Café Naz – belter of a curry in Bangla Town (Cafe Naz)

Member Name: libertybell

Product:	Cafe Naz
Date:	22/12/00 (118 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great food, reasonable prices, no flocked wallpaper

Disadvantages: You’ve got to find Brick Lane

If you fancy a curry with a difference – be adventurous and check out Café Naz in Brick Lane E1.

Brick Lane is the Bangladeshi equivalent of China Town in the West end. Other than the restaurants, it has a host of shops selling Bangladeshi products. These include supermarkets, takeaways and of course travel agents specialising in flights to the Indian-subcontinent. If you have time to wander, check out the stores – it’s quite an eye opener.

Getting to Brick Lane is straightforward. Take a tube to Aldgate East on the District or Hammersmith and City lines and exit onto Whitechapel Road. From the exit, take a left. Proceed along Whitechapel Road until you come to Osborne Street and turn left into it. Proceed along Osborne Street and this changes into Brick Lane about quarter mile down the road.

Whitechapel Road is the start of the East End and is famous for Jack the Ripper and one of his murders, which took place in an alleyway near to Aldgate East. As a male I don’t have a problem wandering around this area – it’s well lit and everyone keeps to themselves. Go with a friend or colleague if you are unhappy about wandering around alone.

You’ll know when you are in Brick Lane as the street signs are translated and the road becomes one-way. Café Naz is on the right hand side and is lit in blue light. There is a pub called the Pride of Spitalfields past the Café and off the next narrow turning to the right. It’s a bit smokey – but it’s a real ale pub and the Fullers London Pride at £1.90 per pint. A good meeting place.

Back to Café Naz. What hits you from the front window is how unlike a typical Indian Restaurant it is. It is a white tiled floor, purple walls and a big video screen at the far end showing the latest Indian pop videos (‘Bollywood style’). The staff were very courteous and quickly found us a table. You can eat at street level or on the first f
loor via a set of stairs to the left of the restaurant. I didn’t go upstairs. On both occasions, the restaurant was busy – which is a good sign.

They have a great range of starters served with ‘pops’ and the spice tray. It’s best to wash the food down with pukka beer and they sell Cobra in big bottles – needed if going for something hot. My friend and I tried different starters before launching into the main course. We had a variety of dishes including some, which were veggie. The food is very good.

The toilets are downstairs and the entrance to Gents or Ladies is via a glass door. They are very clean. They even have a fountain down there and dance musak coming out of the PA.

On the first occasion I went, there was even live entertainment from 2 Asian dancing girls who proceeded to carefully strut their stuff up the centre aisle. Never seen that before!

The best thing about Café Naz are the prices. A meal for two including starters, drinks and mineral water and a selection of main course dishes came to less than £35. Pretty good for London.

Details of Café Naz can be found on the web at: http://cuisinenet.co.uk/café-naz. There is even a discount voucher you can print off to save a bit of dosh. Phone number is 020 7247 0234.

Highly recommended !

PS Bangla Town is the name of the street given to Brick Lane by Café Naz! (if you were wondering).

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