Firstly? It's a bit of a trek to get to and it's quite hidden away. Make sure you know exactly where you're going and how to get there because Aldgate East isn't the best place to get your iPhone out to check you've gone the right way. Secondly? Book! It was so packed when we got there, there must have been an hour long queue and it made me very glad I'd booked weeks in advance.
The restaurant is split over two floors and is quite funky with music pumping through the restaurant. The service is incredibly quick - too quick in my opinion as I don't like having my starters and mains come at nearly the same time - but they were courteous and did everything we asked. One small gripe is that they said they didn't serve tap water and yet when we were leaving, another table had a big pitcher of tap water. Wasn't happy!
A nice touch is that they had poppadoms on the table ready for when we sat down. The mint yoghurt and fresh onion/tomato mix was delicious and the poppadoms, although spicy, were lovely. It was nice to have something to snack on whilst we read the small menu.
Tayyabs don't do many dishes but they're all very cheap and very tasty. One of our party didn't enjoy his meat biryani or peshwari nan but the rest of us did enjoy our meals and said that we were all nicely full. I didn't feel absolutely stuffed which was great as we headed out for drinks afterwards and the last thing I needed was to be utterly bloated! The food was fresh and strangely light, really yummy.
So what did we have? Not too much but enough to keep us munching! I'd heard a lot about the lamb chops and so we had a portion of those along with some Seekh kebab, all of which were really tasty, spicy and hot. The tandoori lamb chops are a must!
Main courses were pretty similar. We had some garlic nan, peshwari nan, pilau rice, meat biryani x 2 and a couple of special chicken tikka masala type dishes which were very nice. Portions were quite small although for the price, I couldn't complain. However, I was very glad I had starters + a curry, rice and nan. I think I would have been hungry otherwise.
One other important thing to state: there is no alcohol at this restaurant. It wasn't something I'd thought about but when we got there and went to order wine only to find out that it was a dry restaurant, it was something we perhaps should have considered!
However, we did make up for the lack of alcohol after dinner, don't fear!
I'd definitely go back to Tayyabs in the future as I thought their dishes were very nice and I think I'd gorge even more on the starters when I go again. The damage was also very reasonable; £14 each for two courses.
Vitals:
Tayyabs
83-89, Fieldgate St. London E1 1JU
Tel: 020 7247 6400
Website: http://www.tayyabs.co.uk/
Nearest tube: Whitechapel / Aldgate East
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