London offers increasingly more locations that have a concentration of Indian and Pakistani food establishments and stores. In the past we used to head to Southall and more recently have been taking the tube to the Upton Park station and upon exiting, sauntering along Green Street, oohing and aahing at the myriad of desi stores.
The first time we went to this area, we discovered Vijay's Chawalla (VC) and fell in love with the chaat and, snacks as well as beverages like lassis a faludas. My favorite was (and continued to be so after repeated visits) the methi puris/bhaturas and chana. The Sahi puri was also great and the faluda out of the world.
Lately, including on our visit a couple of months ago, the food was very disappointing. I have no idea why this happened? Either my taste buds changed or spoiled after being treated to the outstanding version of chole bhature at Aggarwal Sweets in Surrey, BC. Possibly, as in the case of some South Asian restaurants, their chef left, defecting to another establishment or to open his/her own place. (For instance, I first met Hemant Mathur while he was the chef at Diwan Grill in Manhattan, then left to go to Amna and today he is the partner/owner in a handful of some of Manhattan's most acclaimed Indian restaurants and I ran into him running from one place to another to oversee the food preparation).
Good luck, foodies with your desi food hunting in London. Please be sure to share your finds because I cannot wait to try them.
Whatever the reason, I cannot call this a place I would like to frequent again. Besides there are so many other choices now on Green Street.
By the way, the faluda at VC still looked fantastic (at the table next to ours) and I cant wait to earn enough extra calorie indulging capacity to try some if my caloric capacity gain coincides with a visit to London. read more