Brick Lane Brasserie

Superb! Friendly staff and excellent food. The best restaurant among many Indian places on this block. Come with extra time as it is crowded.

House of Spice
I don’t have time to write a book on our experience here, but Brick Lane is a nightmare of a street. We were accosted by at least six guys outside each restaurant trying to bargain and coax us into a particular restaurant. It was an incredibly stressful experience that only got worse. We just wanted to get off the street, so we went in here after five minutes of bargaining. First, we made sure the deal we got outside was agreed upon, so we went through everything. I highly advise you do so because the table behind us was charged £18 for three beers. We were told we would get two free beers a piece. The appetizers were okay at best, but to my surprise the chicken tikka curry was fantastic. The chicken was very tender, but it was not as large a dish as the hustler outside told us it would be. The service was ridiculously slow and one waiter, for ten minutes, tried to convince to go downstairs after dinner for a message by four women. My co-​worker inquired for more information which only gave me more stress. «Four women will work on you at once. Two are good looking and the other two are average. The two that are good looking have a big ass. I love a big ass. The other two have big tits. I don’t care for big tits, so they are average.» This coming from one of our waiters for 10 minutes! The most stressful meal I have ever had. Not worth the tasty chicken. We got two appetizers, two entrée, two naan, one dish of rice, and four drinks for £30, which was £15 per person.

Average at best. Good flavours in the sauces but not enough quality to take it to 3/​/​5. Friendly but slow service.
I am happy to have tried but shall not return.

This is hands-​down some of the worst Indian food I’ve ever had.
We took our seats and then were made to immediately stand up so the server could tuck my (female) friend in. He then handed me the wine list, as if as the male I would be making these decisions. While it may have been a stab at «good service,» it came more across as that because she is a woman, she cannot sit or choose wine without the assistance of a man.
We ordered rice, garlic naan, vegetable phal, and lamb tikka masala. The rice portions were very small for £2,5, but at least tasted like rice. The naan was clearly fresh from a package, had no garlic on, and was very doughy.
The entrees were the really exciting part, however. The vegetable phal is tagged as being spicy. I love spicy, and frequently get 4 – 5 of 5 spicy stars when I order from Indian/​Thai/​etc. This stuff, however, was almost completely inedible. I had 3 bites, and sweat was rolling off of me. The staff never refilled my water, either, trying to engage torture methods to get me to open the bottle of Evian. I was not taken by these tactics, and suffered silently while hoping my friend had a brighter future.
She didn’t. The tikka masala was cloyingly sweet. Think sweet potatoes drenched in coconut milk with some extra Karo for good measure. She laughed at the look on my face when I took a bite. But who’s laughing now? Certainly not the thankless waitstaff who stood staring at us as we ate.
Avoid this place if you actually like Indian food.

Incredibly disappointing. I probably should have known better than to try Brick Lane — I guess it’s the NY equivalent of going to East 6^th St. for Indian — but when in Rome, I thought. Hard for the uninitiated to settle on a place (and the hard sell pitching outside the restaurants drives me absolutely batsh*t insane (on either side of the pond)), so quickly went online and saw that this place had pretty decent reviews… have to mark this down as one of the few times Unilocal has steered us completely wrong.
Were sat downstairs, then asked to move upstairs to accommodate a larger party. I didn’t mind at the time, but it was kind of abrupt, and they didn’t even bring our menus/​water up, and it took a while for our drinks (which we had already ordered) to find their way upstairs as well. We got moved to a table directly beneath the bar area, which was incredibly loud and distracting (to say nothing of the loud, pulsing music, which was distracting wherever you were in the establishment). Despite being directly underneath where the servers clustered, our service was slow, diffident and abrupt (and clearly annoyed that we were splitting an entrée and sides).
The Pappadum that they suggested we start with was unpleasant — odd and greasy. The Thali had some highlights, but was hit-​and-​miss. The Kulchi Naan (coriander and onions) was ok, but fairly bland for what sounded so interesting. The Mulligatawny soup was a highlight (of course, I knocked over the bowl and lost out on ¹⁄₃ or my favorite part of the meal). My girlfriend is quite the Indian aficionado, and she was equally disappointed with her Vegetarian sides and options. No dessert — between the unpleasant service, loud setting and mediocre food, we were quite anxious to pay and get out.

food was really good, server hovered a bit too much

Before leaving the UK I was told by a British associate that I «needed» to get some curry or Indian. So I was happy a small group of us headed down Brick Lane to do just that.
Hilarious scenario — This street seems to be solid Indian restaurants for several blocks. As we strolled down the sidewalk, hawkers from every restaurant were running after us, or crossing the street, sometimes blocking our path and telling us how spectacular their chef was, how happy we would be, and how, just for us, our first round of drinks was free. (And then they would proceed to tell the next pedestrian the same thing).
The Brick Lane Brasserie guy was less annoying. He simply looked us in the eye as we passed by, smiled, and told us he would take 20% off the bill, and that our first round was free, the food was excellent, and and that he had a table ready for us right now. We looked in, and the place was packed full, apart from the one table he pointed out.
It seemed we had found our restaurant.
We ordered several plates plus bread to share. The food was good, but not the best Indian I’ve had. Palak paneer was creamy but a little bland for me. The chicken tikka masala tasted good but the sauce had an odd, slightly grainy texture. The chana lamb mahkani and curried prawns were quite good. So was the garlic naan, though it wasn’t very garlicky.
As expected, the first round of free drinks were tiny, but we left pretty happy in the end, and the price was right, coming out to about 20 GBP per person. Not bad, since we all had another round or two of drinks after the free one.

My friend and I were looking for a place to eat on Brick Lane, and based on Unilocal and Foursquare recommendations, we ended up at this restaurant. We were standing outside the door, and one of the solicitors came out offering us seats within five minutes and free drinks. Okay, sure!
The restaurant was jam-​packed! We literally took the last seats available on both floors: lots of people = great food right?
It took quite some time before the waiter came to help us, and as we were looking through the menu, he made us switch places with another table because they had more people and less space. Okay, no biggie. But they could have been more courteous about it.
Then the waiter started laying out silverware. With bare hands, he clutched the silverware by their feeding-​ends and laid them out. In general, European sanitation standards are nowhere near the US’s; so this was forgivable, but nevertheless disgusting. Who knows what filthy places his hands have been?
We ordered the Chicken Tikka Masala, a Peshwari Naan, Tandoori Roti, and Vegetable Samosas. We ended up not claiming our free drinks, since we could tell the server was already annoyed that we only ordered one entrée.
It took about 30 minutes for our food to come out. I suppose the restaurant was pretty full, but 30 minutes for a party of 2 is a bit too much. At this point we really considered leaving. We were considering Dosa Factory nearby… we really should have gone =(
+ Vegetable Samosas — [DO NOT GET]. There were two samosas, but they were the dinkiest samosas I’ve ever seen. They were flat, emaciated little things and rather pedestrian in flavor.
+ Peshwari Naan — [WORTH TRYING]. This was an almond/​coconut naan with a sweet flavor and great texture.
+ Tandoori Roti — [MAYBE GET]. Also a disappointment. The roti was not what I expected — it was dry and bland. The texture was okay, but I definitely expected a greasier roti.
+ Chicken Tikka Masala — [DO NOT GET]. And now the piece de resistance: Britain’s national dish. This failed miserably. The dish was absolutely puny. It may have had 5 pieces of cubed chicken in it? And it cost 10.95 pounds. The sauce was CLOYINGLY sweet; paired with the peshwari naan, it felt like I was eating dessert.
This was by far the worst chicken tikka masala I’ve ever had, at the worst Indian restaurant I’ve been to. I have also never been so disappointed in Unilocal; this place cannot be 3.5 stars. Epitome of overrated.
Summary:
— Lousy sanitation
— Slow service
— Unfriendly staff
— Small portions
— Expensive prices
— Abhorrent food
And this is a minor issue, but they don’t have wifi. At least they have tap water and bathrooms right? Also, if you have kids, you probably shouldn’t sit downstairs. Unless you want them fixated on hypersexualized Indian music videos. And regardless of whether you have kids, you probably shouldn’t be sitting in this restaurant at all.
This is coming from a Unilocal elite: do not go here. Don’t even stand at the door long enough for them to cajole you with their free drinks and discounts and whatnot.

Can’t be bothered to wait for Spring, so in this cold ever lasting winter, the only choice was a curry! it had to br Brick Lane Brasserie, after reading editorial reviews etc, also the owner Salim was there and guided us through their food/​menu, we went for his recommendations Hyderabadi curry, see photo, that was delious!
This places gets busy between 7:30−8pm so i would recommend booking in advance, and ignoring the touting of other restaurants!

Had a lunch deal and it was good value for money. Portions were good size for money and curry was very tasty.

After being lured into this restaurant by one of those pushy Brick Lane door persons, two of us ordered a lamb Rogan Josh and a Chicken Tikka Masala. The lamb was fine, but unexceptional. The chicken was of that awful, sickly sweet, coconutty and vibrant red variety, with flavours about as subtle as a mallet. When asked how our food was we commented that we didn’t much like the chicken tikka masala, it was too sweet, and had too much coconut. We were told that this was how the English made chicken tikka masala, and that it would be exactly the same if we ordered one in Asda, Tesco, or Sainsburys, Birmingham or Bradford. Which is odd, because I come from Birmingham and have never tasted anything this disgusting. Also, if I’m paying thirty quid for a couple of curries I want them to aspire to something slightly better than an Asda ready meal. Godawful. Avoid at all costs.

This was my first experience with Indian food and I loved it! I would return.

My husband and I love Indian food and were looking forward to eating the much touted Indian food in London. We were actually on our way to Aladdin but a very convincing gentleman talked us into his restaurant.
Taking a look inside we saw there were quite a number of diners and he offered us a special pre-​fixe so we thought this might be a good detour.
Boy were we disappointed. First of all, the special menu is not the same menu that is posted on the window. Our deal included one free drink, appetizer, entrée and either nan or rice for £ 10. Mango lassi was decent. For apps we ordered a lamb patty and chicken kebab. The lamb was good but chicken quite dry. For entrée hubby got chicken tikka masala and i had lamb korma and ordered an extra saag paneer which I’m glad I did since I could not eat the korma after 2 bites. It was so grossly sweet. The tikka masala sauce was also terrible. I’ve had better Indian food from a package purchased in a supermarket. Looking around we also noticed that the other diners that ordered off the regular menu had food that looked a lot better.
Also when we received the bill we noticed that they sneaked in a 20% service fee. A little shady don’t you think?

I rate this one up at the top of the list of restaurants I’ve been to on Brick Lane, friendly, good service, tasty food, good size portions and a good selection to choose from on the menu.
Only 2 faults, it was a little cramped but that is par for the course on Brick Lane and the long line for the 1 woman’s toilet.
All and all worth a visit, I know I’ll be back again.

Brick Lane is full of touts aiming to get you into their restaurants, I usually ignore them but against my better judgement was hooked in by a free beer and 25% off the bill. Certainly one of my better decisions in life as
the food was excellent.
Brick Lane Brasserie is fairly small inside, but the food is great. I chose the regular chicken curry, which was a natural colour when it came (thankfully not fluorescent red). I’ll certainly be back in future.

This quaint little curry place is where me and Rob, my fellow curry aficionado from Cape Town and I went once after a long day in the east.
The ususal haggling of Brick Lane Indian/​Bengladeshi joints i have to say is a novelty I could do without.
I had the lamb roghan josh (which was far better than Rob’s tikka chicken, which felt slightly processed).
The service was passable, but I kept mis-​remembering the initial amount we haggled and kept accusing the staff of adjusting the rate for my food. This made the dynamic between me and the staff rather awkward. What ever happened to menus people!
I was grateful for generous amount of naan bread.
As yummy as the meal was, it doesn’t come close to South African curry — especially the ones in Durban.

Chelifer Reports:
walking along side Brick Lane you are bombarded by an incredible array of Indian food and aroma’s but if you can last it long enough you will come to
a very traditional named
Brick Lane Brasserie
where I experienced possibly the second best traditional Indian meal I have ever had in my life.
oh, and get a Cobra beer while you’re @ it.
the full story here:
7÷15÷08 London Loves
I started off my journey on the tube, traveling to the east side of London town, a place I’d never ventured before today. two stops before my station a young man came on the train. here he was, tight acid wash jeans, old man cobbler shoes, long curly hair and a worn jacket with buttons to boot. this was no ordinary hipster though, he was a true artist as he grudgingly got on the train with his artwork to carried under his arm. something about this young chap really put me in great spirits. a true artist, not just the phony type. I was so tempted to say «live free homie» to him as I parted the train, but I knew it was too cheesy. it didn’t matter, I was already in glamorous spirits as I exited Liverpool Street and came upon Brick Lane. graffiti that made my eyes smile, and Indian restaurants everywhere I looked. then I saw them: the COOL people. plaaad, tight jeans, sunglasses, fedoras. not much different than LA really. but soon I saw the super legit ones, straight out of a mag or album cover and I must say they TRUMP Los Angeles hipsters. especially the girls, all so desirable. sorry La La Land but cha totally outdone by this lot. So before I began my search for the clothes ive always needed to secure my rock n roll look, I had to stop to get some Indian, didn’t I? at first I was worried, there were so many which one am I going to choose? but luckily I picked the right spot: Brick Lane Brasserie. perfect.
The King of the Cool Jerks
The American lad follows the Brick Lane. This is my favorite shitty area I’ve ever been. This is the bamboo banga M.I.A. sings of, with the glitzy glam hipsters and those with the classic artist look. of course the business men know to sell to the kids, many types are all condensed in the bricolage that is brick lane. my juices are flowing while I watch her puffing that fag, the vision is like music to my eyes. my dream girl walks by as I take a bite of the most divine naan bread. I must savour this and have another cobra. glorious beer. this is living. I’m looking at the window as another British bird passes by that makes me croon. ideal.

I’ve been to a few places on Brick Lane but this is in the lead! Friendly staff and good grub (£33 for 2 courses for 2 people, drinks incl.) A pint I got seemed a little flat; they took it back without question, gave me a bottle to replace and then a glass to test once they’d readjusted the gas. Originally only went into the restaurant when the guy standing outside touting for business said ‘good evening’ as opposed to trying to pimp some curry like most of restaurants do!