In Search of Curry Awards Worth Chicken Tikka Masala in London

As you know, I flew to England with a long list of things to do. You might also want to know that eating Chicken Tikka Masala was at the top of the said list.

Chicken Tikka Masala Britain’s National Dish

Chicken Tikka Masala is an intriguing dish for me. Surely I have eaten it before, probably in Singapore or India, but it never made an impression enough for me to remember when and where exactly. But only when researching London I found out that, like Kedgeree, it’s also a dish born of British colonisation of India. It’s made of roasted chicken cooked with Indian spices.

Curry Houses Worth of Curry Awards

Fun fact: there are more than 12,000 curry houses in the UK ━ that number has multiplied by ten in the past five decades. The Brits seem to love their interpretation of Indian food so much that they made an annual award for it, The British Curry Award.

I wanted to try the best Chicken Tikka Masala in London, and the latest British Curry Award went to Benares, but Fafa vetoed this choice because Benares is pricey.

Also, according to him, these awards mean nothing.

Surely an award means something, I thought to myself. So I tried to find another award-winning restaurant for Chicken Tikka Masala and stumbled upon a Master Chef award-winning curry house in Bricklane. Eventually, I managed to drag Fafa there to participate in my eating Chicken Tikka Masala in London quest.

I first noticed how packed the restaurant was; there was almost no personal space, but this seems to be common in London eateries. Eventually, after getting the waiter’s attention, we placed the order.

The food came. I asked Fafa whether Chicken Tikka Masala was supposed to be orange in colour, like butter chicken, as in my head, the gravy would be reddish. He said no.

Also, it tasted sweet! Gaaah…

I want to think that I can appreciate many types of food, but sweet curry (including Japanese curry), makes me gag. The same reason I didn’t enjoy eating at Nair’s Restaurant in Japan.

So I moved on to the garlic rice (yummy!) accompanied by Bollywood Blast. As the menu described, Bollywood Blast is: “a tender lamb (we opt-ed for chicken) chunks cooked in green chilli sauce, Mexican chilli, Naga chilli, African Chilli… It is recommended for die-hard Chilli Warriors and mad haters.“

Now, I pride myself on being someone who can eat spicy food ━ I used to have birds-eye chilli with Tempe as a midday snack when I worked in Jakarta FGS. But this dish was unedible spicy.

Admittedly, this was my fault. The dish did come with a warning, but if you put it on the menu, you expect people to eat and somewhat enjoy it ━ or maybe there are hard-core spicy lovers beyond my level. Unfortunately, I finally reached a point of spiciness that I could not want, and that level is several levels below this dish.

If you love spicy food and think you could handle it, please let me know how it is because I want to know your take on it. But if you are crazy, I say skip this restaurant and check out the restaurant beside it, Aladin.

Aladin’s Chicken Tikka Masala

Aladin is another “award-winning” curry house in Brick Lane, aka Banglatown, serving authentic Chicken Tikka Masala. We went there a day after the above experience with a food tour group. Again, we had Chicken Tikka Masala, Lamb Jalfrezi and Veggie Bhuna with Pilao Rice.

The whole banquet was heavenly.

If this is how the Brits interpret Indian food, I am here for it. Brits Chicken Tikka Masala, you got my seal of approval.

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