Shampan Restaurant

The restaurant attracted us with its corner site and wide windows making it lighter than others on Brick Lane. The absence of anyone trying to entice us in with a heavy discount also seemed a plus. We were there around 6pm so it was relatively quiet.
The standard popadoms and chutneyys were fine but the food quality went downhill after that.
The pilau rice was glutenous and lumpy and was like it was cooked hours before. The chicken pieces looked dry even in the dansak sauce and the bindhi baji was well past its sell by date with blackening pieces of chewy okra. No garlic was evident in the over-​dry garlic naan. The spice sauces were all rather muted and the king prawn dish came with lots of sauce but only 3 king prawns. Not good value fir £12.95.
All in all a disappointment being in Brick Lane and we were left feeling we should have consulted Unilocal reviews before we’d chosen which of the many Indian restaurants to eat in. This was one well below what average for an Indian meal.

The Man and I came here because he wanted to go to Brick Lane. However, once we got there we discovered that the streets are lined with guys shouting «deals» at you, trying to convince you to try their restaurant over the one next door. The only thing this did for either of us was to make us search out the least obnoxious restaurant, or in the case of Shampan, the restaurant located next to the most obnoxious street shouter, just to make a point.
The restaurant itself is far too full of tables, so much so that as it grew busier, it became almost impossible get out from the table without moving it.
It’s BYOB, though they have a deal with an off-​license across the road that gets you 20% off purchases, so the drink portion is very affordable. There’s no corkage charge.
Bottles of water are on every table — but our very cool waiter informed us that we would be charged if we had any, so we stuck with beer.
We ordered cauliflower fritters and samosa starters — which were tasty but absolutely tiny. I had the chicken biryani and The Man had some special chicken dish. Apparently the deal the random guy on the street gave us wasn’t meant to include starters and our mains shouldn’t have cost more that 8 or 9 pounds, but they just decided to let us order what we wanted. This was good, but equally made you wonder just how much the prices are jacked up normally.
All in all the meal was fine, nothing to write home about, but two courses each for two people for £18 was a pretty good deal and filled our bellies, so we were happy.

This place is OK — not the best food I’ve had on Brick Lane, but not the worst either. They have some interesting Bangladeshi specialties which I’d never come across before, but the standard dishes that the table ordered were pretty underwhelming
Service, as others have said, was pretty non existent, although I did hear the waiters signing along with the music playing from their iPhones, which I guess could have been considered service of some sort…
The chutneys and dips looked pretty re-​cycled, which I can’t say was massively appetizing. If you’re in a pinch, it’ll do, but I’m sure there are far better places literally a stone’s throw away.

I had a super late night dinner at Shampan on Brick Lane with a few other Unilocalers after a recent event. They were literally the only place we could find open well after 11pm.
The nice thing was, despite the lateness of the hour, service was attentive and didn’t make us feel rushed at all. We ordered several dishes to share, and sat around for a while chatting. The food was pretty good, standard tikka masala and butter chicken. They were nice enough to bag everything up for me takeaway, and it stayed quite well in the fridge and was good as cold leftovers.
It’s nothing fancy – I’m sure there are plenty of places along Brick Lane who do things just as well. But, they were open, and they fed hungry Unilocal folk. That’s good enough for me.

We were pretty much the last customers in as got there pretty late. I enjoyed my meal here and I found the staff to be friendly and quick to serve. They let us stay late and wait for the taxi as it was freezing outside. The Meat Thali I had was delicious and good value for money!

This place was pretty terrible. Not the worst I’ve ever had, but pretty damn bad.
We were starving and it was late, late at night and needed a spot for some quick food. This was the first Indian restaurant we came to and walked in.
Seated without a word, we were given menus and asked for water. The water never came and the menus were caked — CAKED — with old food inside of them. Gross. I showed it to a passing waiter and he replaced them but still, gross. The water never came and we had to ask again for it.
We ordered a bunch of different food and it was hit or miss all the way. The lamb tika masala was down the line boring, nothing amazing and nothing horrible either. Good Paratha bread though to dip the sauces with. Mmm.
The service is where they really loose points though. We were ignored even trying to signal them and there had to be less than eight people in the whole place. The food, when we did order, took forever to come out (not just a «it feels like forever because we’re starving!» but a good 45 minutes.) Just awful.
Avoid this spot on the popular brick lane. There are way better choices all around the area.

We first went here in 2005 after a cabaret pop-​up in the area (Kiki & Herb).
Having friends in from the USA who wanted a good and not over the top Indian, this place came to mind.
It’s one of the few restaurants on Brick Lane that aren’t trying to drag you in and for a reason, they don’t need to.
As always, the food was delicious and our friends were very happy. Problem is, you always over order in here (the aromas in the place make you think you need to get a little of everything) and leave completely stuffed.
Friendly staff. Good prices.

Nice place for a real curry. I liked the fact they try to help you find what you are looking for rather than let you go for just any meal.

Stopped by here with my heavily pregnant other half for a curry one lunchtime this week. Three things struck me:
a) the relentless upselling of the staff (if I want a starter, having looked at the menu, I can order one under my own steam, thanks)
b) their almost total lack of interest when they weren’t doing a)
and c) the relative unadventurousness of the menu; lots of anglicised bits and pieces, with a smattering of Bangladeshi specials.
All that said, I did quite enjoy the meal lamb xahuti, chicken chili masala, and sag paneer, although none were the best exemplars of the art. The lamb was good, the chicken not unlike a pleasingly hottish homemade curry, and I would observe that the pickley bits that came with pre-​meal poppadoms were excellent. I did feel that it was a tad steep pricewise, coming in at 30 quid I had a pint of Cobra and we had tapwater otherwise.
In summary then: a curryhouse amid a lot of other curryhouses. Probably not the worst in this neck of the woods, but I’d be very disappointed were it the best.

Agree with review below about food being good but staff being difficult. I would think in the ultra competetive Brick Lane environment they would try harder. Waiters seem almost annoyed to have to take orders and serve… there are much friendlier places with great food nearby.

We got stopped by the guy outside who offered us each a free pint and 30% off the bill. I would of rather walked further down and chose somewhere of my own accord but my friends were happy to go in so I went with their choice.
It’s a little on the small side and not much room between tables, but the service was good and the food was spot on and all of us agreed it was a good choice. The first time in a while I have had a Madras which tastes like a proper Madras.
As we were eating I noticed people complaining about things not being free and about their bills to the tout on the way out and I thought we were in for a shock. But when we checked the bill we got 30% off and the free beers.
The guy outside said it was Kingfisher beer, which I doubt as when I went to the toilets downstairs I saw staff carrying cans of Carlsberg about.

GI-​GAN-​TISCH!!!
Vergesst, dass die Brick Lane nicht gerade die feinste Gegend Londons ist (East End bleibt East End, und das beginnt direkt östlich von Spitalfields Market!) — und dass die zahlreichen indischen, bengalischen und pakistanischen Restaurants dort nicht unbedingt das «Gelbe vom Ei» sind!
Aber das Shampan ist WIRKLICH zu empfehlen:
Kein «Schlepper» vor der Tür — trotzdem ist die Bude immer gerammelt voll (unbedingt einen Tisch reservieren — auch wenns nur für 2 Personen ist!!!).
Sehr professioneller Habitus am Telefon bei der Reservierung, freundliche Bedienung, wahnsinnig günstig (v.a. wenn man es mit Indischen Restaurants in Deutschland vergleicht) und das Essen… einfach FAN-​TAS-​TISCH!!!
KEIN Vergleich zu dem Geschmack, den man in Deutschland vom Inder gewöhnt ist, denn hier im «Shampan» isst man authentisch: scharfe Speisen sind WIRKLICH scharf, milde Speisen sind auch für die «zarten Gemüter» genießbar, obwohl sie keinesfalls «lasch» sind, sondern dem Gast immernoch ein «Feuerwerk an Aromen» auf der Zunge bereiten! HIMMLISCH!
Schon die 5 (anstelle der üblichen 3) Dips mit den frisch gebackenen (!!!) Popadoms (póp-​u-​dum) sind ein Gedicht… und die leckeren Hauptspeisen kommen in Portionen, die fast doppelt so groß sind, wie man es in Deutschland kennt (übrigens für fast die Hälfte des deutschen Preises).
Sollte das Essen DOCH zu scharf sein, so hilft ein frischer süßer «Lassi» beim «Löschen des Brandes», d.h. beim Beruhigen der Geschmacksnerven!
Dieses Restaurant ist ein MUSS für jeden Fan der Indischen Küche, der London besucht!
Public Transport: Tube bis Liverpool Street Station und dann 5 Min. Fußweg gen Osten via Spitalfields Market — oder direkt mit dem No.8 Bus bis zum oberen Ende der Brick Lane (No.8 Route führt über die Bethnal Green Road).
Have fun — und GUTEN APPETIT!!!

The service at this place was mind-​bogglingly terrible. There were about five waiters serving about as many tables, and their whole system was extremely chaotic and inefficient.
Not only did each phase of the eating experience take forever, but the food was absolutely unmemorable. I think the good location gives them more customer flow than they deserve. If you are looking for good Bengali food in Brick Lane, do more research and go somewhere else.

Feeling adventurous, we ordered three «special» dishes:
One based on Shatkora fruit («extremely popular in the Sylhet region of Bangladesh, providing a unique, sour flavour»)
One based on Rohi fish
And the Karai chicken served on a hot plate /​wok /​sizzler
The first two were rather awful. None of us liked the taste of the fruit very much and the Rohi fish had a very strong taste — more like teh dark tail pieces of a large carp
But the third… it was so yummy I’ll give this place 5 stars :)
PS: When I went there again, I couldn’t help but notice a big jar of «Pataks» sauce standing around. Lol.
PPS: Shampan is part of a chain and the other member, Clifton, has featured rather unfavourably in a BBC series called «Rogue restauarants» in 2008. Let’s just hope they learned from their mistakes.

I really enjoyed my recent trip to Shampan. We pre-​booked a table for 10 of us and I am glad we did as the restaurant was pretty full at 7.30pm on Tuesday, which is a good sign. We order a whole range of dishes and all were very nice. I ordered the Butter Chicken which was very saucy and perfect for dipping my garlic naan in. The pre-​meal poppadums and dips were great although I would say dont ask for spicy poppadums as they have a different texture to traditional poppadums and were not half as nice. They have Kingfisher and Cobra beer on tap but the staff are not keen on selling halves so expect to be persuaded to have a full pint. They twisted my arm. Prices were reasonable and I would definitely return.

I appear to be wading into dangerous waters here, actually trying to pick a restaurant on Brick Lane to recommend. I might regret this, but here we go.
Have you ever noticed how some restaurants on Brick Lane don’t have touts? This is one of them. It is always full. Yet, you show up and they’ll often say they’ll have a table for you in 5 minutes. How does this work? Well, if you happen to be a table of 2, you might get moved. Once I saw it happen to a couple twice in one meal, but they did get some drinks comp’d.
If you dine early, don’t expect to be able to linger over your meal. However, I have dined here later in the evening, and if they’re not full, they won’t rush you out the door.
If you show up and they’re full, you can end up waiting in the middle of the restaurant for your table, which feels a bit awkward, but soon enough you’ll forget all that, because the pappadums arrive. You pay per pappdadum and for the pickles, but they’re yummy. Especially the very vinegary, spicy, picklely pickle. Their special pickle is the yellow one made of coconut.
I highly recommend the dish that takes tandoori chicken, shreds it, and cooks it in a sauce. It’s a standout. I also like the chana masala, aloo gobi, tandoori chicken, chapati, and ragishwari. I’m not a fan of the sag paneer, it seems to have coconut in it.
They seem to have started putting a bottle of water on the table when you come in and then ignoring all your requests for tap water. This is a personal gripe of mine. But I usually have a pint of Kingfisher to remind me that the tap water in India is usually undrinkable, so I should shut my mouth and eat my yummy food.