NEEDOO GRILL: A "NEW" TAYYAB ON NEW ROAD

Comparisons are going to be inevitable, so we might as well get it over with. Needoo Grill was opened a little under three months ago by the former manager of New Tayyabs and sits just a few steps away from London’s busiest restaurant around the corner on New Road.

It is a relatively small operation compared with its illustrious and ever expanding neighbour. It has just eighty seats downstairs and a handful by the window near the open kitchen. However, it already seems to have gathered its own following and, on a quiet Thursday lunchtime, although my friend William and I were the only diners, there was a steady stream of punters queuing for tandoori rolls and other lunchtime take-aways.

The owner has obviously brought his fourteen years experience at Tayyabs with him and there is little on the menu that will come as a surprise to anyone who has emerged from Fieldgate Street smelling of smoke and grilled lamb. He has, however, brought in his own chef for the task of preparing the dishes, straight from Lahore’s famous Food Street in Gawal Mandi.

If you are going to make a proper comparison with Tayyabs then you have to check out the grills and so, we began with an order of Lamb Chops, Seekh Kebabs and Chicken Tikka, a sure test of any pretender. On this showing it is very clear that the chef knows exactly what he is doing. The Chiken Tikka was perfectly flavoured from the marinade and beautifully moist inside when we split them open for closer examination. The Sheekh Kebabs, it may be heretical to say, were better than my last few visits to Tayyabs, dribbling juices as we picked them up to eat and leaving a fiery trail across the tongue after the first bite. The lamb chops, if you will the gold standard, were bang up to snuff too and both of us asked for new napkins after we had spent five minutes making sure the bones were scraped clean of meat. A little intercourse, if you will, of Paneer Tikka, was perhaps one starter too much, but had a perfect char on the outside and was soft and creamy in the middle.

Main courses have always been a bit of an afterthought in the ten years or so I have been visiting Tayyabs, a shame as they can often be very good indeed. However many times I promise myself I will pay them more attention next time, the first sniff of grilling means they are forgotten in favour of the more primal desire to chew on dead animals. I suspect the same will happen when I revisit Needoo Grill because their starters are pretty close to being just as good. This will also be a shame because their main courses were smashing too.

A special of Lamb Kofta Masala, came with little balls of lamb mince and boiled eggs in a rich, deeply savoury sauce and the Dal Baigun presented aubergines which had been roasted over an open flame before being cooked with a split chick pea dal leaving a smokiness to permeate the dish. Both choices got firm nods of approval from William, particularly when he was mopping them up with superb breads in the form of a perfectly puffed up naan and a flaky paratha.

There were some deserts on offer, but there was no way we were ever going to take up the offer to try them. We had pushed our plates away from us with nearly half of what we ordered on the table, a testament to the portion size. They took it away to be wrapped up so William could have it for lunch the next day, while we finished our meal with a cup of clove rich chai.

We came out laden down with take-away bags, which makes the cost of the meal of about £12 each bordering on the silly. As I said, it is almost inevitable that Needoo Grill is going to be compared to New Tayyabs and, on that basis it does well and I can really recommend it as an alternative venue when the whole baggage of the queues and noise at Wasim’s place gets a little bit too much.

But, that is doing Needoo Grill a disservice. It is a very good place in its own right and I am sure I shall be returning for supper in New Road very soon, whatever might be going on around the corner.

WHITECHAPEL GALLERY DINING ROOM: INSTITUTIONAL

In the first photo of this post you can see HS scratching his head. This should really be the last picture as we’re still wondering how the Whitechapel Gallery Dining Room had managed to extract £32 odd quid a head (after 20% discount) from us in a little over one hour for food which even the most benign consumer would describe as inept.

I’ll admit I did have my misgivings before we visited. Like a lot of similar organisations in London the newly opened gallery on Whitechapel High Street has enlisted the services of a third party for their catering – in this case a company called Vacherin.

Of all the places I’ve tried which have followed a similar model the results have always been underwhelming verging on, well, crap. How could it be otherwise ? The more companies and consequently, bean counters, you put into the equation the less dosh there will be at the end of the chain to spend on the final product.

To be honest the menu didn’t entice us like a good menu should i.e. encourage us to over-order. It was enthusiastically priced (potatoes and crème fraiche for £4.50 anybody ?) and if there’d been a copy of it online we probably wouldn’t have visited. In the end it was a case of damage limitation which is not a good way to start a meal.

We do, very occasionally, have our expectations confounded by restaurants, but as a rule we can more or less sniff out what a place is going to be like pretty damn quickly. In this case it took about a second for HS to tear off a bit of the bread and wonder how a new place could serve something so tough and stale on their opening day.

On paper my salad of Broccoli, Boiled Egg, Dandelion and Berkswell cheese didn’t sound too shoddy but that’s where it should have remained: on paper. The Broccoli was overcooked, the Egg white undercooked and there was some unadvertised, overdressed leaves that made the whole a soggy mess.

HS’s Eel Pate had a decent taste although it had an odd, loose texture and was pretty parsimonious for £7.75. The marinated beets were limp and acidic and didn’t really marry very well with the Eel.

I think my main course of Lamb was supposed to be some sort of riff on Moroccan cuisine with a spice-encrusted rump of Lamb and a Brik containing braised Lamb Shoulder. It could have been a good dish but was let down by tough and tasteless meat and the bizarre addition of Chickpea ‘chips’ which were dry and not very nice. The latter possibly being taken from the Chef’s new book. Modern Vegetarians everywhere, let me say you’re more than welcome to them.

HS’s bunny had been wrapped around a herby stuffing which is basically all you could taste – Sage to be more exact. It sat on a non-descript blob of white bean puree in a non-descript gravy. The only thing of any merit were some baby roasted fennel which hinted at what might have been.

Similarly, Treacle Tart could have/should have been great but tasted as if it had been sitting around since J the R was plying his bloody trade in the neighbourhood, so tough was the pastry. The Treacle component was oversweet, the other bits and bobs wholly pointless. We couldn’t finish it.

I’m at a loss to explain this gaff. Although it’s a brand new opening, they have a chef who, if her CV is anything to go by, has plenty of experience. They weren’t mobbed – there was only one other table occupied. The ingredients, while not stellar, were good enough for a competent cook to produce something tasty with.

Later I looked at our bill and noticed that although we had asked for tap water there was charge of £1 for mineral water. I assume this was a cover charge and included the bread although there was no reference to it on the menu.

There was however plenty of puff relating to the chef’s aforementioned book and sentences chock full of au courant food-related buzzwords (seasonal, sustainable, local, organic, blah, blah) which would be fine if the food wasn’t so, er, blah and which tells you where the company’s focus really lies.

Maedah Grill

Throw back the little ones
And pan-fry the big ones

Ever since the loss of our (that’s how we like to think of it) beloved Angel Mangal Dos Hermanos have been scouring London for a decent Ocakbasi Restaurant. We’ve tried the rest and unfortunately they’ve not been the best. Compared to the magnificent Angel Mangal Special Mixed Grill (with quail) restaurants which have come highly recommended have failed to please. Oh yes, they’ve been pretty cheap but as we know cheap food is just that – cheap.

The latest in a long line of pretenders is the Maedah Grill which is located just before the justly famous Tayyabs. Could it be the real thing ? Not a chance. Just another in a long line of dispiriting meals I’ve had recently.

Nothing , apart from some very greasy Muska Boregi had been cooked to order. Lahmacun came from a job lot of the stuff that been sitting around too long it was tough and tasteless. No sooner had I finished the starters than my main course arrived suspiciously soon. I’m not sure what the chap at the grill was employed for as he hardly seemed to do any grilling in my short time there. The mixed grill was, unfortunately, not much better than the starters . Some lamb chops and chicken shish were ok but an Adana kebab was overcooked and the Shawarma was a pile of desiccated scraps. Not nice.

The salad component was risible. At AM one would get a large composed salad of fresh shredded vegetables, flat leaf parsley, radishes and grilled peppers all sprinkled with sumac. Simple, fresh and delicious. Here as at so many other Turkish joints it was a sad-looking melange of tomatoes, onions, cucumber and lettuce. They couldn’t even grill the tomatoes properly. A drink to console myself was out of the question as there’s a no alcohol policy.

In the past I may have stuck it out until the end and had a coffee and a dessert but these days I’m more inclined to cut my losses and ask for the bill. Which is exactly what I did. And only thirty-odd minutes after coming in. The night wasn’t a complete loss though. On my way back I ducked into StJB&W where a lovely Damson and Crème Fraiche ice cream put things in a much better light. Ice Cream. Is there nothing it can’t do ?

NEW TAYYABS

Where the nights are bright
And joy is complete

It's the start of the Party Season and there's always a quandary over what to wear. Judging by the stains all over my shirt this morning a big bib would have been advisable. Yes, I'd started my Christmas Festivities at New Tayyabs and it wasn't a pretty sight (for the other guests at least). It had been a while since my last visit to the only sub-continental restaurant I really like in London. A couple of friends who are also friends of the owner, Wasim, had arranged a meeting of twenty+ like-minded souls to join them for a meal there and what a meal it was. For those of you who haven't been to NT before (and if you haven't why not ?) the cooking is Pakistani and resolutely so - no pandering to whitey here. Flavours are robust, portions generous and prices are a bargain. Add the fact they operate a BYO policy, although drinking their lovely mango lassi is no chore, and you have the recipe for a great night out. As usual we left the ordering to our friends and they came up with something quite different compared to my previous visits.

We started with big platters of sizzling Tandoored Lamb chops and spicy
Sheekh kebabs (oh those Sheekh kebabs) accompanied by Keema Naan and an interesting milky raita with small dumplings in it. I ordered an extra naan as well which came hot and shiny with ghee. The way I like to eat these starters is by taking a little bit of lamb chop and a little bit of kebab and wrap it up in some naan with a sprinkling of chilli sauce and raitas, then pop the whole lot in my mouth. Excellent.

After a short wait, enough to catch up with old friends and drink some more wine the main courses arrived. Several waiters entered our private dining area bearing platters of Raan (Leg of Lamb marinated in a sort of yoghurt-based masala and slow cooked until meltingly tender), beef curry slow-cooked on the bone with all sorts of secret spices, big piles of roti and bowls of dhal and bitter gourd. Fantastic. For the first time in the evening silence reigned as people got down to the serious business of eating. Given how tasty the food was and the fact the cooking was greaseless it wasn't surprising that there wasn't much left for the doggy bags. And I still managed to wolf down some of those sub-continental sweets (mercifully they came in form of small petit fours, all nice and bite size).

All too soon it was over and we were cast out into the cold of the night. Stomachs full, heady with wine and beer and big smiles all around.