Good but not the best in Brick Lane, let alone the UK. We went in with very high expectations, Sheba having recently been voted the best curry house in the UK. The first thing to say is that the prices are high, particularly against the backdrop of Brick Lane prices. £17 for a two course meal with one beer is at least 50% more than a lot of competitors are charging for a three course meal. I ordered onion bhaji, pilau rice, garlic naan and a Begun Tomato Jhool. The Tomato Jhool was excellent, the rice and naan typical Brick Lane fayre and the bhaji, to be frank, extremely bland and didn't taste particularly fresh. My dining companions complained that the food was quite bland. The worst thing to be honest was the service. Generally in Brick Lane this is exceptionally good. Sheba's staff spoke extremely poor English, to the point where even asking for the bill took repeated efforts to find someone who could understand us. Then the bill arrived with the cursory 10% service charge slapped on. We opted not to pay this and were made to feel extremely uncomfortable by the waiter asking us why now, followed by conversations with the manager in their mother tongue but which were extremely easy to figure out were about our table. Overall I frequent Brick Lane every week or two but this place probably won't be on my list to return to any time soon. read more

Awesome food, really enjoyed it. Got the chicken tikka biryani, another chicken dish (forgot name but it's #8 in menu), and cheese naan. Everything was perfectly delicious! read more

This is the best Indian restaurant I have ever tasted. The high quality and the taste of the dishes is excellent! I followed the advice from the staff to choose my menu, as the choice was amazing, so HUGE and attractive!!There are also a lot of home specialities. I ordered as starter the king prawn which were fresh and very tasty! For the main, I asked for Lamb Lucknow". It was a big shank served with a tasty sauce. I was afraid to eat too much spicy, but It was the perfect balance. I tasted the vegetables, very very good! I tasted the "Peshwari Naan" stuffed with almond and coconuts which was very original and yummy! I finished my meal by a nice pistachio ice cream. It was definitely an excellent food experience and in my mind the great Indian restaurant I have ever tasted. The Staff is very kind and helpful. They used to serve to each client an appetiser: special Indian pan and several nice sauces. Lovely. I like also the room of the restaurant and the soft light which creates a nice atmosphere. I definitely recommend to everyone to choose this restaurant. It is located at the end of the Bricklane Avenue. You will probably meet at least 10 other Indian restaurants before arriving to the Sheba restaurant, but trust me, this one is the best! I am hurry to come back! read more

One of the many solid curries I've had on Brick Lane. Def go if you have one of their offers (ViewLondon, TasteCard, etc.). It's BYO so don't hesitate to bring in some Cobras. -Lamb Lucknow - Worth coming here just for this. Falls of the bone and oh so tasty. -Chicken Tikka Masala - Good, but not the best I've had. The staff are friendly, but they try to get more money out of you so just be strong (par for the course for Brick Lane). They were hesitant for us to do BYO, but when we said we really wanted to, he took us to the corner store and gave us a discount. I also came with a voucher for 50% but they only gave us 25%. After pointing it out they did correct it, but I'm not sure if it was really an accident or not... read more

Umm phenomenal food. Excellent service. Kind and attentive staff. Garlic naan vegetable samosa ginger chicken is what I ordered I couldn't have been happier. Thank you so much to the staff for bringing us in off the street. No regrets. read more

went here on thursday night, got seated very promptly. Sheba has a menu like an American Diner...TONS of choices, there were definitely more than 150 because i think I ordered 129 - chicken tikka sag. Jess got this wonderful eggplant and tomato dish, and jamie got a really big chicken curry. i thought the naan was great and the two rices we got were also very good. i wish i could remember the names of the dishes but it was a long night. Jamie tells me that in these restaurants you can bring your own beer, even though they sell beer at the restaurant. i found this surprising. they had cobra, which is an indian beer. do not get this confused with King Cobra 40oz. i'm not sure what the difference was with all the places on brick lane, but it was just like nyc where they have a guy outside to heckle you to come in. read more

Right, first of all I want to say that the food I ate at Sheba was great. No-one had any complaints (although my onion bhajis were a little too greasy) about the standard of their meal... when it eventually came. The reason I am rating this low is because of the service we received. Our waiter had a real attitude and seemed to struggle with basic tasks. He came to our table asking if we wanted to order. We said yes. He asked if we wanted popadoms. We said no. He walked off. We started to order when we called him back and tried to order side dishes as well as mains and rice etc. He said we couldn't do that and had to wait until all side dishes were ordered, which we found strange. After an age of ordering according to his weird system, he began to bark the orders back to us, expecting me to know what everyone had ordered. Naturally, I wasn't sure. This seemed to annoy him. It was 30 minutes between entering the restaurant and finishing ordering. Anyway, he carried on behaving as if we were a burden on his existence all night. We eventually started to find it funny, despite having drinks forgotten about and having to wait 40 minutes for our food to arrive. Maybe he was having a bad day? I don't know. All I do know is that the service we received was pretty shoddy and needless to say we didn't leave the tip which they added on the bill, assuming that we'd pay. read more

I always heard about the restaurants in Brick Lane, but never had been until 2 weeks ago. Waiters greet customers at the doors and persuade them with really good deals. We picked Sheba at the time, they offered a free bottle of wine plus 20%off the menu, which was very diversificated. We had such a good meal including the best curry I had so far, in a beautiful restaurant for just £10, definitely I will go back there soon. read more

This is my favorite curry spot on Brick Lane so far. The service is warm and attentive. The crowd is always relaxed and cheerful, and the food is great. We shared the vindaloo, which made me cry it was so spicy -- people were even laughing at me on the sidewalk looking in. Another curry chicken dish in the chef specialty part of the menu actually helped, because it was a little oily and creamy, though still spicy, but in a more savory way. It was delicious. Highly recommend. read more

THE BEST...... The LAMB SHANK and CHICKEN XACUTI is to die for. Whatever you do, make sure you try them. You won't regret it. :-)) read more

This is a (maybe?) once great restaurant that was either having a bad day in the kitchen, or has dropped off quite a bit from its previous success. For one, the restaurant had someone posted on the street to shout at people walking by to come eat there. Usually a bad sign if that is necessary. But they offered us a discount off the menu prices, free drinks, and a window seat. And it looked like they had all the normal Indian dishes we liked, so we sat down to give it a shot. Me and a friend both got a half-pint of Cobra beer, which was apparently the only choice for beer. It was cold, but mostly flat. Another friend got the red wine, which was almost undrinkable. Another bad sign when the options are simply "red" or "white." The waiter offered us papadums to start, but when I said I'd prefer to have Naan, he said that they do not serve any naan before the food comes out. Ok... I didn't press the issue, which was probably a smart move, because when the naan did come out eventually with the meal, it was very bland and doughy. Between the three of us, we ordered Butter chicken, Tikka Masala, Tandoori Chicken, and Chicken Madras. Of those 4 dishes, the Tandoori was not bad, but the other 3 were pretty poor. Butter chicken was practically tasteless. I don't just mean it had no spice, it simply had no taste. Tikka masala was similarly bland, and strangely sweet tasting. Maybe this an authentic Indian or UK Indian thing to have sweeter curries than in the US? Either way it was not what we were expecting. The Chicken Madras was fairly spicy as it was supposed to be, but again lacked much taste beyond that. The only part I can say was a delight was the final bill. I can't recall the total, and since it was in pounds my scale of cheap/expensive was probably a little off, but I can definitely say it was about 1/3rd cheaper than what I was expecting, and far cheaper than any of our other meals in London. Later in the trip we went to another Indian restaurant near the British Museum which we enjoyed much more, but was of course more expensive. At the end of the day, we had alcoholic drinks, and plenty of food to fill us up, for a lot less than we expected to pay that night. If you put value for money above outright taste of food, then maybe Sheba is a perfect fit. But since we had limited time on vacation and were expecting "the best curry in London", we were pretty disappointed overall. The tag line in the yelp rating of "Meh. I've experienced better" is a perfect way to describe how we felt after leaving Sheba. read more

The best thing I can say about this place was that it was alright. Service was okay, the food was good but nothing special, and it was a bit on the pricey side. We had a nice meal, but I won't be rushing back any time soon. read more

One of the best Indian food I have ever had. We had mango chicken and a very spicy lamb curry, both delicious. Service is typical to this type of restaurants- not amazing but efficient. Highly recommended read more

Good food at a good price in the chaos of brick lane. Friendly staff and a good atmosphere. Worth a visit.

Sheba is probably one of the best curry houses on Brick Lane and its to be expected since the chef was voted Master Chef of the Year two years running. Unlike many of its competitors, they never seem in a rush to get you eaten and out of the restaurant so they can get the next load of customers in and the food is always well prepared. Its rare that the fish dishes are the best ones on the menu at Brick Lane curry houses but here they are in fact my favourties - especially the lobster. read more

Eh, it was alright. There's better stuff in the SF Bay Area. The only redeeming quality was that the lamb vindaloo was actually spicy.

I came here with a large group of friends recently and was very dissatisfied with the service, even though there was plenty of staff, I still had to ask three times for a glass, and when some more friends joined later it took them 5 minutes before they were given a menu and that was only after we had to ask a few waiters to give them to us. The food was ok, my friends complained that they only got two tiny pieces of chicken in their chicken korma which was a disappointment. I shant be going back here again in a hurry! read more

It must be hard to survive with so many competitors in the same street. The Sheba seems to make it. My wife and I ate there several times also with others and everybody seems to like the place and their food. The place is pleasingly normal - not over- and not underdecorated. Its rather simple and there is not much space between the tables - even before eating. The service is friendly and swift. They rush without showing it. The food is generally delightful. The Balti dish I have eaten there last time was the best I ever had - and I LOVE Indian food! They are in the Cobra Good Curry Guide and they got - I think - two Chef of the Year Awards. Really worth mentioning is it that they are - for the quality offered - quite inexpensive and then comes a discount (I forgot 20 or 25% !! and then it IS CHEAP. read more

We did not do our research and ended up choosing this restaurant for a late lunch. The service was quick to get us seated, but the attention ended as soon as we had placed our order. Our food arrived in spurts, so our rice was 5 mins after the rest. The veggie side dishes were mediocre, and the rice tasted like it had been sitting out. The sizzling prawns were delicious, I must admit. We had to be almost aggressive in order to pay. Staff was also quite rude to a table next to us, and we experienced other clients asking repeatedly for their checks or parts of their order. Would not recommend this place nor would I return. read more

Not worth the money. I asked my waiter for something flavorful and spicy. He told me he had just the thing. Right on, I thought. But what I got was bland, tasteless, and excessively greasy. The naan was not much better; neither was the saag and potatoes. Go to Aladin down the street for better food at better prices. read more

My hubby and I were visiting family in London (Islington) over the holidays and we were on a mission to eat our way through the city having already done the sightseeing on various other trips. Being a huge fan of spicy Indian (all sorts: Guju/South/North, veg/non-veg) we were stoked to try Sheba since their chef was notable. Upon entering the door, we negotiated 25% off our meal and a free bottle of wine. This haggling is customary on Brick Lane...good for us Americans! The menu was huge and the food was very good. The problem was this: At the very beginning of the meal, our party of 4 told the waiter that we were celebrating and that we wanted to take our time dining. We were looking to have starters/apps with cocktails then move our way slowly into dinner. He seemed to understand this, confirming our wishes, but he still insisted on taking our entire order immediately, saying he'd be sure that our meal went slow. Please note we dined on a Monday night so the restaurant was not busy, no need to push the tables out the door. The bhaji was outstanding as was the assortment of chutneys. The lamb samosa was very good, but the veg samosa was still cold, in parts partially frozen. Literally, 5 minutes into our starters, he brought out our main meals and said he had to because it was "ready and would've gotten cold". My husband reiterated that we didn't want our meals that fast and the waiter apologized and agreed to buy us a round of drinks. After a single sip of the wine we received as a concession to our early mains, we realized they were spiked with some sort of inedible concoction....tasted very similar to acetone! It was appalling and very easily could have landed one of us in the hospital! I have never experienced something like this in any of my travels and it's such a shame that this had to happen on such a fantastic trip in such a great city. I highly advise that if you do decide to dine here, request that your beverages come to your table sealed.....or better yet, TAKE YOUR OWN!!!! read more

A genuinely good curry house in Brick Lane. The food is awesome and prices are a steal. I have been here a few times, the service is good and atmosphere is good natured. Worth a visit if in Brick Lane. read more

Had a mango lasee and the chicken Tikka pathina which was fantastic, a perfect blend of spicy and sweet. Cassie had the Tikka Korma which was also really good. Great little place, definitely worth checking out. read more

Good food. Service was abysmal and cruel. We walked in and the waiter said "should I bring popadoms?" So naturally we said yes. Then we ordered water -- "bottled or mineral?" We asked for tap water and he rolled his eyes (I guess he was mad we weren't paying extra for water). Our food is good but then we get the bill and we notice some mysterious charges. One was for £10.80. We asked what the charge was and he said it was for the popadoms. We were never told that the popadoms were not complementary and he offered it like it was bread at any other restaurant. Needless to say we were forced to pay £10.80 for six popadoms. Then, my friend ordered a side of Chana masala as her main dish. They gave her the size of a side, but then charged her as if it were the bigger size. We tried arguing this to the waiter but he would not lower the charge. Lastly, I was sorting my change when paying (I'm from America and I had difficulty telling how many pence each coin was worth), and another waiter said "just look at the numbers it's not that hard." Thank you for that truly sage advice. Treated like trash at this restaurant and they're lucky I even paid the bill after being ripped off like that. read more

I went to sheba saturday night, the staff was not exactly nice, a little bit brisk, but good quality and really cheap food with plenty of choises and a 20% discount off the menu! i spent just £ 7,50 for 2 glasses of wine, a starter and a main course! read more

I won a meal for two at Sheba, courtesy of Qype (thanks Qype!). But just because a meal is free doesn't mean you're going to love it and sometimes it works the other way! From the moment that the guy on the door knew my name and was expecting me, Sheba made me feel special. We had a whole double table to ourselves - a luxury in the small Indian restaurants that live cheek by jowl on Brick lane! We were looked after by the head honcho and he really knew his stuff: we let him order for us. And he did really well. The food was amazing - we had: (and I know, because he kindly wrote it down) chicken buna hyderback (great for mild curry lovers like me) lamb lucknow - quite mild and the lamb was sooo tender chicken shaslik buna - I would have that again too. There was other food, but those were the standout dishes. Ooh, and the veggie samosas for starters are the best I've had. V friendly service, and the house red is not to be avoided: it's a lovely light Cape red. read more

I was looking forward to visiting Sheba, having heard good things about it from friends. Having already eaten at several of the Brick Lane curry houses it was interesting to find out that this was one of the originals, established in 1974. Knowing that it had won the best curry house award in the Cobra Good Curry Guide 2013, I had high expectations, and am pleased to say that Sheba more than lived up to them. The staff were great - the perfect balance between being attentive and over-fussy, and our waiter was happy to recommend dishes. I've always thought the key to getting a good curry is delving into the house specialties and regional dishes on offer and our waiter was happy to make recommendations. We tried a shafi ghust, which is a traditional Bengalese dish of slow cooked lamb with pumpkin, in a sweet and medium-hot sauce, and a khora bhuna - finely diced slow cooked lamb with fresh herbs. Both of them were fantastic and cooked to perfection, the meat was melt-in-the-mouth good and it was obvious that everything had been produced from fresh. As well as its specials I judge a curry house by the quality of its standard sides and starters. The sheek kebabs were also recommended by our waiter and were moist and full of flavour. We also had onion bhaji, vegetable samosas and peshwari nan, which were all very high standard. Their website says that they attribute their long-lasting success to excellent customer service, comfortable environment and use of premium quality fresh produce. After my visit I would say it is certainly hard to disagree with any of that. It's rare to find a curry house that gets all three of these essential factors spot on, and getting harder in London. But Sheba certainly comes highly recommended from me. read more

I love indian food, and of the hundreds of times I've eaten at indian restaurants in the UK this was the worst. CERTAINLY NOT the best of 9000 restaurants in the UK in 2013. Don't be mislead by the apparent awards and accolades displayed in the window. I'm really not sure if the lamb was lamb, but anyway even one bite wasn't edible. The beer had a horrible pungent smell as though it had been poured through pipes that had never been cleaned, and the house White was so awful we couldn't stomach more than 1 sip. Don't let the tout stop you, walk straight on by. read more

Brick Lane - the most competive and confusing street in London - between 30 different Indian restaurants all within 500 metres of each other - how do you know which one to eat in!? They are all offering discounts of some kind but at the end of the day you want good food! We ended up in Sheba, it was great, we all really enjoyed it and it was great value. Just thought I would pop this review on for anyone else heading that way to avoid 60 minutes of decision making up Brick Lane! read more

When we went to Sheba for lunch recently, we loved everything about it. The service was really friendly, and unlike some of the other restaurants in Brick Lane, they do very little touting, in fact they are very discreet about it, which we liked. You feel you want to look at the menu, they are so nice about it. We had their special two-course lunch and the food was just fantastic. It was very fresh, fragrant and really well cooked. We almost regretted not to have chosen from the a-la-carte, as we could have happily have eaten much more. We did, in fact, order an extra dish, the Lamb Shank, which is a bit of a house speciality, and we shared this one. Very tender lamb, with spicy carrots and aromatic herbs (we later learnt that the predominant flavour was cardamom, with pine flowers and saffron). We would go back just for this dish, it was so very tasty. read more

we were searching for a good curry house and i stumbled across sheba as it was one of the busiest in brick lane and had the master chef of the year sign. The waiters sat us down gave the menu and gave us 1st pint of drinks for free what a pleasant surprise! The service was very good, and the food gorgeous!! The best chicken tikka masala I ever had. Great starter with Kaboli chicken, a roasted spicy chicken wings yummy. All the curries were great we will be back for more. read more

Went as a group of 5 on Sat night with out of town visitors. The only positive from the whole experience were the meat dishes and the fact I have a great story to tell my friends about one of the worst service experiences in my life. 15GBP/pp was barely worth it given the value one can get on brick Lane otherwise. Sadly we heard the table next to us similarly complaining of how immensely bad service it was - - so I know it's not a one off. Reasons I am assigning one star: -Took one hour to get water after 5 requests -Waiter argued back when they gave my vegetarian friend LAMB samosa(repeatedly claiming it was Veggie)?! Only After we put the Plate 1 inch from his nose , he finally brought a replacement ... -They simply decided never to bring one of our naans and no paradox we ordered. Upon asking about the paradox, they claimed "sorry we are out, kitchen forgot to mention earlier. We wont charge you". Well guess what- it was part of the prix fix ...?? -Nonveg dishes were C- grade (channa, aloo saag, bhindi) -They added an optional 10% service charge)(I understand this is becoming more common in London now) and we saw the waiters arguing over who had to bring the check over (nobody wanted to do it) - to top it off, The ceiling started to DRIP on our table right after we paid the bill. A few minutes earlier and our food would have been contaminated... "ONLY SAVING GRACE" +The chicken jalfrezi and lamb gosht dishes were DELICIOUS, B+ grade The owner prides himself on great food. the few meat dishes are truly great...However running a business, you need to treat your customers right. And the current status is beyond acceptable in my eyes. I've been to 5 different brick Lane houses and would recommend you take your money elsewhere. read more

Maybe the worst service i had in a long time. Went with a group of 15, the starter took too long to come and they gave the main course with the starters, which i thought to be pathetic really! They rushed us, we couldn't even finish our beers. Will never return! read more

Sheba wasn't bad - the food was pretty on par with the rest of Brick Lane, having some fairly savoury curries and decent poppadom and naan. The portions were a little bigger than some other places, but I've been told by my mates that there are slightly bigger portions elsewhere on the street. Nonetheless, the meal size was just right overall. The service was indeed very slow, and that's what keeps this from being a 4 or a 5 we had to ask multiple times for my friend's glass of water and our food (even the naan) took quite a while. However, the deal was decent at £10/person when we each had a curry dish, naan, rice, poppadoms and a half-pint. read more

On first impressions the restaurant was very welcoming both in the friendly waiter that gave me a head gesture as I walked in (he was busy serving another table) and the vibrant decor. When the waitor came to greet us he apologised for his delay and explained that a member of staff was sick. He showed us to our table and left us with the menu. Even whilst he was doing two people's work he made us feel welcome and was happy to help us all he could with recommendations. Considering the service was below normal standards I thought it was fantastic. The food was also very good. When the doors swing open and the aroma from the kitchen hits the restaurant you can smell the fresh herbs and spices. At the end of our meal, we had to wait longer than normal for our bill to arrive but they were understaffed and we were so happy that we were in no real rush to leave. Next time you are looking for lunch or dinner around Brick Lane I would strongly advise you pop into Sheba. read more

I found Sheba on a list of Best Curry on Brick Lane. I'm glad we had a destination when we got in the neighborhood because we were immediately harassed by all of the other competitors trying to get us into their restaurants. Once seated, our waiter immediately pushed an appetizer on us (which we ordered because everyone else in the restaurant also got it) and it was not anything great. We ordered our entrees and the waiter really tried hard to up-sell us. We declined, he was not happy, and this made him pretty rude for the rest of our stay. The food was surprisingly AWESOME. We had chicken tikka masala and a lamb dish. I would definitely go back for the food, but with my game face on, ready for the rude service. read more

Last week I went out with two friends to this lovely place on Bricklane. I tried a kebab roll and samosa with chutney for starter and the taste was overwhelming. For the main mela I had the delightful chicken tikka masala and tandoori chicken and lamb birani and i have to say i couldn't remember where the tandoori tastes so well. For desert i had a ice cream which was exceptional. So all in all i can strongly recommend this place to any mad curry lovers. read more

Perfect chicken, Excellent place to take my mates somwthing with a bit of esge. I will return and be more adventurous with the menue next time as it all looked delicious read more

I have been to many restaurants in Brick Lane and Sheba is by far one of the best curry houses in the lane. Service is always good, price cheap and they do some truly different dishes. The tandoori mixed grill is the best grill i had, and the lamb royale was amazing. read more

Party of 26 booked in for 8:30 and they 3 of us were early sat at our table then another party of 16 came in and they gave them our table saying that they will prepare a table for us upstairs, which they didn't even bother attempting...when the rest of our party arrived we were left standing around for 20 minutes whilst we waited for other individual diners to leave. The majority of the waiters were polite but there are a couple that were extremely rude and disrespectful. Some of us are unable to eat spicy food and some are allergic to eat. For over 25 years I've always ordered the same "safe" dish, chicken korma and I have never had one that's spicy, this time however it was, what's worse is we decided to try another cauliflower korma dish that was recommended buy one of the waiters as we stated we can't have anything spicy. When ours came it was unbelievable how spicy the dishes were, especially the one recommended to us, I politely stated to a different waiter that it was too spicy and we can't have spicy food as I'm allergic, he took the dish away only to return it with an even spicy version...this caused an allergic reaction...i went into a coughing fit...my throat is now red raw. I politely explained it to him again and said not to bring another dish back as it's made me ill. He came back with yet another dish and I had enough, he then abruptly put the dish down made a face and walked off. They still charged us £20 per head and refused to give any discount. No wonder they put a 12.5% service charge on the bill. They are scum and I wouldn't recommend this place to someone I hate. I can't see how they can be awarded the best curry house in the UK as it is the crappiest one I've been to. So basically my partner and I had one korma, one naan and water each and we paid £20 each for that...disgusting! read more