Restaurant

Name: The Chambeli
Area: Bloomsbury
Address: 146 Southampton Row
London WC1B 5AG
Phone: 020 7837 3925
Website: www.chambelirestaurant.co.uk

Visits to this restaurant ...

1. 23 Feb 2023


A bashful 'El Pres' tries to merge into the background.






Visit Report

Visit Number: 256 (visit 1 of 1 for this restaurant)
Date of visit: 23 Feb 2023
Cost per head: £46.00 (2 beers)

Serv Amb Beer Start Nan Rice Main Veg VFM Score Comments
Overall 7.0 7.1 6.0 6.9 6.8 6.5 6.9 6.6 5.1 6.59
Mark 8 7 6 6 7 8 7 7.1 See Mark's comments
Graeme 7 6 6 8 5 8 7 5 6.7 See Graeme's comments
Richard 7 7 6 8 7 7 3 5 4 5.8 See Richard's comments
Dominic 6 7 6 5 5 6 6 6 4 5.7 See Dominic's comments
Jon 6 8 7 7 7 6 7 5 6.6 See Jon's comments
John 7 7 7 8 8 8 9 8 5 7.6 See John's comments
Neil 7 7 3 9 7 6 7 5 6.6 See Neil's comments
Jeff 8 8 7 4 6 8 6 6.7 See Jeff's comments

All Comments

Mark - I spotted this place while on an open-top bus a few years ago but had forgotten about it until Jon stepped up to CC this month and overall I thought it was a good choice. Reasonable pub round the corner, fairly lively venue although we were stuck in the deepest far corner, friendly service and tasty food. My starter of meat samosa was a bit small but main of Chilli chicken masala had just the right about of bite for me and rice was good as well. Sitting in strum corner the conversation was mainly based around amps, fenders, plectrums, thrashing and gigs. Another enjoyable evening.

Graeme - It was good to go to an area of London that we haven't been to for a while (Bloomsbury) and to drink some lovely Landlord ale in The Swan. We were seated at the back of the fairly narrow, but surprisingly long, restaurant. Everything was generally good but I did mark both my starter ("Prawn on Puree") and main (Garlic Chilli Chicken) high-ish. If anything, the Garlic Chilli Chicken was a little too spicy for me and, with a cumulative effect, became difficult to eat as I worked my way through it. My rice was more like plain rice than Pilau. It was a very enjoyable evening and I had a good chat with most of the group both in the pub and the restaurant.

Richard - What seemed generally good food let down by a poor biryani main dish: the meat was chopped into tiny pieces and the sauce provided instead of raita was bland. It was good to see so many curry clubbers out and in good form.

Dominic - A big congrats to Jon for finding a new venue that nobody had heard about … and an impressive looking venue at that, although the upmarket look and feel of the place was at odds with just paper serviettes! I decided to go seafood on this occasions so chose the Fish Pakora as my starter which unfortunately was a tad cold and quite chewy … frozen, perhaps? For main I selected the Garlic Prawn with Chilli which was ok without being a standout. The rest was also unmemorable except for the Stuffed Paratha which was a bit too soggy for my liking … meaning Diggers probably rated it highly! The service was just ok through the evening but was aided by a "freebie" shot of sambuca - well done Jon! Understandably, prices seem to be frequently in the £mid-40's, however, this still seemed expensive for what we had. Nevertheless, another great night with a decent attendance and another shout-out to Jon's habit of introducing quirky (and random) quizzes … this time, the ranking of countries by length of coastline!

Jon - It was great to get a big turnout for the first time for a while, despite a couple of late dropouts, and particularly good to see Robin in the pub for the first time in 3+ years.  The pub was good with an excellent selection of beers albeit Landlord seemed to be the beer of choice for most of the group.  The Chambeli was a long thin restaurant apparently established in 1985 but somehow missed by Curry Marks until now.  The food was more than acceptable but didn't really stand out.  I went off-piste for a reshmi kebab, followed by Brian, but got more like a resheek kebab with the base being a sheek kebab rather than a shami – different but still good.  I went for a Kyber Karahi Lamb for my main which was spicy, the meat nicely done, but perhaps not one I will go for again.

John - The longest restaurant in the world served up a lovely Sheek kebab and chicken korai. Nice keema naan too. All a bit expensive though but I suppose this is the new normal.

Neil - Great to see country member Robin at the drinks, looking well for his move to the seaside! Curry house had reasonably quick service, a bit pricey though and only a selection of two bottled beers. On the positive side, I enjoyed my chicken chaat starter which was large enough to be a main. My actual main, chicken biryani, was one of the house specialities, which seemed to involve the replacement of the normal vegetable curry sauce with a creamy tomato version. It wasn't bad although the rice was a little boring. Stuffed paratha was good, I wish I could have eaten more of it (due to the large starter!).

Jeff - So we were again in Bloomsbury. It was a very long slender room, plainly furnished and quite bright, clean and tidy. Service was affable and felt quick, although time flies on these evenings. I chose a simple Onion Bhaji for starter, but was disappointed with them being small and overdone. Main of Lamb Shashlik was decent with plenty of meat. Although we ordered plenty of veg I only got one small teaspoon of mushroom, hence no mark.  Just the standard Cobra/Kingfisher beer axis. So I was overall slightly disappointed - the meal was ok but nothing special.


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