The Empress

We wanted to show off the local cuisine to our Canadian visitor, so another curry house was called for. The Empress have had rave review on toptable, so I was very keen to give it a try.

Food

The food is your basic English Indian. We had to order mild dishes as one of our party could not handle heat, so perhaps that is the reason why our dishes were on the sweet side. We started again with papadams so we could compare. Not as nice as Café Spice, but they had elements of heat, sweetness and sourness, so I was happy. For comparison again, my sweet lassi was really terrible, watery and bland, more like drinking water.

When the other dishes arrived though, I was not happy. The bread was very oily and the curry had big globs of oil floating on top:

• Bhindi Bhaji (£3.45) - okra was diced too finely, so you don’t get that mushiness. Otherwise, too much oil and not enough spice
• Butter Chicken (£6.95) - this wasn’t the sweet mango like concoction I had imagined, instead more brown and gravy like. At least the chicken was tender.
• Chicken Tikka Biryani (£7.95) - Cooked with pilau rice and served with a portion of vegetable curry, garnished with tomatoes, cucumber and a hint of coriander. - the best dish of the night. Fragrant with a hint of heat. And the vegetable curry was good too.
• Peshwari Nan (£2.40) - dry, with not much coconut hit
• 
  Paratha (£2.40) - again too oily

Needless to say, we didn’t hang around for desserts.

Rating - 5.5

Atmosphere

This is a very small restaurant, doing its best to try to look formal, but the décor is quite dated. We were squished in the back, which meant we had plenty of privacy, but not much elbow room.

Rating - 1.5

Service

This is by far the best service experience I have had in an Asian restaurant. The waiters were attentive and smiling, sometimes overly so, and very eager to serve.

Rating - 4

C-factor

Definitely cheaper than Café Spice, but more expensive than Brick Lane. I would probably only come back for the service.

Rating - 0.5

Brownie Points - 11.5

Info

141 Leman Street
London
E1 8EY
Phone +44 (0) 20 7265 0745
Website