Lahore Kebab House

Address: 2-10 Umberston Street, E1 1PY (there's also a sister restaurant in Streatham - 668 Streatham High Road, SW16 3QL - which we haven't visited)
Website: http://www.lahore-kebabhouse.com/
Nearest tube station: Aldgate East (just under 10 minutes' walk) or Whitechapel (just over 10 minutes' walk)

Restaurant review number 5 is the Lahore Kebab House, which is neither in Lahore (obviously) nor a kebab house (less obviously). It is, in fact, a bring-your-own curry restaurant in the East End, reckoned to be one of the best in London, along with nearby Tayyab's. I was glad to get here after our failed attempt to review a curry house during National Curry Week.

Mrs BYO and I walked there after work on a cold Monday evening in December. The restaurant shouldn't be hard to find and is accessible at the top of Umberston Street, just off Commercial Road - despite Google Maps' attempt to send us down a dimly-lit side street.

When we arrived, we were swiftly seated in the large ground floor dining room, a rather plain room with flatscreen TVs on the wall. Directly behind our table was a huge window looking into the kitchen, showing off huge stacks of papadoms. So that's what we started with - accompanied by the normal dips and salad - together with a portion of onion bhajia to share. Rather than the bland, greasy balls of fried onion that I'm used to in curry houses, the onion bhajia here was chunks of nicely-spiced fried onion. Delicious.

As we've already established, I can't handle spicy food. So, for a main course, I had butter chicken (hey, at least it wasn't a korma). My butter chicken was excellent, just the right level of spiciness and not the bland, sweet dish that I often find from curry houses and takeaways.

Mrs BYO, who is more adventurous than me, had bhindi chicken, an okra-based chicken dish. If you love okra and you like a bit (but not too much spice) and lots of flavour to your curry then this is the one for you. She said that she hadn’t tasted anything like it anywhere else and it was a real treat to have something different to the norm.

For sides, we shared a pilau rice and a cheese naan, which tasted good but was a bit too oily for my liking.

For all of that food, it was a very good value £25.40 - excluding tip, which was not automatically added. Even better, there's no corkage.

To drink, we took big bottles of Kingfisher (a bargain at £1.99 each from Waitrose in St Katharine Docks). I thought an Indian beer would go nicely with a curry (yes, I know Lahore isn't in India), with the choice in the shop being between Kingfisher and Cobra. And since the worst advert of all time (Meet The Boss), I refuse to buy Cobra. I think the advertising executives may have had a few too many beers when they made it.

Nearby shops for your booze include Cobra Food and Wine (yes, that Cobra) the other side of Umberston Street or a huge Sainsbury's almost next to Whitechapel if you're coming from that direction.

Tay Do Restaurant

Address: 64 Kingsland Road, Shoreditch E2 8AG
Website: http://www.taydo.co.uk/
Nearest tube station: Old Street (or Hoxton or Shoreditch High Street Overground stations, Hoxton being slightly closer)

After going past the tugging tramp – sadly, not a trendy bar in Shoreditch, but a homeless man providing himself with his own Friday night entertainment – under the railway bridge, we headed up Kingsland Road to Tay Do for a Vietnamese meal after work one wintry Friday night.

We were quite early, so there were only a couple of tables occupied, but the restaurant quickly filled up and was packed by the time we were tucking in to our food.

I don’t know much about Vietnamese food, so I was interested to see what was on offer. The menu had a selection of pan-Asian dishes - chicken satay, prawn toast, sweet and sour chicken – and some more ‘interesting’ dishes including frog legs with betel leaf (which I was not brave enough to try).

For starters, I had spare ribs – good flavour but a bit gristly – and Mrs BYO had a couple of Vietnamese spring rolls, both of which starters came on a bed of shredded lettuce.

Our mains were delivered while we were still on our starters, and so weren’t too hot when we tucked into them. We had the Tay Do special pork with rice vermicelli and the crispy egg noodles with chicken, the latter being my choice.

As well as the rice vermicelli (thin rice noodles), the Tay Do special pork came with another Vietnamese spring roll – luckily, they were tasty, so we didn’t mind having a third – a stack of pork, grated carrots and a dip. I snaffled some of this, and it was really very good.

I didn’t choose so well: my crispy egg noodles with chicken was a bit bland. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a massive wimp and can’t handle really spicy food (as you’ll see if you come back for our review of a curry house…), but the dish could have done with more flavour.

For dessert, Mrs BYO had chosen something from the menu, but the waitress gave us the bill without asking if we wanted anything else, so, well, we didn’t have anything else!

Two starters, two mains and no desserts came to £32.50. I’m not sure if that included corkage (the menu said £2 per person) or a tip, as the bill wasn’t too clear and was whipped away from us when I paid by card, rather than cash (which they prefer).

Tay Do has a BYOW - bring your own wine - policy, so goodness knows what would happen if you brought beer or cider. For your wine, there are lots of small convenience stores in the area, a big Majestic Wine on Shoreditch High Street (around the corner from Shoreditch High Street Overground station), but not much in the way of supermarkets.

So, would I have Vietnamese again? Yes. Would I go back to Tay Do? Hmm… (although Mrs BYO would be in favour of a return trip).

Poulet Rouge

Address: 7a Chestnut Grove, Balham SW12 8JA
Website: http://www.pouletrouge.co.uk/
Nearest tube station: Balham

This one feels like a bit of a cheat. It’s National Curry Week and we were intending to go for a Friday night curry at Cinnamon curry restaurant in Brockley. But my stupid job put paid to that idea and I ended up staying at work a few hours late. Yes, on a Friday.

We didn’t much feel like trekking over to Brockley by the time I had finished and so we headed closer to home to find somewhere for dinner, thinking that I wouldn’t have anything to write about afterwards. We plumped for Poulet Rouge in Balham, a few paces away from the Tube.

The choice of mains is pretty easy: a quarter or half a chicken; a quarter or half a duck; or one of seven savoury crepes. The more difficult choice is which sides to pick – there are five different potato sides alone and a selection of others including chorizo cassoulet, coleslaw and panzanella (which is not something that I expect to see outside Tuscany). 

What do we go for? I had a quarter of the eponymous chicken with chicken gravy and a side of broccoli with lemon butter and roasted almonds (a good addition in my view, but not the wife’s); and she had a Chinese-style quarter duck savoury crepe with duck fat chunky chips. Poor ducks. The speed with which it was all polished off tells me that we enjoyed it a lot. It’s not a fancy chicken shop (unlike the Chicken Shop in Tooting) – it’s much more of a proper restaurant.

We’d been told by our waiter that we could order more sides during dinner if we needed anything extra, as they can be prepared quickly – and two sides probably isn’t enough between two. 

Having said that, it did mean that we had room for dessert – my wife had a Nutella crepe and I had a Nutella, banana and honeycomb crepe, both of which were delicious.

What was the damage? Excluding drinks, a very reasonable £32.60, without service (which is not automatically added).

This is a normal restaurant, so why am I writing about it here? Well, they have just started a bring-your-own bottle night on Mondays, that traditionally quiet day in the restaurant trade – between 6pm and 9pm, according to their specials chalkboard, and with no corkage, according to the waiter. And they’re not the only ones at it: the Hawksmoor group has £5 corkage and Harrison’s in Balham has no corkage on Monday nights. A good excuse to visit them, I reckon.

If you want to visit on a Monday, you can pick up your drinks from the Oddbins almost opposite the Tube, the large Sainsbury’s a bit further away, the Waitrose on Balham Hill (if you’re a bit fancy) or We Brought Beer – a specialist beer shop on Hildreth Street, a few minutes' walk away.

Update (July 2015) - Poulet Rouge is now Poulet Fermé: it has shut up shop and been replaced by a branch of the Chicken Shop.

The Georgian

Address: 27 Balham Hill SW12 9DX

Website: http://www.georgianrestaurant.co.uk/

Nearest tube station: Clapham South

It’s date night, so part 2 of BYO London sees us visiting the Georgian restaurant in Clapham South for some, well, Georgian food. And that’s Georgia in the Caucasus, not Georgia in the good ol’ US of A, so don’t come here looking for fried chicken and burgers.

For a starter, we shared the Georgian mixed mezze, which consisted of four different cold starters – an aubergine and walnut pate, a leek and walnut pate, shredded beetroot and a grated carrot dish (quite like coleslaw). I was pretty happy with my lot, as I had been unable to choose between the two pates as a standalone starter – but I got to try both.

And I was even happier when the waitress brought out the Georgian cheese bread. Which is exactly what it sounds like – freshly cooked bread filled with molten cheese, slowly oozing out of the cuts made to quarter it, but running as freely as magma from an exploding volcano when torn apart. Delicious.

The only downside to the starter was that we didn’t leave any of it, and were rather full before our main courses had arrived.

The wife had tolma, minced beef and pork wrapped in cabbage, served in a tomato sauce [picture below], while I had mtsvadi (I pointed at it on the menu, rather than trying to pronounce it…). This is a dish of pan fried pork, roast new potatoes and a Georgian salad – tomato, cucumber and white onion [top picture]. Both main courses were excellent, though it was a struggle to finish them.

It’s good value too: £46.50 for the two of us, without a tip (they don’t add one automatically – which I like – and don’t give the option of adding one on card. So take a bit of cash along for them). That got us a starter-for-two, two main courses and a soft drink. And as an extra bonus, there’s no corkage charge.

For places to get drinks, you’re spoilt for choice - there’s a small Sainsbury’s two doors away, an M&S food opposite, a large Tesco about a minute away and, for those who like to buy in bulk, a Majestic within sight.

PS The Georgian is also a café during the day and serves both English and Georgian breakfasts. The Full Georgian – a Georgian take on a full English – is worth a try. Though I don’t know what their view is if you BYO at breakfast…

PPS the photos were taken on my Nokia 6500c. Yes, I am still using a phone launched in 2007.

Negril

Address: 132 Brixton Hill SW2 1RS

Website: http://negrilonline.co.uk/

Nearest tube station: Brixton

Hidden behind shabby shops, a budget tyre outlet and car forecourt, you could easily walk straight past Negril. The restaurant itself doesn't shout come in, either. But do. If you like tasty home-cooked Caribbean food that is.

But before that make sure you nip to one of the plethora of shops for your drinks. There is a Sainsbury's local ­– as well as real local shops – selling beer, wine and rum (if you really want to get into the spirit) on the walk up from Brixton. Plus a Tesco Express the other side of Negril.

Waiting for our friends to arrive, from Sierra Leone – cue ebola jokes – but too hungry to be polite, we ordered saltfish fritters and plantain with fire sauce to start. The fire sauce really is fiery so if you've got delicate tastebuds, like my husband, beware! Needless to say the nibbles were completely polished off before our dinner guests turned up. Oh well, we just ordered some more!

Many of our group went for the goat curry (with a choice of side – although the overwhelming preference was for the pretty delicious festival bread). And with little more than slurping, chomping and satisfied groans all round I can only assume it was good.

I went for the less adventurous but still jolly tasty jerk chicken roti wrap, with more plantain on the side (pictured), while the husband went for the ribs combo with festival and coleslaw. He went home with sauce on his white shirt and a very full tummy but a very happy boy! Especially given we spent under £40 between the two of us – for drinks and a lot of very good food.

For the six of us (five drinkers), who got through three starters, six mains and a handful of soft drinks, the bill came to £107. That includes corkage at £2.50 per drinker, no matter how much one drinks.

The only criticism was the slow service. Two of us didn't get our food until the others had almost finished. But when it came, it was definitely worth it.

So next time you're in Brixton, don't walk past – go in!

Update (29 November 2014) - Negril now has an alcohol licence and so is no longer BYO! But we still reckon you should give it a go.

Introduction

You like good food and cheap drink? You’ll love this blog.

If, like us, you enjoy eating well (whenever circumstances, waistlines and bank balances allow) there is only one thing better than going out for a great meal – going out for a great meal and not paying stupid prices for the drinks to go with it.

That’s where this blog steps in as your new best friend, well if you’re into cyber friends, that is. Otherwise, we’ll just call it a useful companion. We aim to road test, and then write about, the best (and occasionally some slightly less good) restaurants in London that let you bring your own alcohol.

There are plenty of ‘bring your own’ (BYO) restaurants in our fabulous city – more than you might imagine, actually. And they all run on a concept that is very straightforward. You turn up, bring your own bottles, eat lots and have a pretty good time (well hopefully) without the irritation of shelling out for overpriced, often overrated (and sometimes unpalatable) alcohol.  

If you're new to BYO, or even if you're not, this blog is here to help. To give you our no-nonsense, no-frills reviews of London's BYOs.

And if you have any comments or suggestions of places we should try, tweet us at @BYOLondon or send us an email to BYOLondon@gmail.com