The New Tayyab: an Indian meal extraodinaire

by Pim under Uncategorized with 6 Comments

Friday, April 23, 2004

whatsleft

I dragged my ragged self and three colleagues to the Tayyab for dinner on our way back from Ipswich Wednesday night. The New Tayyab is my favorite Indian restaurant in the whole universe, minus India, to which I’ve never been.

The restaurant is this little but wildly popular place out in Whitechapel, a somewhat rough but extremely interesting neighbourhood in London’s East End.

Whitechapel, according to my friends, is something of a touch-down area for newly arrived immigrants. It started out being a Jewish neighbourhood, then the jews got richer and moved out the a better area. Then it was for a while an Indian neighbourhood, same eventual development, and the area became Pakistani. Currently it’s something of a Bangladeshi area, but is rapidly evolving to welcome new nationalities of immigrants. The area also sports one of the oldest synagogues and the oldest mosque in London. How fascinating!

Our usual waiter, Ali, got us the nice table at the far end of the patio, and helped me navigated the menu as I was without my Tony and Fahro that night. I am always treated so well here even though I don’t make it out there nearly as often as I’d like. Well, actually, considering I, in fact, live in San Francisco and not London, I do go there quite often!

The Tayyab is famous for their Tandoori meats. We had two portions of lamb chops (4 chops each), one of which was entirely mine. Also some chicken, dry meat curry, lamb korma (lamb curry), keeman naan (naan bread stuffed in spiced meat), plain naan, shammi kebab (fried chickpea patties), baby pumpkin curry, and baby aubergine and chickpea curry.

Everything was great, especially the light-as-air shammi kebab and dry curry. The lightly spiced (for the Tayyab that is) baby pumpkin curry and the superb breads, as always, were my respite from the sinus-clearing spice in the other dishes.

The best thing about the Tayyab, besides the fantastic food, is the value. Wasim, the chef/owner, owns the small building that houses the restaurant, so he is able to offer his extraordinary faire at unbelievably cheap price. My colleagues were amazed at the bill, 40 pounds for the four of us—and we didn’t just eat, we gorged ourselves silly!

We stopped for a pint each at the Samaritan before crawling back to the West End for a well deserved rest. A whole day in back-to-back meetings with nary a time for lunch would kill anyone, not to mention the trek out to Ipswich at daybreak. I’m glad I had the Tayyab to cheer me up again.

P.S. You may be wondering what’s up with half eaten food in the photo. My sincere apology. I was famished when the food arrived, and couldn’t spare a moment with the camera before I assuaged my enormous hunger.

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  • mrbbc

    I wandered over from Shiokadlish by Renee…
    inspired by your Tabbyas review I trekked over there today for lunch. Was pretty good value and I liekd the atmosphere.
    Thai food aroi mak mak!

  • susan

    Hi Pim–this is my first post, so I’ll introduce myself. (I’ve read several of your postings–hilarious and v. informative. I recently tried L’Entredgeu for the first time based on your review and it was fabulous!) I am an amateur foodie, but getting more experienced as I spend more time in Europe. I currently live in Paris, was just in London for 2.5 years and will be returning to the Bay Area come Dec. My only comment to this story is that I found the pix of the half-eaten food UNBELIEVEABLE…given how you’ve described your appetite in previous postings! You must not have been famished! :)

  • http://chezpim.typepad.com Pim

    Oh but Susan, that stuff was not so much half eaten as half-way eaten, actually. It wasn’t until then that I felt well enough to stop for a minute to take the photos. I assure you, there was nothing left on those plates after we were done, even the bones were picked completely clean.
    cheers,
    Pim

  • http://www.andyhayler.com Andy Hayler

    The Tayyab is OK but you can do so much better in London than this. The trouble is that most of the good Indian places are located in Asian areas well outside central London, such as Wembley and Southall. When you are next in London try the Brilliant and Madhu’s in Southall, Haandi in Knightsbridge (and also Edgeware) and the south Indian snack at Diwahna Bhel Poori in Euston, and kastoori in Tooting. Also the Gujerati food at Sabras in Willesden. Details of these are on
    http://www.andyhayler.com

  • http://profile.typekey.com/chitsandrt/ Rajesh Shah

    Hi Pim. Love the site. I have to agree that for Indian/Pakistani food you need to go to the asian areas in london. Ones that stand out are five hot chillies in sudbury (although not for decor but for chicken keema, jeera chicken, sheekh kebabs, corn on cob karahi etc….) and regency club in queensbury (it sounds barbarious but try the mixed grill special). Amazing tasty food.
    http://chitsandrt.typepad.com

  • http://www.alexgreen-illustration.co.uk Alex Green

    The Tayyab does great food, especially stewed meat dishes and grills. Although it does vegetarian food, this is not it’s forte. Another important point is this is Not Indian food, but Pakistani and has a different feel. Forget Brick lane for a curry this is off the beaten track and they don’t need to put a waiter outside the door to drag people in, because they have a reputation. Try a weekday evening because Friday, Saturday or Sunday you will be waiting. The restaurant was recently refurbished, but somehow they managed not to hike the prices up and so the prices are still very good. Enjoy!!!