City Spice Authentic Bangladeshi Cuisine

Brick Lane is well known for its curry houses, so when I was invited to City Spice also known as the ‘King of Brick Lane’ I was excited to see if it lived up to it’s name. City Spice has won numerous awards, winning ‘Best Restaurant in London’ in 2016 awarded by Currylife and winning ‘Masterchef Curry Award’ in 2017.

The food is a fusion of influences from the North Indian Murghal Empire and Bangladesh. City Spice is a family run business owned by Abdul Ahad and his son Abdul Muhaimen.

We were met by the manager Abdul and seated near the entrance. We were given poppadoms and dips within a few minutes of being seated.  The poppadoms came with a wealth of tasty dips. My favourite dip was the sweet coconut one, I’d never tried a dip like this before, it was sweet and delicate and went well with the poppadoms.

Next up was our starters, Sam and I went for the Chicken Tikka and Onion Bhajis. The Chicken Tikka was very tasty and came with a small side of salad. It was the perfect amount of spice for me. The onion Bhaji’s were a bit too crispy for me, they also came with a side of salad.

For the main course I went for the Chicken Tikka Dopiaza with vegetable rice. I can’t handle anything too spicy so this curry was perfect for me. I also really enjoyed the vegetable rice, it came with a generous amount of vegetables and was very tasty.

Sam went for the Lamb Madras which was rich and spicy but not overly so. We also shared a garlic naan which went well with the curries. By this point we were both super full, but they do have a dessert menu too if your still hungry.

Service

We visited on a Monday night and  I expected it to be quiet but most of the seats were all taken and new customers kept coming in. They also had some seating downstairs for some larger groups. Even though it was busy the waiters were still attentive, they asked if we wanted more drinks and served our dishes promptly, we never had to wait long for the next course.  It was also very interesting to hear about the sort of foods they like creating in their kitchens.

Verdict

I really enjoyed our food and had a lovely evening. I loved the poppadoms with the selection of dips and the Dopiaza curry. If I visited again then I’d probably order less as we had so much food! City Spice has a very good selection of food to choose from and they also cater to vegans. It’s a great place to go for a curry with mates.

Have you been to a curry house on Brick Lane before?

Looking for other restaurants in London – why not try these:

Abd El Wahab Lebanese Restaurant Belgravia

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