I caught an episode of 'Passport to Europe' - London. The host mentioned eating at a place that looked a bit like a deli that served Indian food. You go the the refrigerated secrion and picked up what looked to be a 3 tiered bucket and the people behind the counter would heat it up for you. She said teh food was delicious and inexpensive according to London standards. I just can't remember the name of this place. Can anyone help? I am planning a trip to London this fall and I can never eat too much Indian food, but I am on a budget.

Sorry about the spelling.

Just topping because I'm interested too. Last year I went to Brick Lane and, just as I'd been told, scads of Indian eateries...but I sure didn't find anything "cheap" there...Also a very good place on Southampton Row across from Russell Sq. called the Chambali. I've eaten there many times and it VERY good, particularly the lamb vindaloo, but ouch! The Prices!

Never heard of it, sounds a bit grim to me.

You need to invest in this book:
Hardens Good Cheap Eats in London

Hardens publish THE restaurant guides to London - the most reliable reviews you'll find anywhere. This was a special edition for people lookin g for bargains without sacrificing quality.

Buy it on amazon.co.uk or harden.com

Kate
London

This sounds like tiffinbites (www.tiffinbites.com).

As the modish name implies, this is a high-concept chain, very loosely modelled on the Bombay tiffin delivery system and developed by a pair of British Asian ex-M+S MBAs.

Can't vouch for the food, since the shops are located in areas anyone who organises their life properly goes to only for meetings. But they're also areas with immense competition for decent fast food, and up against all manner of sushi vendors, soup joints, and any number of people doing properly what Pret a Manger do mediocrely, so they ought to be OK. The menus on the website are a bit humdrum though. Waitrose, BTW, has much more interesting Indian food than M+S these days.

There've been a number of threads here in the past couple of months about affordable South Asian places. The tricks are:
- to use only the Time Out Eating guide, which has by far the most knowledgeable reviewers of South Asian food
- to avoid Brick Lane at all costs, ubless you just want a raucous night out. There simply isn't a single place there which cares about its food. All of them, as far as I can tell, sell dashed-out junk to undiscriminating adolescents out only for a noisy good time.
- Eat in the suburbs (explained carefully in the Time Out guide) with a substantial, reasonably affluent, South Asian community. Brick Lane has virtually no restaurants catering to its local Asians (since most of the Bangladeshis in the area are simply too poor to eat out): places like Southall have large, thriving communities who eat out a lot and impose high standards on their suppliers.

Thanks for the info. I'll be checking out the website later.

Did you see this TV episode on the Food Channel with that hotster Rachael? It looked pretty cool but I didn't catch the name of the chain. A couple years ago Pret a Manger was all the rage now it sounds like these Indian Tupperware Palaces are the "In" thing.

gads, prepared refrigerated Indian food that is microwaved or heated while you wait sounds dreadful to me. I live in an area with a lot of Indians and many restaurants, and they have a lot of buffets on Sunday where the food is kind of out on the buffet table for you to dish up as you wish -- but even that is kept heated and not kept out too long.

INdian food is not by nature expensive, so that shouldn't be necessary (although I don't know your budget desires). I really liked Noor Jahan restaurant on Bina Gardens (S Kensington), and it was cheap compared to many restaurants and the food was outstanding. It's very popular. I imagine dinner was around 15-20 GBP. If you just want to eat as cheaply as possible, I guess that would be too much for you, though, but I see restaurant estimates all over the place about London on this board.

i don't know anything about such a deli, but can respond to some comments here.

first, about 90% of all curry houses in london charge just about the same for a meal. it will be about £8-10 for a main with rice. the exception to this general price range will be the "upscale" curry houses or a few hip/modern interpretations. but, your standard curry house will charge within this range.

i agree that brick lane is often frequented by those out to drink and have a good time, however, it is frequented mostly by londoners who know decent curry. die hard curry afficianados will avoid brick lane for the far reaches of Southall and the like but keep in mind that most real londoners view a curry like an american would view a burger or hot-dog - just an everyday meal that he won't travel to the ends of the earth for. if you are in central london and fancy a curry, brick lane is not a bad choice for food and atmosphere. sure, you can plan a night around your curry and go out to southall but this is simply not realistic for many visitors or locals.

brick lane is not indian, it is bangladeshi. tower hamlets, where brick lane is located, is the heart of london's muslim bangladeshi community. prices here are about the same as all london curry houses.

I've had some very cheap and very good Indian and Bangladeshi food in Brick Lane but that was a few years ago.

I'm not exactly an Indian food expert, but I was extremely ashamed when I visited Brick Lane last year and didn't like what I had. A taxi driver said I should have eaten tourist Indian fare, and I was then doubly ashamed to find out he was right. I'm just sharing this because, although you may have a very open palate (as I do), you may end up disliking this dish. But good luck!

MelissaHI, what dish did you get that you disliked?

Checking recent threads, we didn't actually do too well on the cheap front. So:

- Overwhelmingly the cheapest Indian food in London is the all you can eat for £3.50, all day (though it might go up to £4 at night), deal at the Indian Vegetarian Bhel Puri house in Chapel Street Market, N1, near Angel tube and very handy for Camden Passage market. It's the one in green at the western end of the street, and there are a couple of other competitors, like the Char Minar around: they mostly charge an extra quid or so. There's also a recent £5 a head deal at the Tai Veg in Islington High St, right opposite the exit from the Angel tube
The main Chapel Market place is a bit earnest and quirky in the propaganda for veganism around the place, but it illustrates its case with lots of pictures of recent Miss Indias, Miss Philippines etc who are allegedly vegan or at least vegetarian. They're a distinct improvement on many of the fellow-diners, mostly still in a time warp from the days when Islington Socialist meant sandals, halitosis and beards (and that was just the sisterhood), rather than deals from Tony's chums for process outsourcing. However it has a very interesting drinks list, proving it's possible to get organic, ecologically sound etc but still highly quaffable (and potent) beer and cider, though the drinks absolutely aren't at give-away prices (jugs of tapwater are free). The food is better than you'd expect from its insane pricing.
- there's also a ridiculously cheap place in the row of shops opposite Victoria station, in the street with the Circle line exit. It's virtually in the bus station, and feels like the places you find in many Asian bus stations.
- At the other extreme, Chowki in Denman Street behind Piccadilly, does a different set menu each week from a different region of India at around £9. It's great value (even I struggle to eat it all), excellent quality and an almost unique introduction to lots of cuisines you're hard put to find even in Bombay or Delhi.
- Rasa Express in Charlotte St does great Keralan food, and is fully priced. Its pink back door in Rathbone Place does lunch boxes from around £3 and has a couple of tiny tables.
- If you're in a flat, the South Asian food in the chilled sections of Waitrose, M+S, Tesco and Sainsbury is getting better all the time. There's also some good South Asian food in the serve-over deli sections of Waitrose, though offhand I can't think of many branches of the others in central London that have this. Central London Safeways, OTOH, were due to be converted to Morrison's, but that's all getting messed about, and some are turning into Somerfields. Whatever: they all do pretty lousy South Asian food that just isn't up to the standards of the market leaders.
- Along and off Edgware Road, it's worth browsing round the Arab-oriented delis and the little restaurants that have all their food on the counter, for eating on the spot or taking away. Many of their stews and rice dishes are a lot more what you'd expect to find in Pakistan than in Lebanon.

GREAT info, flanneruk!

Regards,
Andre

Will, I went to Cafe Naz and had a lamb curry-type dish (I love lamb) and naan bread, and *I think* a veg dish. I guess it didn't help that there was a hair in my mango lassi!