Sweet and Spicy
Sweet and Spicy 40 Brick Lane
London
Tel - 020 72471081
Forget the 'Indian' restaurants on Brick Lane serving dodgy smushy food, with annoying greeters outside and hordes of lairy city folk inside. Go to where the real locals eat - Sweet and Spicy.
Despite being consistnely in Time Out's cheap eats, I think every time someone reads that and then decides to go, they bottle out and go to Bangla King or something because once they get to S&S, they think it looks too unhygenic/weird/full of scary Asian men. Little do they know that the people inside couldn't be nicer, you always get into some great random conversation, and its the only authentic Bangladeshi food on the Lane. Yes, it's no-frills - you queue up to get served and sit at formica - but if you are judging on the decor, you probably shouldn't be eating on Brick Lane at all.
S&S has really great chick-pea curry, real biryani where you can actually taste the spices and bite into a cardamom pod or cinnamon stick, great veggie curries all round and proper shish kebab, samosas and so on. It's the real deal, a proper Bangladeshi workers cafe, and it costs about £2.50 to fill yourself up. Take out, or eat in surrounded by posters of Pakistani boxers and Bangla pop stars. They don't sell alcohol - you might be able to bring your own, but somehow I've never wanted to because it's so much nicer to eat like everyone else there, with a glass of water from the big metal jug.
The score
Food: Authentic Bangladeshi street food and curries. The best place to immerse yourself in the real culture of the community and its eating habits. No booze sold.
Atmosphere: It's a workers caff, so if you are on a date with someone who wants to be wined and dined, keep away. But if you want to show off how local you are in the East End and, therefore, how hip you are, it's perfect.
Value: Incredibly cheap - a dish of curry is about £1.50, a biryani maybe £2.50, a samosa or shish kebab wrapped in a flatbread is around 50p.
Veggie friendliness: Very - some of the best things are the vegetable curries, which all taste different, unlike the mush served in most 'Indian' joints.
Top tips: Go late if you want to stock up on food for a week - they'll send you home with bags full of take-out everything which they can't store. See, they make their food fresh...
London
Tel - 020 72471081
Forget the 'Indian' restaurants on Brick Lane serving dodgy smushy food, with annoying greeters outside and hordes of lairy city folk inside. Go to where the real locals eat - Sweet and Spicy.
Despite being consistnely in Time Out's cheap eats, I think every time someone reads that and then decides to go, they bottle out and go to Bangla King or something because once they get to S&S, they think it looks too unhygenic/weird/full of scary Asian men. Little do they know that the people inside couldn't be nicer, you always get into some great random conversation, and its the only authentic Bangladeshi food on the Lane. Yes, it's no-frills - you queue up to get served and sit at formica - but if you are judging on the decor, you probably shouldn't be eating on Brick Lane at all.
S&S has really great chick-pea curry, real biryani where you can actually taste the spices and bite into a cardamom pod or cinnamon stick, great veggie curries all round and proper shish kebab, samosas and so on. It's the real deal, a proper Bangladeshi workers cafe, and it costs about £2.50 to fill yourself up. Take out, or eat in surrounded by posters of Pakistani boxers and Bangla pop stars. They don't sell alcohol - you might be able to bring your own, but somehow I've never wanted to because it's so much nicer to eat like everyone else there, with a glass of water from the big metal jug.
The score
Food: Authentic Bangladeshi street food and curries. The best place to immerse yourself in the real culture of the community and its eating habits. No booze sold.
Atmosphere: It's a workers caff, so if you are on a date with someone who wants to be wined and dined, keep away. But if you want to show off how local you are in the East End and, therefore, how hip you are, it's perfect.
Value: Incredibly cheap - a dish of curry is about £1.50, a biryani maybe £2.50, a samosa or shish kebab wrapped in a flatbread is around 50p.
Veggie friendliness: Very - some of the best things are the vegetable curries, which all taste different, unlike the mush served in most 'Indian' joints.
Top tips: Go late if you want to stock up on food for a week - they'll send you home with bags full of take-out everything which they can't store. See, they make their food fresh...
posted by Hana Loftus at 8:13 PM
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