Sheba on Brick Lane

It has become very fashionable to dismiss Brick Lane as a place to go and spend time. People lament that the street has lost its soul, when what they really mean is that they’re no longer young.

Yes, a lot of people dress in offcuts from The Muppet Show and there are more tourists than there used to be. But is it so bad having to spend time with people who think it’s hip to deconstruct nursery rhymes, or those hardy folk who are investigating somewhere outside of their native country? Shuffle past these folk and you still find that there are decent restaurants producing very good food.

One of these places is Sheba, which has been part of Brick Lane for over 35 years. It was the only restaurant on Brick Lane that took part in the recent London Restaurant Festival. Its bespoke menu created for the festival was a big success, and judging from the food on display it was not hard to see why.

The most pleasing part about Sheba is the confidence it has in its clientele. It could be very easy to simply slop up very orthodox dishes but there is a real variety in what the restaurant has to offer. After nibbling away on some onion bhajis, a group of us ordered a combination of dishes from the menu. The choice varied from the familiar to the unknown.

I went for the lamb kofte curry first up. I was very taken with the tenderness of the meat. Lamb curries can sometimes be a bit of a chore but it was obvious that this had been cooked over a long period of time, as the meat easily yielded.

The same qualities were true of the Bangla Shank – a tender lamb shank which had been slow-roasted with carrots, aromatic herbs, spices and saffron. The way the meat came off the bone was like pulling off a woman’s stocking. It tasted magnificent and was the first thing our group recommended to two fellow diners who were unsure of what to go for.

Moving away from the lamb, I went for a portion of the Lobster Bengal Special. This had been marinated overnight and then given a special spiced coating. There was no point in trying to pick apart what was in the coating and it was better to simply enjoy the luxuriant taste of the lobster meat.

By now, I had overindulged to the point of not being able to have any more. But I was more than happy with what I’d had. Sheba deserves to be congratulated for putting together an ambitious and eye-opening menu.

Sheba
136 Brick Lane
Shoreditch
E1 6RU

Tel: 020 7247 7824