Needoo Grill: A Tayyabs Alternative that Just Might Best the Original

Name Needoo Grill 
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.

Nick and I clearly walked into Needoo with sky-high expectations.  And I'm thrilled to say, we were not disappointed. Needoo, with its spunky red walls and dining room lit by a skylight, is much smaller than Tayyabs, with just 80 seats. It takes reservations, a blissful luxury for anyone who's ever stood lurking between the tables at Tayyabs, waiting for one to open up or e-mailed that restaurant to see about a table, only to never hear back. And the food at Needoo remains amazingly cheap (by London standards, anyway) and sinfully delicious.  Every greatest hit from Tayyabs are also available here, with a few, Needoo-unique gems to boot. 

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.

Another highlight of Needoo is that the vegetables and daals on offer and memorable and well thought out in their own right-- unlike the afterthought they sometimes feel like at Tayyabs. The restaurant boasts eight vegetarian entrees, which can make a nice addition to a table already loaded sky high with finger licking chops and meat-intensive curries.  A favorite of ours is the Daal Baingun (£5.20 for a small, £10 for a large), a yellow daal loaded with soft, gooey baby aubergines/eggplants. Another highlight is the transcendent Peshwari Naan  (£3 each), a pillowy, sweet naan drizzled with butter and filled with nuts, sugar, and anise seed-- a heavenly combination that really should be on more Indian menus, or better yet, just handed out on every street corner. The world would be a much happier place. 

Veggie heaven too? Last remaining schmear of our order of Daal Baingun.

And although they may be neck and neck in terms of the quality of their food, when it comes to service, you're in a whole other superior world at Needoo. I'm no Gloria Steinem, and I certainly understand that different cultures behave differently towards women, but I've always felt a bit miffed and disappointed by the dismissive way women are often treated by the Tayyabs staff. I've had several times when I've gestured for the waiter at that restaurant to come to my table and he's walked up, looked at Nick (avoiding eye contact with me all together) and said, "Sir, is there something your table will be needing?"  (Other lady friends of mine have similar grumbles.) Contrast that with my first experience at Needoo: When Nick and I debated whether we should add an order of lamb chops to the mountains of food already on our table, the waiter sensed that I was pushing for more food. (I'm always the glutton-- always.) When we ultimately passed up on the order, the waiter brought a single lamb chop over to our table anyway, and said to me with a smile, "A gift for the lady on the house!"  VIP treatment, indeed.   

Snack time: The fresh veg offered before the meat arrives. 

A few more random reflections for readers: Like Tayyabs, the restaurant is BYOB, always an obvious plus. The mix of raw veggies they give you while you wait for your food are surprisingly refreshing, and a nice way to prep and cleanse before the meat onslaught.  And although I always preach the idea of ordering off menu if it appears there are secret menu items ordered by regulars and locals, in this one case Nick and I felt disappointed. After seeing a couple big tables of South Asian customers eating whole, roast chicken, we asked for the same during one trip to Needoo and got one for just  £10.  It was good, but in a bland, unmemorable rotisserie chicken way; nothing like the spectacularly seasoned, unforgettable Needoo dishes we were used to. Our verdict was a definite pass. 

Lone offender: Bits of our whole roast chicken, plus a yummy seek kebab.

All that said, Nick and I have now pretty much stopped going to Tayyabs in favor of Needoo-- its nicer, friendlier, and-often-more-delicious cousin.  Now if only we could convince our friends, many of whom still want the original Coke to Needoo's Pepsi. We heard the hype. Now we believe it. 

Khamsa: Is London's Best Eatery an Algerian Restaurant in Brixton?

Name Khamsa

Address 140 Acre Lane, Lambeth, London SW2 5UT 
Phone 020 7733 3150
Web site http://www.khamsa.co.uk
Main dish price range £10.90-£13.90
Rating 5 Stars.  The best of its genre-- or perhaps any genre-- in London.    
Recommended dishes  Djadj bel Zitoun (Chicken and Olives Tajine) and the Walnut, Pomegranate and Cinnamon Couscous


I am going to do away with the build-up openings and go straight to the point on this one: Khamsa, a cozy, Algenian restaurant in Brixton, may flat out be the best restaurant in the city. We've been sitting on this not-well-known fact for awhile now, simply because I couldn't bear to put up a write-up until I had some proper pictures that could help convey the scope of deliciousness here. Nick and I discovered this restaurant this summer when we headed down to Brixton to see one of our favorite bands, Future Islands, play a show at one of the local music venues-- and between the food and the fantastic music that came later, the evening was simply heavenly.  We live 45 minutes away, but we've trekked back to Brixton to eat here five times since. Every time we walk out a little dazed and awestruck.

Whenever I begin telling someone about the magic that is Khamsa, the moment I say "Algerian," I get a somewhat quizzical look, so let's tackle that first. Algerian cuisine, while not as well known to many outsiders as Moroccan, shares a host of influences and staple dishes with its fellow North African, Berber-influenced cousin.  Meats are cooked in tajines, often stewed for hours over low, charcoal fires designed to preserve their rich flavor. Fluffy couscous is a staple. And many dishes are seasoned with the spices that dominate the region: cinnamon, cumin, coriander, and a shock of saffron.

The Special Chicken Tajine at Khamsa during a recent visit.

At Khamsa the result is often stunning. Here, some of the wonder of food is the chef's dedication to super fresh ingredients, often cooked-- just feet from where you're sitting-- with a loving attention to the preparation and presentation.  On a recent evening, Nick and I tucked into a special chicken tajine (£11.5), which was a masterstroke of perfectly combined flavors and warm, goopy goodness. The super-tender stewed chicken was pillowed in a mash of sweet potatoes, cooked spinach, and sultanas (British speak for  golden raisins), and then dusted with fresh almonds and ras al hanout. The last ingredient, for the uninitiated, refers to a combination of North African spices and literally translates into "top of the shop" in Arabic, meaning the best spices a seller has to offer.

Another highlight here is the couscous, perhaps the most fluffy and seasoned incarnation of the dish I've ever encountered. The excellent Walnut, Pomegranate and Cinnamon Couscous (£3) is exactly like it sounds: a sweet, feather-light dish with tiny bits of pomegranate speckled throughout like little hidden treasures. The tajines on regular rotation on Khamsa's one-page menu are also equally delicious and adventurously unique. On past visits, I've adored the Djadj bel Zitoun or Chicken and Olives Tajine (£11), which features braised chicken cooked with green olives, carrots, coriander, garlic and saffron,  topped with a sweet jolt of caramelized onions, cinnamon and orange zest. The Tajine of Spicy White Beans, Lamb Meatballs, & Merguez (£11.50), also hits all the right notes, combining spicy lamb meatballs, white beans, and tomato-doused sausage in a heavily spiced dish.

The sampling of seven salads.

Many of the amazing parts of the Khamsa experience, however, are some of the things that surround the main course.  The bulk of Khamsa's dining space is a small, one room eating area that transports you to a charming slice of North Africa.  Tables are covered entirely in large silver trays; pink and red silks and beaded pillows dot the seats lining the windows; and a large trailing plant-- brought by the owners when their restaurant opened three years ago-- stretches up from a pot in the corner, it's tendrils curling across the ceiling. (A larger area downstairs, dotted with lanterns, seems reserved for larger groups-- and one time when we visited was filled with a festive group of North African locals, a good sign for any place's ethnic credibility.) Nick and I usually begin our meal with the delectable mix of seven salads (£12), an amazingly fresh mix of seasoned, cold vegetables, served in a cheery, sunburst bowl. Fresh, seasoned carrots are a highlight, as well as an aubergine (eggplant) spread, and a cold chickpea dish topped with sausage.

One of Khamsa's divine cakes,
courtesy of www.khamsa.co.uk

And ending a meal at Khamsa is often an experience worthy of a separate five-star rating in and of itself.  The chef prides himself on his intricate, tiny cakes-- many displayed with pride in glass-domed pie trays on the small counter that separates the dining area from the chef's open kitchen. (Watching this dedicated, husband-and-wife team work is yet another Khamsa treat.) Although the cakes vary, his creations in the past have included pistachio flavored tiny macaroon style cakes; dried figs dipped in chocolate and filled with almond; and rolled pastries made with almond paste and rosewater, often adorned with tiny, decorative, icing flourishes. Pair one of those indulgent deserts with Khamsa's giant silver tea kettles of seemingly bottomless, piping hot mint tea, and you'll see why I could spend many evenings at Khamsa. When the food and the atmosphere is this good, it makes you never want to leave.

Beigel Bake: Heavenly London Bagels

Perfection! A salt beef bagel at The Beigel Bake.

Name Beigel Bake
Address 159 Brick Lane, Hackney, E1 6SB
Phone 020 77290616
Web site none
Main dish price range £1.80-5.95
Rating 5 Stars. The best restaurant in its genre in London.
Recommended dishes Salt Beef Beigel 

The recent Jewish New Year got us here at the ethnic food blog thinking about one of our favorite things-- delicious, crisp-on-the-outside, chewy-on-the-inside bagels.  London, of course, is not New York City-- there aren't little bagel places in every neighborhood offering up their own versions of everyone's favorite warm, bready treat. But for those who know where to find them, the beigels here can be fantastic-- and come packed with a little British twist.

The best place we've been to by far is The Beigel Bake, a little 24-hour, hole in the wall on Brick Lane that also happens to be London's oldest beigel shop. Sandwiched in the middle of an area now known as the heart of London's Bangladeshi community, this tiny, white-walled shop, offers up a variety of bagels (and donuts too) slathered in butter or jam or stuffed and served as sandwiches, all at stunningly low prices. When we went at 1 am on a Friday, the gruff staff behind the counter and the various drunk hipsters in from Shoreditch made the place strangely endearing in a rough-around-the-edges way too.

Art imitates bagels in Shoreditch.

Our favorite thing here by far is the heaven-sent salt beef bagel, which we can't even think about without our mouths watering.  For the uninitiated, salt beef is a form of corned beef, cured to perfection and cut thick.  The sandwich, £3.50, doubles down on the salty, strong flavor of the pastrami-like beef by adding globs of amazing, spicy British mustard to the mix, as well as gherkins (tiny pickles). Only the bread-- which captures that perfect bagel texture-- tempers the explosion of flavors this sandwich packs. (Authenticity bonus points: All the bagels here are cooked on site and boiled before they're baked.)

Less impressed with the "beigel" and lox.

Less impressive to us when we went was another classic Jewish dish, the bagel sandwich with lox  (£1.80).  Here, the salmon sandwiches are pre-made, wrapped in paper and served cold, sort of like something you'd get a Pret-a-Manger. They were small too, and skimped on the salmon, making us immediately feel that we needed a second one-- which was feasible given the price. Donuts, cheesecakes and sausage rolls rounded out the menu, but here, the "beigel" is clearly the star.  That's what everyone around us was eating, anyways.

Note that this place is great for quick stops in, late-night noshing, or picking up a bagel before strolling through the neighborhood or over to the Columbia Flower Maket: There's only one, long counter for eating-- and it's standing only. Plan on jockeying with some locals for space, warm bagels in hand.

Word of warning to the observant: Although most things on the menu here are kosher, the meat on the salt-beef bagel, which originates in Ireland, is not!   

Rasa: Unique South Indian Gem in Stoke Newington

Name Rasa N16
Address 55 Stoke Newington Church Street, London N16 OAR 
Phone 020 7249 0344
Web site http://www.rasarestaurants.com
Main dish price range £4-6
Rating 5 Stars. The best restaurant in its genre in London.
Recommended dishes Bagur Baingan, Kovakka Olathiathu 

Tonight the new stewardess of your ethnic eating blog decided to go on a little adventure: I hopped on the 73 bus and headed to Stoke Newington to try out Rasa, a tiny, pink-walled restaurant that specializes in food from the South Indian state of Kerala. Rasa is a vegetarian-only mini-chain that in recent years has grown from a single restaurant in Stoke Newington to a seven-location mini-empire, including locations as far out as Brighton and Newcastle. Being first timers, my husband and I decided to start with the original location, a cozy spot with magenta and orange silks hanging from the walls and smells of turmeric and mustard seed wafting out from the kitchen.

Can you beat these pickles?

I've always thought that creating a truly amazing vegetarian restaurant is no easy feat. As a huge fan of meats, many restaurants wow me by picking excellent, flavorful cuts, smoking them to perfection, and presenting them simply. (See: the delicious lamb chops at Tayyabs, a favorite restaurant of the blog.) Rasa, however, aims to make up make up for its lack of a meat trump card by going for bold flavors and carefully-executed dishes-- chutneys are homemade and hand sliced in the kitchen, and some foods, like the Indian wedding dish Beet Cheera Pachadi, mix up flavors in ways that won't see at your standard Brick-Lane curry house. (That dish consists of beets, yogurt, roasted coconut, mustard seeds, and curry leaves, if you're curious.)

To start off, we ordered a Nair Dosa, which is a rice and black gram flour pancake filled with a combination of potatoes, beetroot, carrots, onion and ginger. The dosa itself was the perfect consistency, and since we asked for our food spicy, had the ideal amount of kick that lingered on the tongue. The sambar that came with it was hardly an afterthought either-- once we'd finished polishing off our dosas, my husband and I kept drizzling it over the our coconut rice, savoring the unique combination of spices.

Another starter, the handmade pickle and chutney platter was also a real star. Unlike a lot of potted chutneys available in many restaurants-- full of so much sugar, some of the nuance is lost-- each one of these six-mini dishes was excellently crafted to serve as the perfect, pre-meal palette cleanser. Of particular was the lemon pickle-- cured lemons, seeded with a hint of sweet-- and also a mango chutney that balanced thinly sliced mangoes with a dusting of spice. The whole thing was a riot of color and taste combinations that we loved dipping into to explore. 

Our feast in its full glory.

After the refreshing jolt of the pickles, we were ready to move on to the main course. One of the curries we tried was a huge hit with my husband, but fell a little flat on my side of the table.  It was the Moru Kachiathu, a bright yellow curry that combines green bananas, globs of sweet mangoes, yogurt, and fresh chili and curry leaves.  With this dish, Rasa continued to prove that fresh ingredients are really this restaurants jam-- even though the days are in London are rapidly getting shorter and colder, the mango was perfectly ripe and soft, and provided an excellent counterbalance to the more pungent taste of the green bananas.  I'm not sure the sweet and sour curry is really my favorite form of Indian food, but it was so unique, it was a dish I could truly respect without wanting to order it next time.

.

Tindori: cucumbers, baby ones

Any skepticism I had though was quickly washed down when I tasted the next dish.  The Bagur Baingan (the top curry in the photo) is the best curry I've ever in London, and quite possibly the best curry I've ever had, maybe second only to some of the deliciousness at SriPraPhai-- the stunningly amazing Thai restaurant in Queens, New York.  This dish was thick and gloppy, sort of with the consistency of an oatmeal, and a mix of incredibly delicate flavors. Before cooking them over a fire, the chef rolls the aubergines that form the base of this dish in a paste made of roasted onions, coriander seeds, fresh chilies and tamarind. The warm cubes that result, still gooey on the inside, are then pillowed in a white liquid made of yogurt blended with cashew nut sauce. The end product: a masterpiece, clocking in at only.£4.

The rest of our meal had some notable additions that showed the real care that goes into everything on offer at Rasa. A side dish we had, the Kovakka Olathiathu, consisted of a vegetable we'd never seen, Tindori-- or tiny baby cucumbers-- mixed memorably with dry roasted cashews, coconuts, mustard seeds, and curry leaves.  The coconut rice was also good, and comes already blended with a bit of black daaal, a nice touch.

All in all, we were wowed by the food at Rasa and can't wait to return.  (Eating our leftovers cold the next day was surprisingly satisfying too.)  The Website of the Rasa empire-- which is also pepto-bismo hued, charmingly -- displays a prominent, unattributed quote: "Once there was a time when the whole world was enamored with the fragrance of Kerala." After one visit to this gem, I believe it. 

Arang in Soho: Best Korean yet

I'll be back for this... Hot Korean girl (Hi Viv!)

Name Arang Korean
Address 9 Golden Sq, Soho, W1F 9HZ, Phone 020 74342073
Web site arang.co.uk
Main dish price range £6-10
Rating 5 Stars. The best restaurant in its genre in London.
Recommended dishes Soondubu

When ever I tell friends I am starting an Ethnic food blog or that I'm into "Ethnic Eating" some smarty invariably asks how can I possibly call I distinguish any food as being "ethnic" when in fact all food was produced by somebody according to some ethnicity. Today, walking into Aragi, I feel I finally found an answer.

It's a Korean restaurant in Soho, one of about a handful that I've been to -- but despite the tony location in Golden Square, this place appears to cater to exclusively Koreans. There were Koreans young and old, well dressed and fantastically fobby, crammed into every table in the dining area, and spilling into the basement karaoke lounge. I could tell this would be a great ethnic restaurant, and I immediately found my definition as such: a restaurant serving the food of a particular ethinc group, with an aim to primarily serving expatriates from that ethnic group.

We arrived around 8pm after a long walk in the cool evening, and were seated in a karaoke booth down in the basement. It was a small room with a large TV, and into it had been placed a large stone table. A little weird, but no big deal. The menus had a few pages only in Korean, but most of it was translated into English as well, with a few pictures to aid the novice along. Overall, there was a far greater variety of food than what I'm used to seeing in London.

I would have loved to have sampled some new Korean dishes, but I had been craving Soondubu all day, and my companions a Bibimbap and a Chapchae respectively. The menu also listed a number of the small banchan plates, suggesting that these must be ordered and paid for (these are complementary in most Korean restaurants around the world). We ordered three, and got six, so it appears Arang is splitting the difference.

The food was, I must say, very very good. Soondubu is not a hard dish to prepare, but is very hard to get right. All one must do to prepare passable version is simply add some Korean chilli paste and tofu to boiling stock, stir and serve. But the secret to a great Soondubu is to build up a great stock -- usually from well marrowed beef bones. Tonight, it was excellent. Hats off to a great dish, and at £7.50 for the main course, it was a steal as well.

I'm definitely coming back here -- for the food, but also for the Karaoke. I envision a fine evening lies in my near future...

Ranoush Juice on Edgware Road

Name Ranoush
Address 43 Edgware Rd
Phone (020) 7723 5929
Web site http://www.maroush.com/
Main dish price range £5-10
Rating 5 Stars. The best restaurant in its genre in London.
Recommended dishes Lamb Shawarma, Hummous
Over the last few months, work has caused me to spend a good amount of time in the Middle East, where I've been cheerfully engaged in my favorite pastime: eating Shawarma. I even went so far as to make a systematic study of the Shawarmas of Tel Aviv. You could say I'm something of a Shawarma expert.
And so it is with great pleasure that I award our first five-star restaurant of this blog: Ranoush on Edgware Road. There's no one secret to a Shawarma: it's a combination of the meat, the bread, the veggies, and the sauce that all have to be exactly right, equally fresh and crispy, blended together in just the right proportions. Ranoush, a member of a large Lebanese family of restaurants which spans a few properties in the area, gets it just right.
It also has the certain authentic touches which a five-star pick requires. Its setting, nestled among sidewalk hookah joints operating happily in the - 5 degree January cold, was ideal. The format of counter service with only too few Formica tables, was spot-on. And best of all the, gracious Levantine service was pitch-perfect. When I pointed out that my order for a side of Baba Ganouj was mistaken for a request for a wrap with the same, the line cook smiled and tossed both in the bag, saying it was "on the house." He also tossed in a full bag of pita bread. And smiled at us again.
I should note that the aforementioned Baba Ganouj and also the Hummus I sampled here were excellent, and would have easily held their own against all but the very best in the Holy Land. This place effortlessly outshines all of the Shawarma joints in New York, although admittedly that may be because most of them are from the Turkish tradition (thicker pita, greasier meat), and my tastes run towards the Arab variety.
This is a place I can see myself going to again and again, and happily so. For a while now I had been wondering what a 5-star ethnic restaurant might be like. Now I know.
NOTE: This restaurant is part of the sprawling Maroush empire, which has half a dozen or so restaurants scattered around Edgware Road. I went on a following night to Beirut Express, which seems to serve the same food as Ranoush Juice, although the format is table service. I can see how some might prefer the more attentive service to that which Ranoush's countermen can provide, but to me ordering directly from the guy carving the meat off the skewer is an integral part of the experience. My 5-stars goes to Ranoush Juice, with a Beirut Express a solid 4-star follow-on.

Tayyabs in Whitechapel

Name Tayyabs
Address 83-89 Fieldgate St E1 1JUPhone 020 72476400
Web site www.tayyabs.co.uk
Main dish price range £5-15
Rating 5 Stars. The best restaurant in its genre in London.
Recommended dishes Lamb Kofte Kebabs, Meat with Bindhi
This is the best restaurant we have yet been to in London. It's is written up in literally every guidebook; which, given the competition, is not really that much of a feat -- what is startling is that despite the attention it is still turning out terrific meals.
On a Sunday night around 9pm the place was jumping, but our party of three managed to get squeezed into a table. The crowd was mostly South Asian, although the décor was the cheap-looking hip and colorful design scheme that appears to be standard issue for popular London places. The waiter called me "Boss" as he seated us and I knew I was in for a treat.
The food is Punjabi -- authentically Punjabi -- which means it’s a lot of grilled meats and fairly thick curries. It's the kind of North Indian food that most London curry shops have modified for English tastes, and it is terrifically refreshing to have in its cream- and sugar-free original. We ordered a set of kebabs (60p each!), and then moved on to a variety of curries, all of which were excellent. The "Bhindi with Meat" was particularly good. The only dish that missed the spot was a Chicken Biryani -- but I should have known better than to order that South Indian classic in a Punjabi joint.
Indeed, the food was so good that after we wolfed it down I seriously considered ordering another round for take-away to have for dinner the following night. The following day, I wish I had. After three months with no 5-star choices, now I've got two in a row! (the other being Ranoush Juice)