Restaurant

Name: The Shampan
Status: Closed
Area: Brick Lane
Address: 79 Brick Lane
London E1 6QL
Phone: 020 7375 0475
Website: www.shampanbricklane.co.uk

Visits to this restaurant ...

1. 30 Oct 2003|2. 27 May 2004|3. 28 Jul 2005|4. 28 Feb 2008|5. 26 Apr 2012
6. 28 Mar 2013|7. 29 May 2014|8. 30 Jul 2015|9. 28 Jan 2016


The poppadoms were massive!

Visit Report

Visit Number: 51 (visit 2 of 9 for this restaurant)
Date of visit: 27 May 2004
Cost per head: £23.50 (2 beers)

Serv Amb Beer Start Nan Rice Main Veg VFM Score Comments
Overall 6.9 6.9 7.1 7.4 6.3 6.9 6.9 7.1 6.4 6.88
Tim 8 5 8 7 7 9 7 8 8 7.4 See Tim's comments
John 8 8 7 9 8 7 8 9 7 8.0 See John's comments
Graeme 6 6 5 8 4 6 8 8 7 6.7 See Graeme's comments
Mark 6 6 8 6 6 8 7 6 6.6 See Mark's comments
Jon 5 7 7 7 4 7 6 7 6 6.2 See Jon's comments
Neil 7 9 7 7 6 7 7 6 5 6.8 See Neil's comments
Robin 7 7 8 7 6 5 5 5 6 6.1 See Robin's comments
Paul 8 7 7 8 9 6 7 7 6 7.2 See Paul's comments

All Comments

Tim - A popular restaurant; all the tables filled up during our meal. We were stuck in a corner, and a fair degree of maneouvring was required to allow people to get in and out. The decor was a curious mix: the top parts of the windows consisted of coloured glass featuring various boat scenes - very tasteful. However this didn't particularly match the blue and yellow painted walls, chandeliers and curious assortment of pictures. The toilets were worse; the taps were loose, the cistern was falling down... Back in the restaurant, there was Cobra and Kingfisher on draft. The poppadoms had 5 accompaniments; the usual, plus a tasty, orange-coloured coconut one. The mixed kebab starter was fine as was the Fish Rogan Josh main course. The keema rice was excellent and there were no problems with the various vegetable dishes including some rather nice bindi (okra). The portions were large (increasing the VFM mark). Overall, not the cheapest place on Brick Lane, but the large portions of good food make this a place to go back to.

John - I like the Shampan. Good service, good food, loads of totty in there too! I had the chicken chat starter which was the best yet! The Chicken Jalfrezi main was also excellent with just the right amount of chilli in there to make you feel uncomfortable the next morning.

Graeme - The Shampan was one of my favourite places based on our first visit and it did not disappoint this time. A very enjoyable evening - the food was generally excellent - the decor / ambience quite good - the service fairly quick and attentive but sometimes disorganised. The draft Cobra was a little tasteless so I moved onto bottled "Ah-li, Ah-li" (that's how it said to pronounce it) but that was much too sweet. We were sitting by the door to the toilets which, at least, gave us the opportunity to review the passing 'skirt' for their suitability to become the first female member of the Club - there were one or two contenders! Robin stood in for the absent Griff with an amusing "the penny's dropped" moment in the pub - I can't reveal the details for fear of incriminating Mark re his arrangments for watching the second Euro 2004 match!

Mark - With Robin providing the Griffesque moment after failing to understand why I had a 'meeting' the afternoon England were playing, and Neil threatening world domination via BBC scheduling, the evening started fairly lively. Well done to the Shampan for sticking to principles and not offering discounts. Possibly the fact that they had another booking for about 20 people may have helped their stance. Luckily we managed to get in our order before they all arrived and avoided delays. Chicken Tikka Pakora starter was well presented & tasty although not the most filling. Mushroom rice was plentiful as was the Lamb Pashanda. Overall an enjoyable outing and even some eye candy to aid the ambiance.

Jon - For a Brick Lane curry, the Shampan was a little pricey, especially as there was no service charge. Mind you, they didn't deserve a service charge as, although it was swift, the service was poor in as much that they failed to bring a number of items. The keema nan had very little meat but the rest of the meal was not bad. Aloo chop starter was good, the fancy jalfrezi was ok and the veg dishes were all good, especially the mushroom bhaji. Robin did his best to make up for Gloria's absence with a classic Griffism in the pub.

Neil - Fairly easy to sum up the Shampan, don't over order as the main courses are enormous and relatively cheap. We seemed to have forgotten this from the first visit and ended up with a table of half eaten food. That said, the restaurant was packed and the atmosphere excellent, a new beer as well! Recommended providing you get your purchasing strategy sorted out beforehand.

Robin - The service was somewhat better than it was on our previous visit even though the place was almost full. The availability of two draught beers (Kingfisher and Cobra) is becoming even more uncommon, so it's good to see that the Shampan still stands out in this respect. Apart from the quite good King Prawn Puri starter the rest of the food was fairly pedestrian. I wish I'd had one of the Gatta dishes again instead of the 'speciality' jalfrazi, which had nothing to recommend it apart from quantity. Indeed, portions of everything were on the generous side and I would have tried harder to get more down if the dishes had not been all rather bland. The most interesting feature of the evening was the novelty cistern in the downstairs gents which is mounted at a very curious angle to the wall.

Paul - This place is now becoming familiar. On only my 3rd trip out, I'm on my second visit to the Shampan. Didn't get involved with the 'free drinks' negotiations at the start as too busy talking to Neil about bass guitars. Well you have to have a hobby don't you? So the appetiser was good, especially the coconut stuff - why doesn't anyone else like it? Nice Chicken Tikka Pakora to start, (served on a dish that should belong in a hospital) and could have done with a bit more of it, but tasty none the less. To follow, Chingri Marasi (king prawns in tomato & green pepper sauce) again, not that filling although very tasty with bags of flavour, the prawns not overpowered with spice. Shared a peshwari nan with Mark but he eats more slowly than me so I had most of it. I do like peshwari nan and this one was great. Good food and attentive service although the place was hardly packed; a bit pricey but all in all a very pleasant outing.


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