Restaurant

Name: Masala
Area: Brick Lane
Address: 88 Brick Lane
London E1 6RL
Phone: 020 7539 9448
Website: www.masalabricklane.net

Visits to this restaurant ...

1. 28 Jun 2012|2. 25 Jul 2013|3. 25 Sep 2014|4. 26 Mar 2015|5. 28 Jul 2016
6. 30 Nov 2017|7. 21 Dec 2022


Neil ponders why Robin preferred to paint doors rather than come out with us.





Visit Report

Visit Number: 195 (visit 5 of 7 for this restaurant)
Date of visit: 28 Jul 2016
Cost per head: £23.00 (1.5 beers)

Serv Amb Beer Start Nan Rice Main Veg VFM Score Comments
Overall 6.5 6.9 7.1 6.4 6.5 6.8 8.1 7.0 9.0 7.22
Jon 7 7 7 8 7 6 8 7 9 7.4 See Jon's comments
John 6 6 7 7 5 6 8 6 9 6.8 See John's comments
Graeme 9 7 6 7 7 10 7 10 8.1 See Graeme's comments
Dave 7 7 7 7 8 7 8 7 9 7.5 See Dave's comments
Neil 7 7 8 5 7 8 8 7 9 7.3 See Neil's comments
Mark 6 7 6 6 7 7 7 9 6.8 See Mark's comments
Tim 4 6 8 5 6 7 8 7 8 6.6 See Tim's comments
Dominic 6 8 8 6 6 6 8 8 9 7.2 See Dominic's comments

All Comments

Jon - Another good show from Brick Lane's best.  The tandoori platter starter was very tasty with just the right amount of food and my lamb dansak main was spicy and very tasty – the meat very tender.  Can't fault much to be honest, although the special rice failed to really live up to its name.  And with a hefty discount negotiated by El Pres, VFM was excellent.

John - Cheap as chips but tastier.

Graeme - This place is consistently excellent. The quality of the food was up there with anywhere we've been and the price was unbelievably cheap (with El Pres's discount card, although a decent discount is probably available on the door too). For starter I had what used to be my 'go to' dish, Prawn Puree. It was very nice, not too big (which I didn't mind) but maybe could have done with a few more prawns. For main, I had to go with my tried and tested: Garlic Chilli Chicken. I have had this every time we have been to Masala and, for the fourth time out of five, I have given it 10/10. It was just perfect. It was good to catch up with everyone and I enjoyed the 'craic' even though I only had time for one pint in the pub beforehand.

Dave - Good meal at the masala with excellent VFM (with Open Table).

Neil - Great to get back to our spiritual home, Brick Lane. Meeting at the Pride of Spitalfields made the drinks a lot cheaper and we only had a short walk to the curry.  Starters were very average and quite small, but the main courses (mine Chicken Biryani) were great. The side veg and bread also very good. Seeing that we're now more quantity conscious I think we got it just about right, Tim only taking two 'doggy trays' home and one of them was for the mistakenly double ordered garlic nan! Great VFM with the discount and we also got a free round of post curry drinks, what's not to like.

Mark - Almost a cheap night out! Beers before in the PoS at far less cost than City prices followed by OpenTable reduction at Masala. Attendee numbers kept moving with a couple of late drop outs along with late confirmation - who paints doors all evening when you are retired? Service could have been better than standing at one end and passing down random meals but food was reasonable and plentiful, so enjoyable. It seemed slow but we did get away in reasonable time. Prawn starter with chicken Shaslik main - all tasty and did not seem too firey until next day so glad I was WFH which seems to be popular with most people apart from Dave. BTW BBQ OK. An initial sentence?

Tim - They've redecorated since our last visit, they now have 60's-style psychaedelic, swirly wallpaper (in muted colours), though they have kept the same artwork. Service seemed a bit slow for starters, and I had to ask three times for my Singha beer and ended up going to the bar to get it when I got bored of waiting. Starter of fish tikka had a tasty coating but the fish was bland and rather dry and there were only three mouthfuls of fish. The white wine Gavi de Gavi was pleasant, fruity and refreshing, though a bit over-powered by the main course. Main of lamb satkati was good although there was not a huge quantity of meat. A free round of Baileys etc. at the end (thanks to Dom) was very welcome. Overall the VFM was good, thanks to Mark's 50% off food Open Table discount, though I do wonder if the restaurant reduces its meat content for people on a discount.

Dominic - For the first time at the Masala we were placed away from the door which made the experience much more comfortable in this modern looking eatery. Service was a tad slow to begin with but overall was fine. I started with the Tandoori Platter consisting of a chicken tikka, lamb tikka, tandoori king prawn, sheek kebab and fish tikka - it was ok but nothing outstanding although the fish tikka was probably the pick of the pieces. My main of the Chicken Jalfrezy (yes, a "y"!) was quite good and plentiful. Of the rest, the standout was the brenjal bhajee which was the best I have had! The wine was well priced (although not chilled enough for my liking) and the VFM very good especially with El Prez's discount card. Another enjoyable night although we seemed to have a quiet end of our table with a rather subdued Griff (obviously saving his voice for the Proms) opposite the "no-show Robin"!!!


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