Restaurant
Name: | The Empress | |
Area: | Whitechapel | |
Address: | 141 Leman Street | |
London E1 8EY | ||
Phone: | 020 7265 0745 | |
Website: | www.theempress.co.uk |
Visits to this restaurant ...
1. 25 Apr 2013 | | | 2. 30 Jan 2014 | | | 3. 24 Sep 2015 | | | 4. 24 Nov 2016 | | | 5. 25 May 2017 |
6. 31 May 2018 | | | 7. 28 Nov 2019 | | | 8. 30 Sep 2021 | | | 9. 27 Jul 2023 |
Visit Report
Visit Number: | 261 (visit 9 of 9 for this restaurant) | |
Date of visit: | 27 Jul 2023 | |
Cost per head: | £47.00 (2 beers) |
Serv | Amb | Beer | Start | Nan | Rice | Main | Veg | VFM | Score | Comments | |
Overall | 7.8 | 7.1 | 6.5 | 6.8 | 7.0 | 6.8 | 8.0 | 7.2 | 5.1 | 6.97 | |
Jeff | 8 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 6.6 | See Jeff's comments | |
Graeme | 8 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 10 | 7 | 4 | 6.9 | See Graeme's comments | |
Tim | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 6.8 | See Tim's comments |
Dominic | 7 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7.0 | See Dominic's comments |
Dave | 10 | 10 | 8 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 9.4 | See Dave's comments |
John | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 5.9 | See John's comments |
Neil | 9 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 6.9 | See Neil's comments | ||
Mark | 6 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 6.3 | See Mark's comments | ||
All Comments
Jeff - We were welcomed into the restaurant, although we sat ourselves at the wrong table!! Service was quite affable, and the menu large - perhaps too large. King prawn puri was decent, lamb bhuna was above average and veg was not bad either. However, for me, the Empress has lost its spark on this showing and shifted back into the pack. Food was good but not great. It was over-priced compared to our other recent visits, especially the beers - of which they could also have a different choice.
Graeme - We met, as usual, in the Brown Bear. I found myself having to defend it from certain people's criticism - it's not great but it's not that bad either. It was a typical performance from The Empress but overly expensive at £47p/h. I marked my boring (my fault) Chicken Tikka starter down by a mark as my poppadom tasted stale (per rule 3.6b) but I gave my main of King Prawn Pathia 10/10 - perfect! It was a good night for chat at the pub and in the restaurant. Lots of interesting guitar talk with the pro (Rats) and the technically advanced (Diggers) - not quite sure where I fit in but I try to bluff it!
Tim - We were tucked away in a corner - it looked a bit cramped, but wasn't actually too bad where I was sitting. My spicy poppadom was a little soft - not enough to send it back, but it just wasn't as crispy as they usually are. The four accompaniments featured a spicy onion one - it was nice to see something different, but I wish they didn't have two accompaniments based around raw onion. The chicken nazakat starter was fine - the meat was well cooked, but I would personally have liked some more sauce, and/or some salad with it. The main of annans haash (duck) was described as fairly hot on the menu, but I found it a little bland. After mentioning it to the manager, he took it away and upgraded it with some more spice, which made it a lot more to my taste, although the re-cooking of the dish had the unfortunate side-effect of making the duck a bit tougher (as it hadn't had a chance to rest). The keema nan, rice and veg were all fine. The service was pretty good, with the manager in particular making us feel welcome, and he offered us a free round of some liqueur I don't remember (something unusual and fruity IIRC), however earlier on I didn't get my beer delivered with everyone else's, so a mark deducted there. Overall, the biggest problem I think is the cost - the beer is over £7.50, the veg side dishes £7, and my one poppadom and chutney was £2.50.
Dominic - After missing the last few CurryMarks outings to this venue, I was delighted to return once more. Although our main man was absent, we were very much welcomed by his brother who was in charge of our table for most of the evening. Service was always attentive despite there being a "full house" including a larger table than ours. I chose the Special Mixed Starter to begin, consisting of a very well presented Nazakat, Garlic Prawn and a Lamb Chop and all were very tasty. For main, I selected a bespoke Haash Jhalpiazi which was a "turned-up" duck dish and also very tasty. No real stand out among the rest but all were quite good. A free round of passionfruit liqueurs helped the VFM score although I think everyone was a tad surprised at the cost of our evening. Great to see the boys once more although the highlight of the evening was winning a fiver off Dave who still likes to indulge in some alternate history of who nominated this venue and when was the first visit!
Dave - Great meal at the Empress celebrating 10 years since our first visit. Kicked off with a perfect prawn puri and followed up with an excellent chicken curry. As always, well looked after by the staff at the Empress. One of the earliest starts ever for curry with us all sat down at 6:45pm!
John - King prawn puree followed by chicken jafrezi. Food all acceptable but very expensive.
Neil - The Brown Bear had improved slightly from our visit two months ago, now two ales(!) and slightly faster getting served. Not sure it'll be our meeting pub any longer though. The Empress of course is next door and for once we arrived early, in fact 20 minutes early which combined with the 7pm booking meant we were all out by 9pm, at some places we've not had the starters by then! Food was above average, my choice of mixed veg starter and chicken rogan main, all fresh and tasty but maybe missing some 'kick'. Service was good noting they took an order for another large party at the same time as us and there being no real delay. Friendly banter from the head waiter as well. Only bad point was that the price (£47) was pretty steep for a good, but not that good, meal.
Mark - Arriving very early we hoped to beat the rush but The Empress was very crowded which led to some delay but not too bad overall. However, the old manager is no longer there and the menu seemed to be missing some of the exotic choices of times past - where was the famous Shepherds Pie? My Samosa starter was a bit small and needed the charged-for chutneys to liven it up. Main of Lamb Sag was tasty but the rice was a tad plain. The free digestif of passion fruit squash was not to my taste. A good evening but not top of the pile performance.