Randomness Guide to London Menu

Keralan restaurant on the High Street in East Ham, also offering a takeaway service.

It's quite small, seating only 28 people at 2-person and 4-person tables. Menus are laminated into the tabletops, and the walls are painted a soothing pink.

Kake first visited on a Monday early evening in September 2009, arriving shortly before 6pm. There were about 9 or 10 other people in, including a small family group. Background music was playing, though not too loudly. Jugs of water were already out on the tables, and a water glass arrived swiftly on request.

I chose the fish molley (£5), and the waiter recommended I have the appam (£1.80 for 2 pieces) with it. The fish molley consisted of a thick fish steak in a bath of coconutty sauce. It was pretty good; the fish wasn't overcooked, and the sauce was mild, fragrant, and enlivened with plump sultanas, crunchy nuts, and soft, sweet onion slices. The appam were lovely; thick and soft in the middle, thin and crisp on the edges, and with a nice slightly sour fermented flavour throughout.

I also had a mango lassi (£1.50), which was poured from a huge jug kept in the fridge at the back of the room. It was fine, not too sweet, and quite thick.

Service was fine, though for some reason the waiter decided to bring me a knife and fork when I was already halfway through my meal and happily eating with my hand. Perhaps I need to get a badge saying "I am fine; I always eat this slowly".

On a second visit by Kake and friend on a Wednesday evening in March 2010, the ambience was similar, and again there were tables available throughout our visit.

Ullivada (onion fritters) to start were quite tasty; similar to onion bhajis but crisper and less stodgy, with a deep roasted-onion flavour. Chicken 65 (spicy deep-fried chicken) was well-flavoured and nicely tender; they'd managed to avoid letting it dry out as can sometimes happen. Kadala curry (chickpeas) and aloo gobi were competent though nothing special. Appam were again good.

Our final bill this time was just under £11/head including a few lassis and excluding tip. They didn't seem to mind us sitting and chatting for over an hour after we'd finished eating (as mentioned above, the place wasn't busy).

Accessibility: Small step up to get in. Stepfree once you're in, apart from a tiny step up into the toilets, which is mainly a problem if you forget it's there when coming out. The toilets themselves (one cubicle each for ladies' and gents, communal handwash area) are a bit of a squeeze to get into.

See also:

• Many Chowhound threads: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
• Peter Cherches' review (scroll down to the middle)
• London Eating comments
• Yelp comments