Last weekend, Mirna came over to London for a visit, her first since she and her husband cruelly left us all to move to Hong Kong and continuously show us photos of the amazing food they eat. Thanks a lot. Ha! Anyway, she has been sorely missed and something she had been missing from London was the easy access to Indian and Pakistani food. I stepped away from my laptop last Saturday night to take her and another mutual friend Rachel to Southall to feast. We had already chosen Gifto’s Lahore Karahi as our restaurant that night as we’d had a great lunch there a little over a year ago.
Now, I don’t proclaim to be any authority on Pakistani or Indian food but this Punjabi restaurant on the Uxbridge Road serves some pretty delicious grub. That night, it was also the most packed restaurant on the high street, full of families, couples, friends… and a queue at the door. Luckily, we got there just before the queue formed and got the last booth in the place.
We started with a few chaats. A papri chaat (£3.00) with crunchy wafers, chickpeas, potatoes, and the characteristic chaat combination of tamarind and yogurt went down a treat. A Dahi Puri (£3.00) was more of the same but stuffed in crispy hollow balls that we spooned directly into our mouths; any other attempt at eating them and they’d fall apart.
In hindsight though, we probably could have done without the chaats! Everything else we ordered arrived in close succession after, cluttering our table with hot pans and dangerously sizzling hotplates.
The paneer tikka (£4.90) was homemade, had been slathered in a delicious marinade and had been grilled but still was moist.
Seekh kebabs (£2.90) were one of Gifto’s signature dishes and came two to an order and turned out to be the bargain of the century: these were some big kebabs! These minced lamb kebabs were well spiced and seriously tasty.
Karahi chicken (£7.90) was another signature dish and was described as boneless chicken in a spicy masala sauce. Although this was made with breast meat, not exactly my favourite cut, the chicken was surprisingly moist and absolutely fabulous in the spicy tomato based sauce.
Saag paneer (£5.90) was very light and was packed full of fried paneer cubes (again, another signature dish – I think we ordered most of them!).
Their tarka dal (£5.90) was one of our favourites and we cleaned the bowl of its delicious lentil mixture (yup, another signature dish). I would just be happy with a portion of this and some naan. OK, and maybe some paneer tikka.
A plain naan (£1.10), a peshwari naan (£2.00) and a basmati pilau rice (£3.00) were the sides to our meal. The peshwari naan in particular was sweet and nutty and a nice contrast to the spicy curries and grills.
While eating, we noticed that we were the only table who had their naans sliced; all the other tables had their naans brought to them whole. Did they think we were “special”?
Anyway, this looks like a lot of food and I won’t lie, for three people, it was a lot of food. I took home the leftovers and they were enough to feed two of us for lunch the next day. With lassis and all the food above, the total came to about £50 – and really, there was enough food for four to five people. Service was efficient and food comes quite quickly but this isn’t really a surprise when you notice that the open kitchen takes up a whole side of the restaurant. Great food and it’s starting to be one of my favourite places in Southall. Gifto’s isn’t really a place at which you can linger after dinner though, what with the long queues at the door, and so for dessert (Gifto’s does do sweets too), we wandered down the street to Rita’s where we could shoot the breeze over masala teas and rasmalai and gulab jamun. One day, when it’s a little emptier, I’ll stick around for their desserts.
Gifto’s Lahore Karahi
162-164 The Broadway (along Uxbridge Road)
Southall
UB1 1NN
Sun, 13 Mar, 2011 at 15:35
Looks very delicious and I love how you describe each dish. This is another one I want to try!
Sun, 13 Mar, 2011 at 16:20
Good find – love the look of the kebabs.
Sun, 13 Mar, 2011 at 16:54
Sounds like an excellent bargain. I would certainly visit if I lived in London. They love cabbage shreds and I wonder why they like to cover some of their dishes with it
Sun, 13 Mar, 2011 at 19:29
Oh, now you’ve reminded me that I haven’t had Pakistini/Indian food in ages. The dal looks amazing!
Sun, 13 Mar, 2011 at 22:47
everything looks tasty!
Sun, 13 Mar, 2011 at 23:20
Those seekh kebabs look awesome. Interesting about the naans though, I wonder why that was?!
Mon, 14 Mar, 2011 at 08:11
The portions look massive! Bit weird about the naans especially if you’re the only table that were served them sliced. Come to think of it, I’ve seldom seen them sliced, other than at posh Indian restaurants.
Mon, 14 Mar, 2011 at 09:43
I’m not even sure if i should tell you this, but I will for your next trip. Rita curry house do the BEST kebab rolls around – ask for the batura kebab roll (lamb). It’s £1.50 for a small one, and though it’s easily enough, you’ll be ordering another one before you’ve finished. Everything else is ok but the batura kebab rolls.. mmm! The tamarind sauce is just right, and the batura’s fresh hot, bloody marvellous. Drooling at the thought.
Tue, 15 Mar, 2011 at 11:59
really great write-up and lovely description of the dishes. the papri chaat looks delish! i have to say though, that what they re marketing as chicken karahi is not authentic- chicken karahi never has a thick, abundant sauce and is never made w boneless chicken. seems they are trying to fool people…not v nice of them… x shayma
Tue, 15 Mar, 2011 at 23:06
Damn they do look good…. I regret that after living out west for around 5 years we never ventured further west all that often. Our loss.
Fri, 18 Mar, 2011 at 14:38
Robert: Oh, thank you! I always did wonder if anyone cared about descriptions of each dish but I have such fun recording it all. (I think it’s the scientist in me)
Gourmet Chick: They were pretty damn good…and so cheap!
Three-Cookies: Not sure about the cabbage. You’d be interested to know that there were fried onion slices underneath the kebabs and paneer…on the sizzling plates. Those were so good, especially the ones covered in lamb fat!
Hanna: That dal was excellent. Love love love it!
kat: It definitely was!
Lizzie: Hmmm. Three giggly girls may have got them a bit worried. Perhaps they thought we were delicate?
Mr Noodles: Oooooh, we were some of the very few non-South-Asian people there and I was certainly the only Chinese person. Perhaps they were worried that we couldn’t deal with unsliced naans!
Hungry: :D I didn’t know they did a bhatura roll! I love Rita’s bhaturas….usually I have them with their chole. Thanks for the tip on the kebab roll – I’ll definitely try it!
shayma: Ah..such a shame. There were a few chicken dishes where the meat was on the bone so not everything was boneless. Still, it was delicious!
Mzungu: Awww…. well, you can still catch a train from Paddington…