View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Archive content
January 12, 2006updated 22 Nov 2022 5:53pm

Class finally shows after a slow start

By Press Gazette

Sir Clement Freud

Class finally shows after a slow start

LISSON GROVE runs from Marylebone Road north to Lord’s cricket ground and this Indian restaurant on the right of the road is very good, very inexpensive and quite quirky.

They wait a while before taking your order, but don’t worry; it takes time to get proper food and the first 10 minutes of nothing-much-happening fades into the overall 90 minutes you should allow for dinner.

You can tell the quality of the sub-continental eateries by the poppadoms – here they are excellent.

Also by the lightness of the naan: absolutely faultless. Cobra beer comes in large bottles, enough to fill four glasses.

I did not notice individual prices but our dinner for two cost £21 and I did not like to question the bill.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

For a starter I ordered onion bhaji. The waiter shook his head. I repeated my order. He said: “All gone onion bhaji.”

Which is similar to a fish and chip shop running out of potatoes. Then I ordered chicken madras. The waiter said: “It’s hot.” I said I knew this.

“No rice with madras curry?” asked the waiter.

“No.” He shook his head in disbelief.

My wife chose a vegetable thali, which arrived – when it did arrive – boasting six assorted bowls of lentils, rice, something in a spiced tomato coating and surprisingly for a vegetarian dish, pieces of chicken breast in a korma sauce.

Even more surprisingly, there was an onion bhaji.

“I thought you had no onion bhaji?” I said.

“Had all gone; this fresh.”

It was a great onion bhaji, fried in the very best fat, nicely flavoured. We had on our table a four-bowl selection of accompaniments: yoghurt, pickled lime, mango chutney and sliced onion.

And I had also ordered a portion of potato and spinach.

At a table on the far side of the room – the restaurant seats about 35 and has a flourishing take-away trade – were three couples who spent the evening laughing like drunken hyenas, like neighbours put in by landlords when they want tenants to leave. Annoying, but I suppose it goes with the territory.

I’ve always been suspicious of Indian desserts, so we left, £24 poorer (they deserved a 15 per cent tip for the bhaji) and feeling as contented as one does after eating a really well-cooked meal.

Go there. There’s no need to book, yet.

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network