Passage to Indea Stepney

I ate at the Passage to India at 49 Mile End Road Stepney Green this evening.  In short, I would describe this as a typical fairly run of the mill white man's curry house.  It is fully licensed, carpeted and after your meal you get the obligatory hot towel and after dinner mint.

 

As starter I had a portion of Sheek kebab.  These were sizzling hot an reasonably well spiced.  Often, particularly in some of the cheaper eateries around Stepney these can taste not exactly in their prime of youth.  I am pleased to say that these, like the rest of the food here, were fresh.  They came cooked with a few onions and peppers.

For main I had a Lamb Tika Madras with Special ?Fried Rice.  This curry was fresh enough but it had a little too much tomato for my liking and while it was quite hot there was not as much real body and interesting mixed spice flavours as I would like.  The lamb was nice and tender and reasonably fresh though again it maybe could have been a little more tasty.

 

Over all I suspect there is quite a lot of packet sauce used here but it was all fresh.  Sometimes it tastes as though powdered curry mix used is old and the stuff is passed it's sell-by date or it has been kept in damp conditions.  The rice was actually quite nice.  It was lightly spiced but really flavoursome with plenty of peas and onions in it with just enough egg.

Lastly I had a brandy coffee which was a bit disappointing. the coffee was very sweet but it did not taste much of coffee.  Cheap instant coffee I would say is the order of the day here.

 

Over all the service was just about acceptable but there was little willingness to go through the menu in detail and the person who served me either didn't understand or couldn't be bothered to read any specials part of the menu there may have been.  This is all too typical so I knock off a point for this.  the total cost was £18.50 which in my opinion is average.

 

Over all, this is a reasonably tolerable place you could take someone to eat.  It's basic and may not suit a real curry lover but you won't come out of there feeling angry and resentful either.

 

Over all score: 5/10

Leons 33 Villiers Street

I visited this eatery on Friday 11 January after doing an assessment nearby. 

 

I have to say I was somewhat underwhelmed.  This place did after all win a runners up award in the radio 4 Food Programme awards held recently. 

 

I had Chicken Nuggets to start with.  This was just pieces of grilled chicken with a few bits of vegetable.  There was only 3 small bits of chicken and
there was no batter or spicy coating so to me they were not in fact chicken nuggets.  I expected good quality chicken in a batter that is as healthy as
batter gets anyway! 

 

For main course I had a vegetable curry and Basmati rice.  This was actually quite pleasant and was sort of a cross between a thai curry and a south indian
vegetable curry.  not particularly hot but then they do have to cater for a wide variety of tastes. 

 

I then had a drink consisting of fresh ginger, lemon and mint.  this worked surprisingly well.  As I still felt a little humgry I had a home made ginger
beer and a falafel wrap. 

 

Falafel is supposed to be served in balls.  That is how I have always had it and internet reading also suggests this is how it should be served.  This stuff
was like a thick paste and the wrap was not that filling.  I would rather the falafel wrap you get from Pret A Manger. 

 

So the starter and wrap were a bit disapointing.  the total for that lot came to about £14 and, considering it came in a take away box with
plastic knife and fork, even though I ate in, I thought this was a lot to pay.  Admittedly this is not one of the main Leons restaurants where the food is actually made but even
so for me this was not award winning food.

 

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Salad +soup, Paternoster square

I visited this place on Friday on the way back from near the Old Bailey where I
was doing an assessment.  It is just around the corner from ST Pauls tube station.I found this cafe to be a real gem and somewhere I
will certainly revisit.

When I got in there I asked that question "what food do you sell" at the
counter.  at this stage I wasn't even sure of the name of the place i had
entered exactly.  The question "what food do you sell" often throws people and they just say something stupid like "everything". 
but the person who helped me just told me soup or salad so I asked her to
tell me about the soups.

They vary from day to day but on this day choices included Mexican
vegetarian and tomato and Basil as well as Bengal tomato or winter
vegetable.  I opted for a meat soup though which was a Toulouse sausage with
spicy vegetable.  I then asked about salads and the person who served me
went through the list.  I opted for a large salad bowl containing mixed
lentils and jalapeno peppers, a Thai mixed vegetable salad and a Spanish
Chorizo sausage with butter beans salad.  I then had pear juice and a
coffee.  I found this lot filling and the cost was just over £7.  Kate who
served me did a good job and I heartily recommend the place.

The soups are really thick and full of bits so they are like a stew almost.
The salads were good and fresh and there did not seem to be too many boring green salads full of tomato mixed lettuce leaves and a bit of cucumber.

 

It's nice to visit a place with good reasonably priced food and helpful staff.  There is also a youngs pub next door called the Paternoster. 

golden dragon mile end road stepney green london

This is my nearest chinese take away and I viseted most recently on Saturday
29 December. Staff there are helpful and prepared to go through the menu.
The food is probably the best in the area though that does not say too much.
They are not scared of cranking up the chili when asked. The menu is fairly
standard really but it does include a small selection of Thai dishes and it
does sell squid prepared in various sauces. My favourite option is squid in
sea salt and chili which is dry and hot and good as a starter.

Barbecue Express Wood Green

I visited this small take away and eat in place after an assessment just off Station Road not far away. This is your typical london bangladeshi owned type of place (not sure where the owners are from but it's the right part of the world). I went for Lamb curry with lentils and I asked for it hot. I got something nice and thick without too much oil that tasted quite fresh. I had a portion of lamb chops as well which were nice in the kind of indian take away lamb chop way without being anything exciting. The salad contained olives, onions, peppers, cabbage, lettuce and tomato. and a nice chilli sauce was provided for smothering.

This little lot came to £7.50 including a can of diet coke which I thought was decent value. Over all I give the place 7 out of 10.

Good points include good fresh well cooked food and not too long a wait.
Against, it was very difficult to get the staff to go through the menu. This is in part due to poor english but half these people wonder why blind people are out on their own and why we have not all been maried off. This may feature later but for now, I was once asked why I wasn't married off. I said to the guy "I'll take yours if that's OK then". It ended what was a stupid conversation anyway!!