A few weeks ago we hosted the 10th Annual Cobra Brick Lane festival at the Vibe bar on Brick Lane. It was a fantastic day with four amazing restaurants all showing off their best dishes. My personal favourite of these was Mango, right in the heart of Brick Lane, so I thought it was about time I headed down and tried out a whole mean for myself.
I headed down to the restaurant with some friends and asked for them to bring us a selection of their house favourites and a couple of Cobra beers. We spent just 20 minutes nibbling on some poppadoms with some cracking chutneys, admiring the stylish restaurant before the below feast appeared. And feast it was! We had to sit on two separate tables! In total we had 9 different dishes consisting of: Bolloywood Blast, Goshte Hara, Simsima (Sea Bass), Mango Delight, Chicken Tikka Mossala, Tarka Dall, Bendi Bajee, Rice, Garlic Chilly Nan, and finally a Pesware Nan….
As you can see it looks terrific. The food was incredible. We asked the waiters which one was their favourite and each one liked something different and for good reason – each of the dishes were totally different, but totally delicious! We went round each one starting at the mildest and working our way up to the hottest and determined that we had three favourites, Bolloywood Blast, Goshte Hara, and Simsima. They were all completely different, the sea bass was creamy and pack full of subtle flavours, the prawns succulent and spicy whist the chicken pack enough heat to keep it interesting but not blow your head off! We loved every mouthful, especially when washed down with an ice cold Cobra beer!!
So if you’re heading to Brick Lane, maybe on a curry safari, then you should certainly make a visit to the fantastic Mango!
Thanks to Shimu for organising such a feast!
Tags: Brick Lane, Chicken Curry, Cobra, curry, London, poppadoms, Recipes, restaurant
Posted in Restaurant review, Restaurants |
As I’m sure many of you curry lovers know, well over 2000 (my personal estimate…) spice seekers and curry fanatics flocked to London’s East End for the 10th annual Cobra Brick Lane Curry Festival.
A number of Brick Lane’s restaurants gave away free curry samples against a back drop of Bollywood dancing and live music, to celebrate the vibrancy of Asian culture and cuisine.
The restaurants that took part were as fantastic and diverse as all the curry houses on Brick lane and I took great pleasure in sampling the lot – all washed down with an ice cold Cobra beer of course!!
I could rattle on for hours about how much fun I had and how good the food was but I think you should check out the photos below to get an idea for yourself!
So what do you think? If you could start a Curry Festival in your area what would be the top 5 curry houses in your area?
The Cobra Brick Lane Curry Festival is renowned for being one of the country’s largest and most spectacular street parties, and regularly attracts more than 60,000 curry fans.
Tags: Bollywood, Brick Lane, Brick Lane Festival, Cobra, curry, Dr Spice, London, restaurant
Posted in Restaurants |
You are probably in the midst of Christmas party season with the usual, predictable trappings of plastic mistletoe, mulled wine that’s far too sweet and bone dry Turkey.
Here at Cobra we like to do things a little differently, so for our Christmas party we decided to go for a “Curry Safari” along London’s legendary Brick Lane.
Curry Safari? Well the idea is that you go to three different restaurants for each course – starter, main, and of course, desert.
In our trip we went to the following truly excellent restaurants (the best on Brick lane in my opinion):
I’m not going to give a run-down of exactly what we ate in each (mainly because there was so much it’s impossible to remember it all!) but instead will give you some top-tips for your own Curry Safari
- Go with a decent sized group – there were 10 in our group which was an ideal number. It meant we could swap seats at each restaurant and sit next to different people
- Phone ahead and tell the restaurants what you’re doing – they really don’t mind if you let them know in advance (I also think they secretly love the competition!)
- When ordering ask the restaurant what they’d recommend – unless you’re an expert/allergic to something/hardcore vegan they’ll know what will work better than you will – and get a selection of food to share
- Experiment! – try something new, what a great excuse to try a Phaal (oh go on), or a Paratha
- Wash it all down with a Cobra of course ‘tis the season to be jolly after all!
Hope you all have a great Christmas party season and don’t forget to drink responsibly
P.S. Big thanks to Poppadom, Moon Light, and City Spice for accommodating us on the night
Tags: Brick Lane, Christmas Party, Cobra, curry, Curry Safari, Dr Spice
Posted in Restaurants |
