Picture of Vasanta Bhavan, E6 2JA

Historical version 1 of Vasanta Bhavan, E6 2JA (view current version)

Small, totally-vegetarian Indian cafe on the High Street in East Ham, very near East Ham Station.

Inside, cafe-style white plastic chairs are set at small square tables with marble-effect formica tops. Instead of napkins, there are boxes of tissues on each table. Like the other Indian cafes along this strip, the tables are all set with metal water jugs and cups.

Kake visited on a Monday early evening in June 2009. There were a fair few other people in, and others came in for takeaways during my visit. Music was playing, though not overly loudly. The staff seemed a bit confused by me saying hello to them and waiting for them to tell me where to sit, so I suspect the done thing is to just seat yourself. They also don't bring a bill when you're finished, or even ask if you want anything else; you just get up and pay at the till by the door on your way out.

They don't seem to have thalis on the menu, but there is some kind of buffet deal. They also do a selection of Indian-style Chinese food.

I tried the mushroom masala dosa (very thin rice/lentil pancake with a savoury filling). The dosa was crisp, but very greasy. The mushroom filling was very highly seasoned; it would have been too salty on its own but was generally fine with the dosa and chutneys. The accompanying sambar (a thin vegetable curry) was thicker than I've had elsewhere, perhaps more lentilly. Chutneys weren't bad. Overall I preferred the dosa I had at Chennai Dosa down the road, mainly because I didn't like the greasiness of this one.

Accessibility: A step up to get in. It's step-free once you're in, though the single unisex toilet cubicle is a bit of a squeeze.

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Last visited by Kake, 1 June 2009. Opening hours taken from the Vasanta Bhavan website, July 2009.
OS X co-ord: 542353 OS Y co-ord: 184327 (Latitude: 51.539389 Longitude: 0.052885)
This is version 1 (as of 2009-07-07 00:45:42). View current version.