Chillies Restaurant

With so much competition in Brick Lane for Indian restaurants, you would think you’d need to make an effort and actually have some good food instead of just showing pictures of Russell Brand nodding off in your restaurant. The fact that he ate here and still agreed to a photograph afterwards just proves that heroin is a terrible thing.
Awful. Just awful.
Aside from the dodgy claims they use to get you inside (they tried to stiff us on the promised 20% discount) the food was terrible.
Bland, chewy, bringing us stale naan instead of stale roti, it was a debacle.
Worst was their claim that they would make vegan dishes for my wife. They assured us multiple times they would do this then brought her dishes smothered in yoghurt. Then they tried to tell us that ghee was vegan before admitting they didn’t know the difference between vegan and vegetarian (tho we had explained).
I’ve eaten Indian food all around the world and this comes in a magnificent last (and I’m counting the time I got dysentery from a ‘chicken’ curry in Varanasi. At least that was tasty)

One of the waves of Indian places on Brick Lane. We ended up here after an event and a lot of wine.
They’re BYO, and the food is fine. I think it was £14 each with us, including tip, but there’s much better food around, and the service is a bit of a mess.

I’m not a fan of Indian food since I really do not like the taste of curry, but my friends were jonesin’ for some spectacular curry while we were in London.
After speaking to several locals, we were told the best curry is on Brick Lane in Soho.
We stumbled upon the street which was full of restaurant upon restaurant. We decided upon Chillies because it was clean, bright and full of patrons.
I ordered the tandoori shrimp with pileau rice. It was really really good and I surprised me how much I enjoyed it. My friends ordered lamb korma and chicken 3 ways.
The place is packed so get ready for some fast paced Indian food.

I quickly browsed through the previous few reviews, and walked in.
My food was OK, the spice was very mild though which made me think of some Thai dish I have had before.
The service is a mess with the waiters running around yet with no real results on the table. It took a good hour and ten mins for me to eat a one course meal.
I would not go to this place again probably. But if you have just had a few drinks at the next door bar and pubs then this option might look attractive and do the job for your stomach.
Good luck

1. Lamb Vindaloo: SPICY. Be warned, this dish is HOT but, delicious. The lamb was tender and the sauce it came in was really good but, be prepared to sweat.
2. Chicken Biriyani: My favorite of the night. The fluffy and flavorful rice came with white meat which, I prefer over dark and a nice tomato based vegetable sauce.
3. Prawn Sag: Not a fan. They’re not so much prawns as they are TINY baby shrimp. I was disappointed because I expected good quality seafood and these tiny little shrimps tasted like they just came from a frozen bag. It looked and tasted cheap.
4. Vegetable Korma: Also not a fan. I like coconut milk in my dishes usually but, this is just over the top. It tasted like dessert. I think sugar or sweetening a main can be a good thing but, this was just overkill. I hated it.
5. Pilau and Garlic Naan: Rice wasn’t anything special but, the Garlic Naan was decent. I didn’t taste too much garlic on it but, it had a fluffy and chewy texture.
The food was OK at best with two dishes we liked and two that we REALLY didn’t. I’m giving a two star rating because the service was appalling. We were rushed in to the «bar» area which, was a tiny narrow walkway and told that the wait was two minutes and it most certainly was not. When they finally got around to seating us, they gave us no menus (we end up having to grab our own from a counter) and two place sets when there were three of us. We also asked for water three times before anything was brought over.
The last straw was when we used their 25% promotion (which, btw includes a complimentary drink which, they did not deduct from our bill) and they brought us the bill, didn’t apply the discount and when we pointed it out, they took it back, made the adjustment and then tacked on a tip. Are you serious? Mind you, the promo did not even indicate that a service charge is applied if we use the discount. That’s poor use of an advertisement and poor customer service. I would not recommend this place to anyone when there other (better) choices on Brick Lane.

I’ve reviewed this elsewhere but decided I should add it here too. I only wish I had read the reviews before deciding to eat in this place. Go there if you want to get burnt! Our group of 4 were lured in by the promise of a free beer (which turned out to be only a half pint). When the bill arrived we found we had been charged £12.50 for their 2 course plus rice/​naan deal plus the price of the 4 pints we had ordered with dinner. We asked them to correct the bill as we had actually only ordered 1 main course each (3 of which were vegetarian so comparatively cheap) plus 2 portions of rice shared between us and 3 servings of naan, plus the pints. The total should have been around £61 before service charge, but we were being asked for just over £71. The revised bill arrived which came to roughly the same price but listed much more expensive meals than those on the menu. When we asked for the menu so we could check the pricing, a new menu appeared that we had not seen before. Then we were told that we had ordered from the set menu (with the cheaper prices), not the standard menu. The waiter then offered that he would charge us the cheaper prices but we would have to pay for the first half pint we’d had (and of course it turns out that a half pint is much more than half the price of a whole pint!). We argued against it but in the end I told the guy to take off the service charge and we paid the rest, about £65, so not the end of the world but more than I’m happy to give such dishonest people! These guys know exactly what they are doing and make the deals and menus deliberately obscure so that at the end of the night they can basically charge you whatever they feel like. Absolutely no customer service and they don’t even care if you won’t come back or leave a bad review. I reckon just about any place on Brick Lane is better than this one!

Good chicken vindaloo. Bad chicken korma (it tasted like sweet potatoes?) I am not normally one to deduct stars for service, but they were straight up rude here. They gave us a hard time about drinking tap water instead of the bottled water pre-​placed on the table. Overall this place is a pass. I agree with Travis P. — shady.

Still going strong, just a quick update. We called in here last night. We needed to be quick as only had an hour before the train. (luckily only 10 minutes walk to Liverpool Street). The bartering out the front of all the restaurants in Brick Lane has toned down until you stop at a doorway and then it’s back to what deal suits you. The service and food was good and delivered within the timescales requested.

The food was very good – but just like every other Indian place I’ve tried on Brick Lane. What was disappointing is how shady they were.
For example: They told us we could have two rounds of drinks, but we later found that they only meant beer or wine. They also only had one beer and «a drink» meant a half pint. Then when we decided to buy more, they magically had four types of beer.
Also, the portions were tiny. They told us the average main course was 7.50, but the cheapest was probably 7.95 and any decent-​sized meal was 10 – 12. The rice was about 3 pounds, and he advised us very rudely that we must order more rice because it was very small. We were upset because at 3 GBP for rice – the cheapest and easiest food they have – we would expect a decent portion. But it was probably about a half pint of rice as well.
The normal mains were about 4 chunks of chicken with tons of sauce, so we ordered more naan so we could fill up our bellies. I definitely suggest the 12.95 mixed plates because they were at least a decent size (everything was 30% off too, so that was good). The starter we got was tiny, and the waiter insisted that we needed more, which bothered us on many levels – so we ordered 2 between the three of us and the 5-​pound starter was like a 3-​inch lamb whatever-​its-​called, and two little chunks of chicken I think.
The Coconut rice was much sweeter than normal coconut rice so we mixed it with plain rice to tone it down to a tolerable level.
The waiter was a total jerk and was very bossy with us. I know it’s normal on brick lane to be a bit manipulative and dishonest but it still upsets me when they do this. In the end we spent 15 – 20 pounds each and were still hungry. So essentially they say «30% off» then raise the price by 75% compared to what you get anywhere else on Brick Lane.
I guess I’d recommend the food it’s just a bit more pricey than the rest of the delicious restaurants in the area.

This has to be one of the best Indian restaurants in London. I had a family celebration here including my 75 year old father and 4 year old cousins. We all enjoyed our food. My vegetable dhansak was delicious and not too hot as it often is at other restaurants. The décor was bright and pleasant and the restaurant was very clean. The service was attentive, whilst not being obtrusive. Another big bonus is that the restaurant allow you to bring your own bottle of wine, which helps reduce the cost of the meal. The only downside was that the toilet was downstairs, which was too difficult for my frail father to use.

So, I think I ate too much this time…
The family headed towards Brick Lane for a curry so I got out my trusty Unilocal iphone app and found the review for this place. Sadly, I didn’t realise that you were meant to let the chap out the front offer you free booze and food, so with Unilocal iPhone app in hand, I marched straight into the restaurant (which meant we paid full prices) — my sister chastised me afterwards.
That was really the only downside (other than the bloated feeling I had at the end). The service was great and the food was great — and happily complemented by some Kingfisher beer. The portion sizes are good so you don’t need to go overboard with ordering stuff which we did!
Overall a really good Indian restaurant — just need to loiter out the front next time to get the free booze :)

Hands down, this was the best Indian food I’ve had to date. I’ve tried Michelin star Indian restaurants in NYC, other restaurants on London’s famed Brick Lane and none have held a candle to Chillies.
Hesitant to accept the first «offer» received as we walked down Brick Lane (common knowledge tells you that the offers from restaurant owners/​promoters get better as you go down the road, but the quality of food can go down too), we eventually decided it probably wouldn’t get too much better than what they were offering: 2 free bottles of wine and 25% off anything on the menu. We were sold.
The four of us all had different entrees and different kinds of naan (plain, garlic, stuffed with raisins and something else, and stuffed with spinach). I had the spinach and loved it. We also split a 5^th round of plain or garlic naan and that was good too. The wine wasn’t so bad either, a generic pinot grigio that tasted just fine to us.
But the best parts were our entrees. One friend had the BEST chicken tikka masala that anyone at the table had ever tried. We ordered the 5^th round of naan to scoop up that sauce. If I could, I would have ordered 5 rounds of it just to scoop the sauce into jars to take home with me. I ordered a vegetarian dish with tomatoes, potatoes, lentils and other delicious ingredients and thought it was the best vegetarian Indian meal I’ve ever had. I scraped the bowl clean with my naan. One vegetarian option wasn’t the biggest hit, but there was a lot of rice involved and I’m not a huge fan of rice. And the fourth, from the chef’s specialty menu I believe, was delicious as well — spicy, garlicky with lots of tomatoes and chicken. I wish I could remember the names of these dishes, but unfortunately the menu isn’t available online.
Without a doubt it was the best meal of my trip and again, the best Indian I’ve probably ever had. I will make a trip back to London just to go to Chillies again. Oh and the bill? We each paid 10 pounds for a total of 2 bottles of wine, 4 entrees and 5 baskets of naan. That is quite a deal!

Nice place that is in the heart of Brick Lane. The waiters stand in the street and try to pull in customers thus stop have a chat and barter with them to get a great deal. We managed to get free starters!
The food is traditional Indian/​Bengali and very good. Its basic but well made thus delicious. The food from the grill is great and the curries can e made as spicy as you like. Price is good too thus jot very expensive night out. especially with the starters being for free :-)