Is Tooting the new Brick Lane? (For Indian food)
 

Lonely Planet says that Brick Lane is no longer the "cool" place to get Indian food. Instead, you should go to the Tooting area, near the Tooting Broadway and Tooting Bec tube stops.

Has anyone tried the food there? Is it worth the trip? Are the prices relatively low? What's the general area like?

I had never given this area a thought, but I did notice recently that at least one anti-terrorist raid was conducted in this neighborhood.

This is in London, of course.

It's an ordinary workaday suburb in South London, indistinguishable from a hundred other neighbourhoods that are also quite a trek out from the centre. I have no idea what the Indian restaurants are like there as opposed to any other High Street or Broadway in any other suburb with a solid local population base with sub-continent connections: but I do recall that Lonely Planet has managed to get itself on a lot of front pages as each year's new edition alternates the emphasis between 'London: The Armpit of the Universe' and 'London: The Most Amazing Place Ever'. The truth is, as ever, likely to be much more mundane.

Mercifully, there's no new Brick Lane, which has never been cool, and virtually never served anything other than cheap (or sometimes overpriced) crap for tourists and about-to-be drunk hordes of young Londoners out for a raucous good time. One of the reasons it's always been so awful is that its local Bengali population are exceptionally poor and do next to no eating out. The area around Spitalfields has been the first rung on the ladder for immigrants for nigh on three centuries.

Now most of London's immigrants from South Asia have moved on to all parts of the city as they've got better off. The area round Tooting is as mixed socially and racially as practically anywhere inside the M25, and has both a general local population with discriminating standards in their neighbourhood restaurants, and a large number of Sri Lankans, Keralans and Gujaratis who want decent home cooking.

In that, the area is similar to Southall or Wembley, though it doesn't have the vibrant South Asian street life and temples that Southall has. But like Wembley, it's worth the trip for specific decent places. In Brick Lane, they're all junk: in the middle-class outer bits of inner London, some are junk, some are OK and some are seriously fine.

Currently recommended places round Tooting - all with menus that are a far cry from the dayglo-dyed dhansaks and tikkas you get in Brick Lane - include the Banana Leaf (a Sri Lankan v cheapo) and the Radha Krishna Bhavan (Keralan, but Hindu rather than Christian, so v. strong on veggie stuff and therefore pretty cheap)

You need a decent, literate guide book for this, and Time Out is really the ONLY restaurant guide to London that is reliable on the rapidly-changing South Asian food.

Thanks PatrickLondon and flanneruk. Fortunately, I do have a Time Out London, and I'll rely on that more than the Lonely Planet. Veggie and cheap sounds very appealing.

I've been working in Tooting for a couple of days a week for the last 6 months.

It does have a large Asian community, I really notice the difference between my home area of North Finchley and Tooting. The Tooting area is definitely a mixed area but does have a high percentage of people of Indian Subcontintental origin as well as reasonable numbers of people of Caribbean and African descent.

I love the area as it has a warm and friendly vibe.

There are quite a few Indian restaurants in the area - many of which are pretty good in my opinion.

I also love the fruit and vegetable stores - so much more variety than even the most adventurous supermarkets and any stores up my way.

Recently I've been gorging on Honey mangoes from pakistan which are sooo sweet and so heavily perfumed with such a magical taste that I almost cry when I eat each one. Their season is coming to a close now, sadly.

Unfortunately, there isn't anything of note to see in the Tooting area and it's a wee bit of a hike out of London just for some good Indian good - you should be able to find some good recommendations nearer to where you're staying.

Where would that be, btw?

Kavey

I adore Indian cuisine, and never ever go to either of those places. As far as I'm concerned, both are dumps, with perhaps Tooting being less dumpy than Brick Lane.

The mass Indian restaurants serve a generic menu of indistinguishable dishes. Go to one of the ones recommended in books/here/etc. Indian food should be subtly flavoured with care, and thought, not some super heated slop.

We're staying at Holiday Inn Bloomsbury. This isn't quite so convenient a location as it was unless the Piccadilly tube line comes back before we arrive Aug. 24.

I've already gleaned the recommendation of the Bhelpuri House at 92 Chapel Market (Angel tube). We need cheap veggie options, because my daughter is vegetarian.

I eat lots of Indian food here, but most is Punjabi. So recommendations for cuisine from other areas is particularly welcome (although I'd be happy to hear of good Punjabi options also).

Mkingdom, I suspect the reasons you don't go to Tooting for Indian food have nothing to do with the food itself and everything to do with the surroundings not being beautiful enough for you, the people you'd have to mix with not being classy enough for you and generally downright snobbiness.

Whilst there are generic "curry house" style restaurants in Tooting, as there are in most suburbs of London, there are also some pretty good restaurants offering excellent prices.

And before you tell me I would'nt know good Indian food if I tasted it, perhaps now might be a good time to mention that I'm Indian and have grown up eating a very wide range of Indian food all my life.

WillTravel, if you're staying in Bloomsbury, I'd say that Tooting really is a bit too far to bother with for Indian food.

I'll ask around and see if I can get any recommendations in that area for you, but I tend to either go to mum's, eat at an Indian local to me (I'm in N12, equally inconvenient for Bloomsbury) or, occasionally cook it myself.

If you're interested in cooking btw, our family recipes are here: www.mamtaskitchen.com - a site my mum started so that my sister and I would have access to our family recipes and which grew and grew and grew. My husband and I put it together and maintain it and mum does all the content. It's a fun hobby and a great learning tool!

Kavey, thanks for the site. I'm not so much of a cook right now as I should be, but the site is inspiring.

GRRR! <i>would'nt = wouldn't</i>. I type faster than I think - yes my brain is THAT slow! LOL

Kavey's mum's chicken tikka masala rocks!

WillTravel,

As you're staying in Bloomsbury but at the risk of being slammed &quot;crap tourist&quot; by flanner_uk or something worse by mk_2, I'd recommend three places on nearby Drummond Street which we've visited regularly in the past few years and satisfy the cheap, good, &amp; veggie criteria:

Diwana Bhel Poori House
Ravi Shankar (The wait staff here is terminally grumpy)
Chutneys

If Kavey says any or all are not worth a visit, her opinion trumps mine without consideration. I've bookmarked her family website and am now off to investigate the culinary delights. Thanks Kavey!

Goodness, Tony, I didn't even know you still posted here! Nice to see you!

Obx, I can't say I've tried any of them though I have read many good reviews of Chutneys, which is vegetarian isn't it or am I mixing it up?

Unfortunately, I don't eat out at Indian restaurants hugely often and seldom in central London. I have eaten at a few places in Tooting, can't recall the names, as I have been working there so on a Friday might graba takeaway for lunch or on some evenings go for an evening meal with colleagues. But other than that, can't really make many recommendations.

Did go to a posh Indian in central London for a friend's hen gathering a couple of years back which was certainly tasty but outrageously priced, I felt. Can't remember the name of that one either!

PS You're welcome re my mum's site. I hope you enjoy it. We gain huge pleasure from hearing about peoples' successes with our recipes so do let us know on the forum how you get on.

PS for the moderators - it's not a commercial site - hence I think it's OK to mention it here. We have google ads which pay for the hosting costs - visitor numbers became too high for us to continue hosting it from home - but we don't make any profit from the site.

A big seconding of Drumond St! (It's by Euston Station). The food is tasty - largely vegetarian and it's handy for your hotel. It can get a bit iffy at night though.

The restaurants in Tooting are pretty damned good especially the Karahi place at the top of the street (with plastic seats and formica tables).

Brick lane is a tip and has been for as long as I can remember. It also attracts a very beery crowd of city workers, who can be a bit hard work.

WillTravel, I believe the book flanneruk was referencing is the Time Out Eating and Drinking Guide, not the Time Out London general guide book. This is a great reference for London restaurants and well worth getting.

David I agree with you on both Tooting and Brick Lane!

I've had Indian food in Tooting a few times. I was with locals and they had their favorites - very good! don't ask me for a reco though.

Kavey, yay for Mamta! I'll have to try making something myself.

David, glad to see you online...