This entree, with a slightly different name, is also on the Tayyabs menu, but here it achieves the impossible, slightly besting the original version. To those unfamiliar with this curry dish, Punjabi chefs make it by first roasting spices (like chili, tumeric, garlic) and building up a thick paste in the pan. Then the meat is added in and cooked for hours, until each piece starts to break apart and the sauce becomes almost dry. At Needoo, the flavor was more powerful than at Tayyabs and the lamb was the cooked to tender, almost gooey perfection. We sat at the table for a few minutes after eating it, dazed.
I want Candy: The sweet Peshwari naan. |
Veggie heaven too? Last remaining schmear of our order of Daal Baingun. |
Snack time: The fresh veg offered before the meat arrives. |
Lone offender: Bits of our whole roast chicken, plus a yummy seek kebab. |