Masala

No one warned me about Brick Lane. I asked at my hostel for a recommendation for good curry, and they told me that the best place in London was on Brick Lane (failing to tell me that ALL the curry in London is on Brick Lane and that every restaurant has people out front hawking the food and the deals). The problem wasn’t just that I was a woman traveling alone and unprepared for the madness on Brick Lane, it was also that the restaurant the employees specifically recommended was not there.
When I finally got someone on the street to speak to me who wasn’t trying to sell me something, two very nice American girls told me that Masala was clean, friendly, had very good food, and would cut me a great deal on the price. They weren’t wrong. I got an appetizer, a glass of wine, an entrée, and a basket of Naan for 15 pounds. The server was friendly and helpful (I love Indian food and have eaten a lot of it, so I just asked him what his favorite was and went with that), and I had a very nice experience overall. Brick Lane itself is a little off-​putting, especially if you don’t know beforehand what to expect, but you can’t argue with curry that good.

As tourists in London, one had a myriad of curry establishments to choose from. myriad being an understatement!
We chose to go to this Indian restaurant because it came highly recommended to us by my daughter and her boyfriend who are regulars.
To get there you have to get through a true obstacle course of insistent restaurant hosts standing in your way, trying to convince you that THEIR restaurant is the best restaurant in the area. They will make you deals, give you wine bottles and probably even include their first born sons in the package if it would convince you!
Once we successfully made our way through this, we arrived at Massala. Same negotiation occurred at the door. It was actually quite fun to watch our daughter negotiate a good price prior to entering the restaurant.
I did ask about allergies and if they could prepare dishes without corriander as I have a severe allergy to it. I was assured that several dishes could be prepared safely for me.
So we agreed and were seated in this busy restaurant (always a good sign).
When our waiter came to take our order, I repeated my allergy question and was assured it would be all well taken care of.
First dish of papadom was served and the waiter pointed out the dips I could not eat. Great! I enjoyed this appetizer.
Then came a lamb appetizer. There was a green herb on it. I enquired and was told it was not coriander & to enjoy it. It suspiciously tasted like coriander but I thought maybe it is another herb or spice.
Then came my mango butter chicken with a special rice. Again I asked about coriander and was assured that «nothing on this table» has coriander. Well… Two bites later, my lips swelled up my face turned red and I was having an allergic reaction to coriander!!!
The owner came and apologized and said he did not know how coriander got in our food. (Yeah, right)
He brought us coconut rice to replace the other rice but by that time, having taken my medications, I was not in the mood to hang around any longer.
Allergies are a very serious issue to people. I am lucky that this allergy to coriander is not more severe.
The food may have been good but this blatant disrespect for my health (pretty sure the lamb had coriander too) is the reason this place gets a one star. I would give it less if I could.
They did not even apologize or give us any discount. Which should have been the least they could do.
I spent a horrible evening having to deal with the result of my allergic reaction which was not limited to my mouth.
If you have food allergies of anykind, avoid this restaurant. If not, well apparently the food is good.

Run! Do not go in here!
My husband and I went in for lunch. We both had a bad feeling about the place and this was confirmed when the food finally arrived.
Here are the low points:
–The plate the rice was on was hot from the microwave; the rice not so much.
–The paneer in my paneer tikka masala was green and grey with black edges! I could wipe the green away. I asked the waiter if he had just taken the paneer out of a sag sauce… he paused too long before explaining that ‘we put it in a green sauce.’
–The chicken in the chicken vindaloo was undercooked and the sauce was watery.
We did not eat more than a bite! We confronted the waiter and high tailed it out of there!

The chicken tikka masala was good. Though it would be a real shame if they named the place masala and couldn’t make a decent masala dish.
Everything else was forgettable.
The service is pretty slow and terrible in general.
One thing about this place is you can negotiate the terms of your bill before entering the place. Just tell the guy outside you’ll eat there if you can get 30% off your bill with free drinks or something like that. Whatever he offers, go lower. Also, use basic supply and demand to your advantage. If it’s not busy, negotiate lower.

A little bit dissappointed with this visit, after negotiating a set price for a 3 course meal including 2 pints (yes they now do pints) we found the portions to be on the small side. Still the food was very tasty but we will give this one a miss next time. Plenty more in the lane to try.

If you’ve ever been to Ensenada, puerto nuevo for lobster, this will remind you of that… except Indians instead of mexicans! Standing out in front of their restaurants yelling «pretty ladyyyyy, i had deal for yooooou!»
We sure got a deal. 2 bottles of wine and 30% off the bill. Great food, make sure you play hard to get!

An okay curry house. Food was good and well priced (25% off our bill plus 2 free rounds of drinks!). Service was lacking however; no serving spoons with the meal and drinks turned out to be halves of beer only. No pints.

I don’t know why but for some reason this was my favorite Indian restaurant on Brick Lane. After all the haggling, they always gave me a great deal and lots of free wine. Good portions and great bread as well. Pretty average for this area but for some reason I kept going back.

Great value, fresh tasty food. Bring ur own booze and unbelievably cheap

A good Brick Lane restaurant serving Indian/​Bangladeshi standards like Rogan Josh and Jalfrezi. Prices and quality on a par with others nearby, i.e. good value and tasty. The atmosphere was also good — more modern than some of the competitors but without feeling cold or bare.

Brick Lane is known the world over for its curries, brought to the neighbourhood by Bengali, Pakistani and Indian immigrants. Outside, on the street, hawkers try to reel in diners amid the profusion of restaurants on the Lane. It was in this way we were introduced to Masala.
He offered us a deal: for £10 a head, we could get 4 starters, 4 main dishes, and wine. I’m a believer in the old adage «If it seems too good to be true, it usually is,» but our friends decided to give it a shot. Why not?
For their part, it seems Masala held to the deal. Samosa, Sheek Kebab, Onion Bhajee and Pakoras soon arrived at the table. The food, I will say, was excellent. The sheek kebab was seasoned just right, though a tad dry, and the bhajee was delicious. Our mains arrived next, mine being the Tikka Masala chicken. Again, very well made, the sauce just right — tonight was not a spicy food night, and this really delivered. Succulent.
Unfortunately, the night was not without setbacks. When our bill came, there it was, £40 for the four of us (with a £5 service charge added). I had no cash on me, so I intended to pay my portion with my debit card. The waiter brought over the machine, and I told him to put £11.25 on the card. He swiped it and gave me the receipt to sign — for £25.
«No, not £25, £11.25. Can you reverse the charge?»
«No, sorry, cannot reverse. You sign?»
Okay…so, you just charged me double what I told you to, and now don’t want to reverse the charge? (I work in the service industry, I know it’s possible). Not cool. We worked out the numbers with cash from my colleagues, but I still felt cheated. Maybe I’m being a bit harsh, but I’ll take two stars for that. There’s nothing I hate more then feeling like i got hustled.
Bottom line, the food is great, but come with cash in hand to save yourself a lot of trouble.

Being sat at the same table as the past three reviewers you may expect a similar review: well you’d be wrong. My experience at Masala was a good one. I’ll admit I was sat at the opposite end of the table to the Laura and Phil, so maybe the love just didn’t stretch that far.
We were a table of twenty boisterous professionals who ordered different dishes. The restaurant was very busy with a great vibe yet I remember thinking the staff would be hard pushed to provide perfect service. Apart from one slightly soapy flavoured Onion Bahji, my food was of a good standard and delivered within a good time period with view of how busy Masala was. They allowed us a BYOB service and we certainly brought plenty. My end of the table was knocking back wine and beer like it was going out of fashion and may have a bearing on why we enjoyed ourselves so much. I would recommend Masala. It is a stylish restaurant in the heart of Brick Lane serving good food. They are even open to discounts if you discuss this with them beforehand.