I have noticed over the last couple of years that the Indian Restaurant section of London’s iconic Brick Lane is slowly starting to get a little more vegan friendly. It isn’t just about plant based staples either, a few vegan menus are creeping in too.
And this one sounds really good. City Spice, which to be fair is something of a Brick Lane institution, has created a new mock meat menu – which it claims is the first of its kind for any Indian in the UK.
The restaurant is something of a vegan pioneer having launched a vegan menu last years. Now, perhaps a little inspired by some far eastern restaurants which specialise in things like mock duck, manager Niaz, who runs City Spice along with his father Abdul, has taken the menu to another level.
The idea is I guess to reinvent old favourites, so you can now gorge on City Spice’s flagship starter Vegan Tikka (cubed pieces of vegan chicken or lamb marinated in a piquant blend of mild spices and served with City Spice’s special vegan sauce). They are also offering the Inconceivable Thali (a thali-style platter featuring ‘chicken’ Dopiaza and ‘lamb’ rogan josh accompanied with roti, basmati rice, mushroom bhaji and saag bhaji) and The Inconceivable Naga (seared vegan tikka pieces served with fried onions, green pepper, naga pickle and chillies in a distinct tomato-based sauce).
There’s loads more too though I especially like the sound of the Think spicy Mix Vegetable Jalfrezi (seasonal vegetables cooked with fresh green chillies, fried onions and green peppers), Mix Vegetable Rogan Josh (classic tomato sauce with a fine selection of herbs), Daal Masalder (Chana, mog and mossorl daal cooked together with spice and herbs) and Palani Potatoes.
Niaz commented “The growth of veganism trend in the UK shows just how health- conscious UK diners are becoming. While this is very remarkable, being a 19 year old manager of an award-winning restaurant, I’m glad to contribute to this scene through my new range of inconceivable curry dishes, which is a first for UK Indian cuisine. Not only high in protein, being fully plant-based means that once again, innovating in what is otherwise a laggard curry industry shows how my restaurant is worthy of the nickname “The King of Brick Lane” which has been gifted by my customers.”
We will be checking this out as soon as possible 😉
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