Hotels near Tayyabs

Tayyabs has fed Whitechapel Punjabi food since 1972 and is the best-value serious meal in this guide. The sizzling marinated lamb chops are the reason the queue exists: four to a plate, charred hard on the ocakbasi-style grill, arriving still spitting fat onto the cast iron. Order them alongside karahi gosht, the dry meat, a tarka dhal and a couple of naan, and you will spend roughly £20 to £25 per head, around €23 to €29. It is bring-your-own-bottle, which drops the drinks bill to whatever the off-licence on Whitechapel Road charges.

Be clear about what you are walking into, because this is not a quiet dinner. The room is bright, hard-surfaced and extremely loud, tables turn fast, and service is brisk rather than warm. On Friday and Saturday nights the wait without a booking runs 30 to 45 minutes even though the restaurant seats several hundred across multiple floors. It opens daily from midday to 11:30pm and the kitchen does not slow down in between. Book through the restaurant's own reservation system if you are a party of four or more, and go early if you want to hear each other.

Pro Tip: Arrive before 6:30pm on a weekday and you will walk straight in. Buy your beer at an off-licence on the way, order one plate of lamb chops per person plus one karahi to share, and you will over-order rather than under-order.