Plenty of Bangladeshi-run curry houses in London, but we wanted to be sure that we were eating real East Bengali cuisine, and we found this at Gram Bangla on Brick Lane. More a cafe than a restaurant, the menu is in Bengali so ordering was a matter of going to the counter to examine the offerings.
Gram Bangla
We chose a selection of dishes to share: a dal, a lamb curry, catfish in an oily sauce with split beans, baked catfish, paratha and some ‘fish chutney’. This didn’t look like any chutney I’d seen before, consisting of dried shredded fish with herbs and chili. We rated it “OK”.
Fish Chutney
The catfish was so-so, but the sauce with the unidentified beans was very good, as was the dal and the curry sauce that accompanied the lamb. The lamb itself, though, was rather gristly and more bone than meat.
Although not the tastiest meal ever, it definitely felt ‘authentic’, whatever that means. We finished off with a jalebi, a sort of treacly batter pretzel that tasted a bit like churros, taken from a massive stack sitting in the window.
The remains
Scores
Food: 2/5
Atmosphere: 3/5
