The Tamil Crown, Islington

NSFW: Warning - this review may not be safe for work due to boobs and a small bit of penis

Is it actually a roast dinner? Welcome to this most exciting review of The Tamil Crown in Islington.

Almost as exciting as the upcoming elections.

Help The Aged, Croydon branch - an old man getting a blow job at the side of a car.
Meme.

I said election. Are you excited to see which Sadiq Khan will be crowned London mayor again by the time of my next roast dinner review?

I’m sure you’ll be excited to see lots of affordable homes being built that are not affordable and will almost certainly not be built as we’ll need to ensure some rich people in Richmond can see an old church in central London on all of the huge amount of clear, sunny days that we experience. Natalie Campbell is going to build 40,000. Sadiq Khan is also going to build 40,000. Howard Cox is going to triple affordable housing, though doesn’t say whether that is the amount of builds or the price of them that will triple. Amy Gallagher is just going to increase housing, assumedly simply by standing up to woke. That should do it.

Some anti-woke shit from Britain First on the voting pack for the London mayor election

Rob Blackie…oh he’s a Liberal Democrat, there is no need for extra houses according to them. Susan Hall is going to prioritise building affordable family homes, but also stop building tower blocks and not build on greenbelt so I’m not quite sure how you square that circle.

Build One Million Affordable Houses

There is one realistic housing pledge – Count Binface has a realistic pledge to build at least one affordable house.

And then there is this pile of vomit:

Some racist shit from Britain First on the voting pack for the London mayor election
Copyrig…nah just fuck off out of my city

“London is becoming a Third World cesspit” – well why don’t you fuck off to Skegness. With sincere apologies to the residents of Skegness.

Most people appreciate London for the wonderful mix of people, cultures, opportunities, cuisines (and I will very soon get onto talking about one) – why on earth would you want to be mayor of arguably the only city in the world that represents every single different culture throughout its 32 boroughs, if you seem to loathe millions of the residents and describe the city as a cesspit or an “unrecognisable disaster zone”? Finishing in last place in the mayoral contest would be too high a finish.

Immigration has made and continues to make London the most fascinating and exciting city in the world (in my opinion but I’m right). Long may it continue. Hell, even I’m an immigrant, albeit only from Yorkshire.

Just imagine if we had never had one person of Indian descent living in the UK. No curry, no tandoori, no naan, no roti, no chaat, nothing with the word “masala” in it, no Dishoom, no curry houses down Brick Lane, no Rishi Su…, no English football songs about Vindaloo – and you wouldn’t have a review of is this a roast dinner or not a roast dinner of The Tamil Crown. You’d just have the same frigging meal every Sunday. And what kind of person would want the same meal every Sunday?

Rant over.

No Restaurant To Be Allowed To Sell A Roast Dinner For More Than £25

The Tamil Crown is the sister pub to the slightly more restaurant-vibey, The Tamil Prince, which I’ve also eaten at. You might suggest that I like Indian food. Aha.

Run by Prince Durairaj, who was the executive chef at Roti King, and Glen Leeson from Market Halls, The Tamil Crown is a fairly typical Islington pub in structure, a central bar on the ground floor with a mixture of small tables and stools around the bar area, along with a mixture of locals with their dogs, and tourists who’ve no doubt read about The Tamil Crown on one of those lists. Upstairs, where we were sat, is a bit more formal, and rather noisy too – I could hear the two nearest people to me fine, but the two on the other side of the table were more of a struggle.

Roast dinner menu at The Tamil Crown, Islington
© Copyright – Roast Dinners In London 2024

Options were the vegetarian at £25.00 (rice means that it is definitely not a roast dinner), chicken at £28.00 or lamb shank at £32.00. I went for the latter as it looked more impressive on the meals that passed me.

To drink I had a fairly average IPA – some of their beers seemed to be by Harbour Beer Co, who are a bit too much Dad-style for my tastes. Also I had some glass of wine, I took no notice of what it was – it was quite unusually airy and light. Cannot say I was that into it – I’m more of a heavy-bodied wine drinker, on the semi-rare occasions I drink wine.

I guess it is time to work out if I can actually describe something different to carrots, despite day two of my hangover. How the hell did I end up at a trance party in Tiger Tiger full of 40 year-olds on Saturday? Ahhh the joys of London. And now the joys of being in my 40’s.

Restaurants To Serve A Minimum Of 4 Roast Potatoes

Lamb roast dinner at The Tamil Crown, Islington
© Copyright – Roast Dinners In London 2024

Starting with the…prawn crackers, mwah ha ha ha yes I am crackers. I’ve never seen the point in prawn crackers. Until I went to The Tamil Crown, for these were lightly crispy and could melt in your mouth – especially when dipped in the gravy. Well, curry sauce that we are pretending is gravy.

Chill out, chill out. We can talk red cabbage, this is something you are used to, and used to me not especially liking, normally due to an overload of nutmeg and/or cinnamon. But at The Tamil Crown, it was coconut-flavoured, lightly so and I hadn’t actually picked up on it until someone mentioned it, which seemed to trigger my tastes buds. Perhaps you could argue a tad al dente, I think I will argue that.

Next we can go with the green stuff, the mixed veg avial (perhaps pretend it is mixed greens, if it helps). This was super nice – I think there was aubergine and cucumber in there, perhaps avocado which seemed to hold it together, though it could easily just be something else and maybe it was cooked with avocado oil.

Then something crazy happened. Lord Gravy ate a pea. But don’t worry, it was safe – ensconced in a slightly spicy potato masala mix, so unable to mis-pea-have.

Quite possible the highlight of the meal was these tiny bits of fried cauliflower, called Gobi 65 (why?) – and if I trusted myself with a deep fat fryer, I’d attempt to make it myself. These were stunning – only little florets of crispy cauliflower that has been deep fried in a spicy mix, but wow.

London Bridge To Be Renamed Wayne Bridge

Lamb Sunday roast at The Tamil Crown, Islington
© Copyright – Roast Dinners In London 2024

Are these roast potatoes? Well, again, you need to really stretch the definition – in my book they are roasted, not roast potatoes. That said, very nicely crispy and a welcome addition.

Originally The Tamil Crown served a Yorkshire pudding with their Sunday roasts – if it had just been a roti, as it is now, then it may not have gone on my to-do list. I have mixed feelings about the roti – it was better than many Yorkshire puddings, but it definitely should not replace Yorkshire puddings – chefs should just cook Yorkshire puddings freshly. The roti worked so nicely with the gravy, though I think by the end I was quite tired of it, eating it did become perhaps more of a chore.

The lamb shank wasn’t as impressive as it looked, but I don’t want to overstate any shade here, for it fell off the bone nicely, there was plenty of it, it was soft and earthy to eat – yet it was overshadowed by cauliflower, by peas, by cucumber, etc. As good as the lamb was, if I come back to The Tamil Crown on a weekday, I’d be very tempted to order vegetarian, as that is where they really excelled.

Chicken Sunday roast at The Tamil Crown, Islington
© Copyright – Roast Dinners In London 2024

The chicken, though just a leg and therefore smaller, I think was likely the better choice in terms of flavour.

Finally, the gravy, which was just like a curry sauce, and was probably a curry sauce, was delicious. A warm spiciness to it – to my relatively limited understanding of Indian cuisine, I’d suggest that it was on the masala side of flavour. It was a bit confusing as I didn’t know whether to pour it on, or to dip use it as a dipping gravy – in the end I poured some on, and dipped the rest.

The Tamil Crown

I guess The Tamil Crown is one of those roast dinners that you probably decided was or wasn’t for you, just from the image.

I really enjoyed the flavours of the food, I loved the gravy/masala sauce, the Gobi 65 was stunning, prawn crackers were a revelation in as much as something of the texture of Quavers can be, the mixed veg avial was also glorious.

Downsides? Well, is it really a roast dinner? I can see both sides of the argument. I liked the roti, but I prefer a Yorkshire pudding. Roasted potatoes were nicely crispy but weren’t roast potatoes.

All positive scores around the table, if a little mixed in enthusiasm – the vegetarian scored hers between a 7.50 and an 8.00…so 7.75? One person went so high as a 9.00, there was an 8.00 and an 8.01 from my regular accomplice, who had the chicken.

My score is a heart-warming 8.11 out of 10. I think you should try it – just keep an open mind, my friends. Unlike some of our more challenged mayoral candidates.

And yeah, I’m probably voting Count Binface for London Mayor. Either him or Re-join EU. I don’t know if Re-join EU are going to build any houses, but at least then I could go live in Europe for more than 90 days. I don’t talk about Brexit enough nowadays, do I?

No plans yet for next Sunday. In fact, I don’t have any Sunday roasts booked at all…which is unusual for me when I normally am booked up for weeks ahead. Must be the summer coming…bring on the warm rain.

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Summary:

The Tamil Crown, Islington

Station: Angel

Tube Lines: Northern

Fare Zone: Zone 1

Price: £32.00

Rating: 8.11

Get Booking

https://www.thetamilcrown.com/

Instagrim

Loved & Loathed

Loved: I loved the gravy/masala sauce, the Gobi 65 was stunning, prawn crackers were a revelation in as much as something of the texture of Quavers can be, the mixed veg avial was also glorious. Lots of flavour.

Loathed: Well, is it really a roast dinner? I liked the roti, but I prefer a Yorkshire pudding. Red cabbage a bit al dente. Not much really to dislike.

2 responses to “The Tamil Crown, Islington

  1. I associate prawn crackers more with Chinese food than Indian but, given the look of that meal, they can put whatever they want on top. It looks superb.

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