Bengal Cuisine

Ahh, Brick Lane. If you've never walked down this street at lunch or dinner time, you are definitely missing out. We took our overseas visitor here, and we weren't disappointed. Restaurateurs hawking their restaurants follow you down the street, tempting you with their sweet offers. Each time you turn away, they come up with something more enticing. Bengal had the advantage of being quite up the street, so it catches the diner when they haven't familiarised themselves with the offerings. We walked away a few times, but in the end, they offered what we wanted.

Food

We were given the 10 menu, which had a limited choices of mix and match specialties. But first, our complimentary popadum (which we managed to wrangle out of and we had to especially ask for, as this was more than the usual deal). These were quite generous, and came with 2 chutneys, one yoghurt and one pot of vegetable. Some quite hot, others not, but all definitely fulfilling.

For entrees, we chose the Aloo Chat (£2.50) - Potato in various herbs and spices cooked with coriander and cucumber, which was quite rich and filling. The flavouring wasn't as complex, but it was satisfying enough. We also got some Lamb Samosa (£2.95) - triangles of thin bread stuffed with delicately spiced lamb, which were quite good.

For mains, we shared the Chicken Vindaloo (£5.95), Lamb Rogon (£5.95) and Chicken Bhuna (£5.95). All were spiced nicely, if somewhat Westernised in their tastes. We also accompanied our meals with Coconut Rice (£2.95) (nice), Pehswari Nan (£2.95) (less sweet than Lahore, which I find is actually better), and Garlic Nann (£2.95) (not oily, and piping hot. We also got beer (I tried the Kingfisher, which was on tap) or soft drinks (Slokky had a coke) with the deal. For £10 we were literally stuffed at the end of the meal.

Rating - 6

Atmosphere

There were quite a few large tables - looked like work mates or sports group, as well as some uni students dining. The place is nicely done up, wine glasses and white paper over the white tablecloths. Various awards and clippings hang on the wall. The dining room is small, and it soon filled up, no doubt people caught with the "special deal".

Rating - 2

Service

The guy promised us service with a smile when we came in, but they didn't so much as look at us all night. We had to call several times for service, and they seemed not very keen to explain the menu at all. We had to call them for our popodum, and I chased up my naan several times before it was finally delivered. They also charged us wrong on the bill, which they then fixed up wrong, so we gave up trying to work things out.

Rating - 1.5

C-factor

We managed to whittle the price down to £10 per head. I'm not sure what the lowest you can go to is, but I thought they were pretty generous with their food.

Rating - 1.5

Brownie Points - 11

Info

12 Brick Lane
London
E1 6RF
Phone +44 (0) 20 7377 8405
Website