Restaurant

Name: Curry Leaf East
Status: Closed
Area: Moorgate
Address: 20 City Road
London EC1Y 2AJ
Phone: 020 7374 4842
Website: www.curryleafeast.co.uk

Visits to this restaurant ...

1. 24 Feb 2005|2. 28 Sep 2006|3. 26 Jul 2007|4. 27 Nov 2008|5. 28 May 2009
6. 28 Jan 2010|7. 30 May 2013|8. 26 May 2016|9. 27 Jul 2017


New Dad John obviously hasn't had time to get to the barbers.
Gloria 2?

Visit Report

Visit Number: 88 (visit 3 of 9 for this restaurant)
Date of visit: 26 Jul 2007
Cost per head: £33.00 (1.5 beers)

Serv Amb Beer Start Nan Rice Main Veg VFM Score Comments
Overall 7.1 7.6 5.9 8.1 6.7 7.5 8.6 7.1 6.6 7.41
Jeff 8 8 3 9 5 9 8 6 7.3 See Jeff's comments
Jon 7 7 7 9 7 8 8 7 6 7.5 See Jon's comments
Graeme 8 8 6 8 8 7 8 7 7 7.5 See Graeme's comments
Mark 5 8 6 4 8 9 6 6 6.6 See Mark's comments
Tim 6 7 6 9 4 6 8 7 5 6.7 See Tim's comments
John 9 7 7 9 8 8 9 8 9 8.3 See John's comments
Robin 7 8 6 9 8 8 9 7 7 7.9 See Robin's comments

All Comments

Jeff - My opinion of this place is still high. As I said last time, "this place is a quality restaurant, with prices to match. The menu is imaginative and inventive, showing that there are many different ways to prepare and present spicy sub-continental food other than the usual options. The quality of the food is very high also, portions are large, and service slick and unobtrusive". No change to this opinion. I think they had upped the spiciness of the food in general. One minor grumble, my roti was slightly burnt, but I still managed to eat it all. I still think they ought to stock a more imaginative range of beers. And I wonder if its not just a touch expensive?

Jon - A tad pricey but a very good meal. I opted to go for the aloo tiki starter once again which was just as good as last time, and went for the very tasty lal sans. All the extras were up to scratch and I firmly expect to see the CLE back in the top six next year.

Graeme - This place was really good and fully lived up to its top 6 billing. It's a fairly small, contemporary restaurant with interesting lighting and features. It's hard to find anything to criticise about the place - probably just the lack of draft Indian beer, athough they did have bottled Cobra and Kingfisher. My grilled salmon starter was well-cooked and tender. I had Chicken Shaslik for main course - I was partly tempted by the two chillies against it on the menu but it wasn't at all hot but, with plenty of half-cooked onions, it was very tasty. In a way it was like Didier Drogba - there was plenty of it but it was a bit girly. All in all, an excellent experience with (of course) good company.

Mark - Remember the days when Peter Schmeichel used to wear a bright green outfit? Well, this was the colour of my Murg Malai Kebab. It seemed to glow even brighter than Graeme's watch! With no Chilli marking on the menu it meant that it had a bit of kick but without being a mouth stinger. The chicken was in big, plentiful lumps and excellent while the rice was fluffy and a genourous portion. Beer could be colder at the ridiculous price of £4.45 and I prefer to pour my own. Mysore Bonda - crushed potatoe balls to start were unusual but nothing to recommend. The CLE is a class place that delivers good food but is a touch costly compared to others of similar quality and the MAE lasted until Saturday - very worrying.

Tim - Curry Leaf East is fairly posh restaurant half-way between Moorgate and Old Street. Inside the lighting is subdued, the tables well-spaced, and the decor mostly unobtrusive. The place was a bit more lively than our last visit.  I was a bit unimpressed when the popadoms arrived, unaccompanied by the usual lime pickle. Given that they were 75p each + 50p for chutnies, the accompaniments could have been more interesting. The starter of chicken chatpatta was excellent, and was, for me, the highlight of the meal (good size, tasty and spicy). The main course of chicken something korma (not your average korma) was quite good, but not as interestingly flavoured as the starter. Vegetables and rice were average, but I thought the peshwari nan was poor - it tasted rather salty and not much of fruit. At £4.45 for a Kingfisher/Cobra (why don't these places have a bigger selection of beers?) it wasn't a big surprise that the final bill was £33 a head (and there was no free round of drinks at the end of the meal this time).

John - Posh nosh from curry leaf east. I had a very spicy sheek kebab starter followed by an extravagant King Prawn Bhuna which again was very spicy. Portions were generous. The restaurant itself was a bit sterile but the food made up for it even though the end bill was quite lumpy.

Robin - Excellent food well worth the high price (£33). Again I had the chicken livers starter, which was wonderful. My main course was a curried lamb shank (off the bone, but served with it) which was superb - plenty of lovely tender meat, beautifully spicy and with a bit of a kick. The special rice and paratha were great and the vegetables were good as well. Shame there wasn't any draught Indian beer but at least the bottled Cobra was nice and cold. Although the place was pretty busy the service was good without being intrusive, and well before the time we left customers were being shown to the upper dining area since the ground floor was full. I think the loos had been re-done since our last visit as well - very clean and contemporary. Altogether a great meal and since I'm sure it will retain it's top six position I'll be looking forward to our next visit.


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