All Comments

Jeff - Started in the busy local 'The Pride of Spitalfields' which sells decent beer at very reasonable prices (under £5 a pint). Mark had picked up a reasonable 25% off food at the Sheba as long as we brought our own beer, an offer gratefully made use of. We rushed past the touts who were out en masse up the whole length of Brick Lane. Shebas sat us downstairs, where we were one of the first, but it very soon filled up to capacity with youngish, amiable punters in their 20s and 30s. We had just 90 minutes before our table was to be vacated, which meant that we barely had a chance to read the menus before our order was taken - an unintended consequence of our early start. I settled on lamb chops for starter - 3 large tasty chops were delivered with some salad as well, an excellent start. The "Chicken Sylheti something" main was two pieces of dark meat on the bone - fine with me - but with perhaps rather too many onions in a spicy but sweetish sauce. I ordered a cauliflower bhaji which I shared with Jon, again not bad, and the rice was decent too. Earlier on, we had spicy poppadoms and a choice of 4 pickles with lime pickle making a now rare appearance. Altogether, the meal was a million times better than our last visit in 2010, in summary around average quality with a good ambience. However, the whole thing felt a little rushed as we were in and out in 91 minutes, too quick for me, and the evening ended in confusion as some of us (not me) had to finish our drinks at the tiny bar upstairs.

Jon - A welcome return to an old favourite although it has changed a lot over the years.  The PoS was just the same, though, not that I'm complaining.  Without the 25% discount and BYOB, it would have been a very pricey outing for Brick Lane, but as it was, it was acceptable.  The food was solid without being spectacular.  I tried something different – a shaslik bhuna – which was more bhuna than shaslik as I don't think you can really call it a shaslik when you add a sauce.  It was nice enough and the accompaniments were all on a par with expectations.  Marked down on the service as they forgot Rats' main! A fun evening as always.

Graeme - A return after 14 years to our one-time favourite … Sheba. Unfortunately, it is not the place that it used to be. It doesn't seem to have the same appeal. I'm sure the 'new' (it's probably been there 20 years!) downstairs room is good for business but it felt like second-best when we were seated there. The food was reasonably good and the service was quick but a bit brusque. I had Prawn Chaat Puri to start - it was 'deconstructed' in as much as the prawns were on one side of the plate and the bread (folded into quarters) was on the other. I can't remember what I had for my main, despite looking at their online menu for inspiration. Whatever it was, it was nice! The veg was OK but I only got a teaspoonful of Sag Aloo - so much for pampering to the dissenters

Mark - Service was quick as they aim for 90 minute turnaround but they missed 1 main meal. Shame we were downstairs and first there but soon filled up and was lively. Lamb tikka starter was very good as was Chicken Korai but missing the sizzle. Good to be back at the Sheba but not as good as yesteryear. Enjoyable night livened by the early start at PoS.

Neil - This has certainly got its act together since the last visit although it has had 14 years to sort itself out! Service is now pretty rapid (the main complaint last time) only let down by them forgetting John's main. I enjoyed my plentiful chicken tikka starter but have knocked a mark off as there weren't enough sauce pots for the poppadoms. My chicken bhuna main was quite average and not that large but plain rice was surprisingly good, often this is overcooked in other restaurants. VFM was of course helped by the BYOB and money off negotiated by El Pres. A good night, will probably get back into the revisits.

John - Average Brick Lane eatery. Used to be my favourite but sadly gone down-hill a bit. I had sheek kebab followed by (eventually) chicken tikka korai. Both ok but nothing special.

Richard - Back to the Sheba, an old haunt going back to 2000. BYO makes this more affordable than most, with an offie close by with cold large cobra bottles to help score well on beer. Lamb chop starter was delicious and plentiful, and chicken bhuna rather good if I remember correctly after a 3 day weekend away. I do remember being the only person having naan bread which Wrats kindly shared as we're all cutting down on the bread I guess. It's good to hear the club take their kulcha seriously with a museum visit beforehand.