Tiffinbites
My friend Uwe was in town for a few meetings, and as is customary, we decided to go out for a bite to eat at lunch time with a couple of other foodie friends, Eleni and Kayrul.
Tiffinbites was the natural choice as it is located very close to the bank we all work for. Another reason for going to Tiffinbites was to use my Taste London card which gives 50% off the food bill.
Being the newest branch of this chain of Indian restaurants, the decor is modern and largely in keeping with all the businesses in the area. I felt it rather cold and soulless with large glass windows, steel counters and plain tables and chairs.
We ordered 4 of their tiffins; each tiffin came with accompanying pilau rice and vegetables (potatoes & pea curry). Kayrul and I went for the Lamb Rogan Josh @ £9.95, while Eleni opted for the “Prawn Malay Curry” @ £9.95 and Uwe for the “Chicken Karahi” @ £8.95.
I was underwhelmed by my choice – there was not enough lamb in my tiffin and the meat was slightly gristley. The sauce was not nearly as spicy as it could have been and tasted rather bland. It had 3 chillies against this choice, so supposedly it was the hottest choice on the menu. I enjoyed the pilau rice and accompanying curried vegetables more than I did the lamb.
Eleni was, on the other hand, quite happy with her choice of prawn Malay curry – it tasted light and coconuty, and we both felt that the delicious sauce went very well with the prawns.
I didn’t get to taste the Karahi Chicken although Uwe seemed content with his choice.
We also ordered a “paneer naan” and a “minced lamb naan”. I struggle to find anything to say about them, passable I would imagine is a good description.
Another mistake I made was ordering the mango lassi @ £2.50. As explained by Kayrul, a lot of the less authentic Indian restaurants in London will use mango pulp rather than fresh mangoes when making their lassi. This tends to make for a very smooth and overly sweet drink – Tiffinbites’ version was unbearably sweet.
Despite being nearly empty, service was impersonal and surprisingly inattentive. They forgot to give us the 50% discount from our food bill, so I had to ask them to correct it from £59 to £34. At £8.50 per person, I still felt that Tiffinbites was not such good value considering the quality and quantity of food being served.
Verdict – Indian restaurant chain serving uninspiring food for cheap but not cheerful business lunches. A place to be avoided.
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