Bangalore Express

Solid meal. if you have enough Kingfisher all is good, right? Seriously, you will get a ton of food so go hungry. When they say BIG plates of curry and rice they really mean it. If near Waterloo Station then drop in.
BTW — the booth where you climb a ladder to get into looked really interesting. Serving food was quite a spectacle.

We hadn’t realized this area would be so full of people at 6:30pm on a Friday night… well, guess it’s just bad planning on our part. I just got off a plane and was famished, so we decided to walk into a place and hope for the best.
Turns out this place was pretty decent. It’s Indian fusion — Indian food with a twist served in tapas form. Of course, you can get thalis and rice plates as well, but I like tapas for the variety. We shared a couple small plates — the duck, cashew nut and mango roll, the spiced lamb scotch egg, the yoghurt cakes, the mushroom and pea curry and some butter naan.
I would have liked the duck roll if it didn’t have mango in its name, but instead, I felt robbed because I was hoping to taste mango. The scotch egg was decent, but the lamb was normal ground lamb (i.e. not pounded to have stickiness), and fell off the egg easily. I guess I like normal scotch eggs better. The yoghurt cakes were actually very interesting and quite delicious — if you like yoghurt, since the hint of yoghurt was quite strong. Both the curry and naan were standard fare, not too spicy and quite buttery.
Overall it’s not a bad attempt at both Indian food and fusion, but there are things I wish they could do better. Oh, that includes service as well. It’s not a bad place to grab a bite when you’re in need of one though.
As we walked out the door, we noticed some interesting tables that are booths in a loft. Wish we had gotten a table there; would have been an interesting experience!

Kann ich nur empfehlen. Gutes Preis-​/​Leistungsverhältnis. Wobei Leistung eine Kombination aus Qualität und Menge ist und nicht nur Menge.

The double deck booths like a train now that was the Express bit.
The Food was OK and the service Patchy.
We had the veg Thali that consisted of the onion bhajis which were fresh but the veg. Kofta had way too much cardamom it wanted my taste buds to think that i was having a sweet dish instead of a savory one.
The Pan fried Tilapia fish was the only highlight of the meal, the Chicken tikka wasnt great and the Achari Paneer. Bland.

How many places have table booths that are stacked? I do find it credible how the servers bring up food to the upper levels as it’s quite strategic climbing the ladders.
I have a feeling I didn’t order the good things on the menu. I had the pre-​theatre meal since it was right before watching a show at the Old Vic. The lamb kebab was great — spicy and full of flavor. The chicken tikka masala was very underwhelming. A bit too bland and wish I could’ve sprinkled a little more curry flavor.
The service was a bit patchy too but they will serve you up quickly if you tell them you are catching a show.
Overall, I think it was okay.

Being next to a major station or a touristy area generally lowers my expectations for the quality of a place. Bangalore may not be amazing, but it is pretty stellar for a place right up in Waterloo Station’s grill.
The novelty factor here is the seating, some of which is in bunks accessible by a ladder. My party managed to get a top bunk – cozy, maybe a little too warm with the hot water pipes running right by our heads, but definitely a fun environment for a meal.
The menu is fairly extensive with dosas and burgers (half chicken, half lamb!) and «indian tapas» in addition the usual.
Ultimately, though, the food was unremarkable and I don’t think I’d be back. My partner thinks it would make a great date place, though, just for the seating layout alone!

The concept is great with an extensive menu and the double deck booths like a train but after initial high hopes it ended being one of the worst Indian meals I have had for a long time.
Stood at the door for a few minutes trying to get attention from the passing staff who either ignored us or just smiled. As more people came in behind us I asked if we could get service.
Ordered chilli squid as an ‘Indian tapas’. Four small rolls of grey/​brown rubber squid, unappetising in appearance despite the mini salad adornment and so rubbery in texture it was almost inedible and not fresh at all.
Main course of chicken rogan josh with bombay potato salad and mushroom rice sounded nice enough but the reality was different. A whole chicken breast, dry and overcooked with that commercial grade red curry sauce from a jar poured over with more of the same sauce in a little bowl on the side. It left a metallic taste that stayed with me to the next morning.
The spoon of fridge cold bombay potato salad on the corner of the plate was just horrible. If you asked me to guess what it was I’m not even sure I could tell it was potato and was covered in a slimy textured grey curry powder sauce.
The mushroom rice tasted ok despite scant evidence of mushrooms but was also something that looked and tasted like it had been prepared long ago and reheated.
The meal came to close to £40 for two (with just a diet coke to drink) so wasn’t even cheap.

I don’t trust places with the name Express in the title. They remind me too much of Thai Express or *shudder* Panda Express. Terrible cheap food that comes at you fast.
Bangalore Express is in fact the exact opposite. It’s not even fast, which I kind of love about it.
This is a great spot for tasty, slow Indian food with friends. The service can be hit-​or-​miss depending on how busy they are, but take a moment, relax, enjoy. Especially if you’re sitting on the top bunk table. Yes, bunk seating! Tables on the ground and then tables on top with a ladder to climb up to them. What! So cool.
The food here is great. I usually go for the dosa, or Indian pancake, and this sucker is so big it extends over the plate on both sides. But it’s also so light you don’t feel disgusting at the end. You can also go with the plate of chili which allows you to customize — pick your type of meat, sauce, heat, rice, etc. Something for everyone.
And it’s cheap too. Even for dinner, no meal is over £15 and most are much less (£9 to £12).
My favourite thing though about Bangalore Express is that is can do giant groups of people last minute — not the easiest thing to do in London. We needed a table for 15 at about 8:30pm on a Wednesday night spontaneously. They told us to give them half an hour, and sure enough, it was waiting for us. Yes.
I’m always consistently surprised when I come here, which gives it the gold star Alex mark of approval. You are welcome.

A curry house right next door to a major railway station, what could be right about that sentence? Some amount it would seem.
Compared to some of the Indian railway café themed establishments such as Dishoom and Roti Chai that have sprung up since Bangalore opened, the décor could only politely be described as lacking somewhat. Double decked railway carriage dining built into the wall and accessed by bunkbed steps might appeal to teens but it’s not in itself a reason for the rest of us to stop by, especially in somewhere as well stocked with restaurants as Waterloo.
Initial signs aren’t good. We’re jammed in behind the waiters station, the table cleared as we sit. While the dips that come with a basket of poppodoms are interestingly different (though not close to the South Indian delights of Ganapati), with beetroot chutney and a raw garlic number, they’re preprepared and look like they’ve been around for a while.
The main menu is all kinds of confused. While a range of starters will be familiar enough to most people, the mains fall into two broad swathes. Half span different curry cuisines from around the world, covering African, South East Asian and the Indian subcontinent. The ‘curry house’ korma and vindaloo that your middle aged British parents would be looking for are served in a pick your meat n mix your curry sauce section at the bottom. It seems an odd thing to advertise, given that many cheaper quality establishments prepare vats of generic sauces and add meat on demand, losing the flavours and tenderness that often come from the cooking process but saving cost and waste.
And the food? While I don’t think I’d make a deliberate trip back, it definitely wasn’t the worst curry I’ve had, damning it with faint praise… We shared a hot and sour prawn curry from South India, a nicely balanced bowl of earthy, peppery black dhal and some manner of cold sweet potato salad. All pleasant enough but nothing more than the sort of weeknight standby served up by competent home chefs with a rudimentary grasp of spicing. Not the end of the world, but not what you want to be paying £20 odd a head for.

Sehr hilfsbereite Bedienung und ansprechende Einrichtung. Organische Zutaten sind auch ein Plus. Meiner Frau konnte auch mit Laktoseintoleranz ein Essen empfohlen werden, allerdings ist die Auswahl dann nicht sehr groß. Preise für London okay. Hauptspeisen um 10 Pfund.

My hockey team came here for our mid-​season boys night out tonight. Alex, our resident curry expert, brought us here as the food was described a reliable and tasty.
The menu is done in a –by-​the-​numbers style, reminiscent of somewhere like Masala Zone — choose your meat, your sauce, your side veg and then your rice. They do also do thalis, some a la carte curries, dhosas and some starters.
Having recently dined at Masala Zone recently where the portions were miniscule and meat content minimal, I was impressed by the fare at Bangalore Express. Portions were huge, so much so that several of the boys couldn’t finish their food. My lamb rogan josh was generous in meat content and the flavour was vibrant and distinctive. My mango lassi was acceptable if not the highest quality.
The vibe was bustly and busy but the service was attentive throughout the evening.
I think we may have found our new boys night out curry house!

I personally wish an Indian restaurant like this (ha-​ha that rhymed) was accessible in Southern California. As the previous reviews stated Bangalore is a modern take on Indian food presented in a appeasing manner. I was there the night of the World Cup Finals, so it was pretty slow, with everyone crowded into bars/​watering holes to watch the game.
The first thing you notice when you walk into this place is that they have 2 story dining… in a 1 story building? Sweet!!! I felt like Dale & Brennan (Will Ferrel & John C. Reiley) in the movie Step Brothers. Can we turn our beds into bunk beds?
Started off with the chip & chutney tapa. The chips were very light & airy with no salt on them served with 3 chutneys: garlic, mango, & raspberry. It was one of those things where if l was left unattended & unbothered by others I’d eat it all day.
For my entrée I had a masala lamb burger. Wow this thing was flavorful, spicy, & pretty amazing. I can handle moderate heat when it comes to food, this was a little over the edge where I went into b*tch mode. But it wasn’t just heat when I ate it was heat matched with flavor so I was able to power through it with 4 glasses of water.
On top of that there was some naan for the table & I can eat that all day as well. Overall if you like Indian food definitely check this place out in London. Across from the Waterloo station, great locale, can’t miss it.

Ein empfehlenswerter Inder, unmittelbar vor den Toren von Waterloo Station und nur wenige Minuten vom London Eye entfernt.
Indisches Essen gibt es in London ja nun wirklich überall. Auch das Angebot ist dabei weitgehend identisch. Dieser Inder zeichnet sich aber durch ein paar Besonderheiten aus.
Zum einen verfügt er über einen zweistöckigen Bereich mit Separées für jeweils vier Personen. Hier kann man — ähnlich wie bei einem Hochbett — über eine Metalleiter in den oberen Bereich klettern und sich dort sein Essen servieren lassen oder aber (wem das Klettern zu gefährlich ist) sich ein Separée im Erdgeschoß nehmen.
Zum anderen kann man sich sein Essen hier selbst kombinieren. Man wählt das Fleisch, die Zubereitungsmethoden, die Beilagen etc. und voilà — fertig ist das indische Wunschgericht.
Darüber hinaus sollte erwähnt sein, dass das Lokal sehr gepflegt und sauber daher kommt. Zudem ist die Bedienung äußerst aufmerksam und die Preise recht günstig.