Zanes 588 Mile End Road, London E3 4PH

Zanes used to be the Mile Stone which used to be a pub. No alcohol there now however. It’s one of the many halal restaurants in the area.

This restaurant sells a typical range of curries, starters and other Bangladeshi/Indian food but it also sells steaks as well along with a range of desserts. One person who worked there, the owner I believe, spoke great English and he was knowledgeable and helpful. His colleague, however who served me first, seemed to speak virtually no English. He seemed unable to read the menu and it took a lot of coaxing to get details of the food available out of him. Normally I would have turned straight around and left. I am blind and I cannot read their menu and I do have a problem with staff who choose to live and work in a restaurant when they can’t even speak enough of the language to read a menu. As it was I did not ask the price, but more of this later. A friend told me this restaurant looked nice so rather than just walking out I bit my tongue and persevered.

This meal formed the only food intake of the day so I was out for a big feed! I was curious about what the steak would be like so I ordered this first. It came with nicely cooked new potatoes in their skins. They were sold to me as roast potatoes but never mind, they were nice. The steak came with peppers, onions, pieces of cauliflower and a few carrots. So, the accompaniments were fine. The steak was another matter. It was tough and maybe slightly over cooked. Certainly it was rather dry. I am told that Halal meat tends to have all blood drained from it but surely, steak needs some blood. I’m no expert so can’t say if this was the problem but whatever the problem the steak was a disgrace. They could have at least tenderised it.

I still decided to go with some more typical food however to see how it was prepared. I had a portion of sheek kebabs, that’s the mince kebabs in a sausage shape. The kebabs were juicy and fresh. The samosas were well filled and pleasantly spiced and generally much better than the steak.

I then went for dessert. I chose the Halva and what was supposed to be a Crème Brulé. The Crème Brullé was nice though it was in fact a Crème Caramel rather than the Crème Brullé which is thick custard type stuff under a hard caramel lid in a bowl. Crème Caramel is a bit like a caramelised egg custard. The Halva contained chocolate and was nice and gloopy. I do not know what Halva should be like so I can’t comment on authenticity. For drinks I had 2 glasses of lemonade which just came from a plastic bottle.

My bill came to £31.00. With the exception of the steak, the food was very good. The owner spoke good English and was helpful. However the steak was dreadful, the Crème Brullé was not as it should have been and the other staff were not knowledgeable and service didn’t seem to be part of their culture. I therefore give this restaurant 4.5 out of 10. The food does show some good potential however. The quality of some of the food does make me want to go back but this will be either with a sighted person who can read the menu or if not, I will only eat if I can get the help of a staff member who speaks good enough English to go through the menu with me.