Not a Palace, Not a House
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London has plenty of curry houses and a few curry palaces, but not a lot in between. Westbourne Grove's Urban Turban neatly fills that void well with a tried-and-tested formula.
It's called the lounge-inspired restaurant, and it's all over town. You can see it at the E&O/Great Eastern/Cicada group, Zaika and dimT, and to a lesser extent, at the Gaucho locations.
Urban Turban is located where Chair used to be - a funny home furnishings restaurant where everything, including the chair you used, was for sale. It's in a prime location in a restaurant-heavy area, which can be a good thing or a bad thing. For Chair, it was bad. For Urban Turban, it seems to be good.
I went with a large group, so we ordered almost everything on the menu. Nothing was bad. We particularly like the Desi Tapas Platter (for two), which came with six cute cones filled with delicious starters. The Rajasthani lamb was also very good, and not nearly as 'fiery' as advertised. But we missed the generic goodness of a proper chicken tikka masala.
Everything was served stylishly, although all of the portions were on the small side. But then an Indian meal in hip, atmospheric restaurant is different from an Indian feast at 10pm on a Friday night.
The service was very good until the food arrived, and then it lagged a bit, but in all the staff was helpful and friendly.
With one or two glasses of wine each, the bill came to £35/head. Like everything else - positioned firmly in between curry house and curry palace. Just where you want to be on a Thursday night.
Urban Turban is located where Chair used to be - a funny home furnishings restaurant where everything, including the chair you used, was for sale. It's in a prime location in a restaurant-heavy area, which can be a good thing or a bad thing. For Chair, it was bad. For Urban Turban, it seems to be good.
I went with a large group, so we ordered almost everything on the menu. Nothing was bad. We particularly like the Desi Tapas Platter (for two), which came with six cute cones filled with delicious starters. The Rajasthani lamb was also very good, and not nearly as 'fiery' as advertised. But we missed the generic goodness of a proper chicken tikka masala.
Everything was served stylishly, although all of the portions were on the small side. But then an Indian meal in hip, atmospheric restaurant is different from an Indian feast at 10pm on a Friday night.
The service was very good until the food arrived, and then it lagged a bit, but in all the staff was helpful and friendly.
With one or two glasses of wine each, the bill came to £35/head. Like everything else - positioned firmly in between curry house and curry palace. Just where you want to be on a Thursday night.
Here Is The Writer : Madame B
Foreign-born Madame B thinks she's a City girl, but mostly just walks our streets checking things out and searching for the best wi-fi hotspots offered by The Cloud. You can spot her typing furiously on her shiny white MacBook, wearing dark sunglasses and drinking a glass of champagne. She's one half of the Shopaholics, which might explain things...
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