It's Tuesday night, and you've booked a restaurant table for 7:30 p.m., only to be left standing in a queue until 8 p.m. When you're finally seated, the staff are surly throughout your meal, and try to cajole you into leaving before you've finished. Tayyabs—a Pakistani diner in London's gritty Whitechapel district—is that kind of place. So why do hordes of Londoners crowd into the eatery every night of the week? Because Tayyabs dishes up the most sublime—and possibly the cheapest—subcontinental cooking in the Big Smoke. Start with a plate of spicy, sizzling lamb chops (a mouth-watering $7.50 for four) and a succulent seekh kebab, a grilled sausage of marinated lamb and herbs (just $1.30), and you'll soon be weeping—and sweating—with delight. For the main course, match up a fiery karahi curry (a close relation of the spicy balti, served in a metal pot and loaded with chilies) with a cooler chana gosht, a stew of lamb and chickpeas (both around $8), and mop it all up with ghee-soaked nan bread. You'll leave Tayyabs with your stomach, and wallet, beautifully full. Just don't expect them to hold the door open for you on the way out. tel: (44-20) 7247 9543;
www.tayyabs.co.uk
