Ed's beard review - Aladins - Brick Lane!
It was a dark and stormy night.. well it wasn't stormy... but it was at least the evening... and dark..
In any case it was the second curry crew visit to brick lane on this particular evening and there were questions floating around in my mind as to whether or not this would be of comparable quality to the previous restaurant, Monsoon. When i eventually found the restaurant (no thanks to Sy's less than helpful ideas about the location when i called him) i was heartened by the crowd of people outside trying to get in, which other restaurants in the street seemed to lack. With a haughty air of disregard for these cretins i bundled my way inside and my first impressions of the interior were that it was rather small, smaller at least than the previous restaurant, as to the decor the lighting was good but not much else really stood out. But since this isn't always the main stand out point of restaurants i put it to the back of my mind.
For my choice of dish i chose my usual, vegetable Jalfrezi, for how else to judge these 2 places on the same street if not with the same dish? There was also mushroom rice and naan ordered but the curry is where the test truly lies. Everyone's food arrived with surprising speed for a packed restaurant withe the portions being just about right for my stomach size on that night, and while there were problems with a couple of the curries they were quickly rectified. The Jalfrezi i had was much better than most of the curries of it's type i have had but did it topple the crown that was won at monsoon? Would there be a new crowning glory of curry houses? Will these questions ever stop? The answers to these questions is unfortunately no, no and yes. With monsoon i was impressed that the spicy heat was infused throughout the entire sauce when in normal versions it is mainly contained within the extra chilies the put in with the sauce, unfortunately with Aladin's they went with the latter option. Other than that niggling detail the taste was still pretty top notch.
So what would i give this place? Admittedly my review isn't as detailed as it should be; but you can put that down to the length of time it has taken me to get round to actually writing it (turns out being told to get on with it 5 times is the new upper limit). These are the bare bones of the experience, unaltered by the good time i spent with my friends and my next review will be back to form.
In any case it was the second curry crew visit to brick lane on this particular evening and there were questions floating around in my mind as to whether or not this would be of comparable quality to the previous restaurant, Monsoon. When i eventually found the restaurant (no thanks to Sy's less than helpful ideas about the location when i called him) i was heartened by the crowd of people outside trying to get in, which other restaurants in the street seemed to lack. With a haughty air of disregard for these cretins i bundled my way inside and my first impressions of the interior were that it was rather small, smaller at least than the previous restaurant, as to the decor the lighting was good but not much else really stood out. But since this isn't always the main stand out point of restaurants i put it to the back of my mind.
For my choice of dish i chose my usual, vegetable Jalfrezi, for how else to judge these 2 places on the same street if not with the same dish? There was also mushroom rice and naan ordered but the curry is where the test truly lies. Everyone's food arrived with surprising speed for a packed restaurant withe the portions being just about right for my stomach size on that night, and while there were problems with a couple of the curries they were quickly rectified. The Jalfrezi i had was much better than most of the curries of it's type i have had but did it topple the crown that was won at monsoon? Would there be a new crowning glory of curry houses? Will these questions ever stop? The answers to these questions is unfortunately no, no and yes. With monsoon i was impressed that the spicy heat was infused throughout the entire sauce when in normal versions it is mainly contained within the extra chilies the put in with the sauce, unfortunately with Aladin's they went with the latter option. Other than that niggling detail the taste was still pretty top notch.
So what would i give this place? Admittedly my review isn't as detailed as it should be; but you can put that down to the length of time it has taken me to get round to actually writing it (turns out being told to get on with it 5 times is the new upper limit). These are the bare bones of the experience, unaltered by the good time i spent with my friends and my next review will be back to form.
For this restaurant i will give a solid 4/5 beards, still a high mark but it seems we still have a long way to go before we find a curry that beats monsoon.
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