I’ve tried to write this post twice already. And WordPress has crashed on me countless times while trying to upload pictures and yet I never got the message to save my draft first! After putting this off for a week I’m writing this in Word 2008 so hopefully I won’t lose it this time!
So I went down to the Spitalfields area last Saturday to meet up with a few of my fellow college ex-coursemates, where Laurence is living in a nice flat ridiculously close to the action as it were, the intention being to head to Brick Lane for a curry. After he looked on his iPhone for suitable reviews (and discounting any that looked too cheap, which apparently excluded any bring-your-own-boozes) to a bit of eye-rolling, he pulled out a couple of names, The Monsoon being one of them. I can’t remember the other ones. They were probably on an equal par.
Reaching the street we were accosted by one restaurant tout; after fending off that enthusiastic attack a right turn took us directly in front of The Monsoon where we were offered some kind of deal for the five of us. I can’t quite remember what it was, I wasn’t listening – something like one free drink for each person and 30% off the total bill. Being hungry (Sarah took ages to finish off her pre-dinner glass of wine!) and not particularly wanting to browse the rest of Brick Lane with absolutely no idea of what we were looking for – we went in. Décor is OK, pretty dark and cluttered inside. There is an upstairs where some rowdy party was (a bottle of wine came crashing down the stairs at one point!) but no idea of what it was like. Toilets were adequate, no complaints. Service was fast.
Poppadums and sambals were generally good. I’m not a big fan of mango chutney in any case, but it was more like jam; raita was made with coriander, rather than mint, but not too overpoweringly obvious; pickled chillies were excellent to a non-connoisseur like me, and the onion was definitely freshly chopped. Ate a bit too much poppadum as usual!
Starters for us included onion bhaji, cauliflower pakora, chicken tikka (I think this was basically a big bit of chicken! Looked huge for a starter). My pakora was a bit disappointing: bland and batter was a bit soggy. Cauliflower inside was very crunchy; I don’t know if this is how it’s supposed to be or not. Sarah’s bhaji was lovely though, a good bite to the texture and well spiced. I didn’t hear any complaints about the rest of the starters.
Main for me was some kind of vaguely-described ‘Chicken Azran’ or something like that. In retrospect I don’t know why I went for something with ‘special sauce’ in the description. It wasn’t as hot I thought it was going to be, but then ‘fairly hot’ is difficult to gauge in this country. Are they toning it down for Westerners, or are they over-compensating in the authenticity stakes by going one further with the chillies? I usually get the extra hot sauce at Nando’s (the one for those with ‘reckless bravado’, which is in fact no hotter than the sauce a step down). This had a nice heat, but I expected some kind of cooling yoghurt from the description, so everything must have been mixed in together. Chicken was a bit dry but it tasted good. Pilau rice was OK, not spectacular, peshwari naan looked OK, but I was too full to eat any!
I can’t remember what the other mains we ordered were – Laurence had chicken tikka I think, which came in a thick, uniform orange sauce. I personally wouldn’t have been impressed by appearance but I think it tasted nice. Everything came on heated dishes and the plates were warm as well, so presumably they’ve taken something from one review I read which complained about cold food.
Altogether the meal for 5 including poppadums, one starter and main each, and two alcoholic drinks each came to about £73 including the discounts but not service charge. I enjoyed my meal, but next time I visit Brick Lane I’ll try somewhere else, or go to the superior-tasting and less formal Balti Hut in Wembley. Without the deal I don’t think it would have been worth it. 6/10
