Hot in the city: The Tamil Prince in Islington serves south Indian dishes with a twist within the cool surrounds of a traditional pub
(Picture: Adrian Lourie)British pubs, enlivened by an unexpected jolt of immigrant cuisine and culture, are a long-time obsession of mine. At the Caribbean-run Golden Anchor in Nunhead, dominoes players slap down their tiles amid the beckoning waft of oxtail stew. In Hounslow’s Punjabi-influenced African Queen, the clubby, blue-lit room thrums with the sizzle of tandoori mixed grills and the constant roar of televised sport. Duck into the Castle Tavern in Woolwich and you’ll see pints of Stella employed to wash down vast platters of Ghanaian ‘red red’ beans and fried plantain. They are scrappy monuments to a specific sort of multicultural, hybrid Britishness. But outside of the Midlands, especially — where South Asian-run ‘desi pubs’ proliferate — they remain a stubbornly unknown quantity.
In London at least, The Tamil Prince might be about to change that. A partnership between former Roti King colleagues (namely, Tamil Nadu-born executive chef Prince Durairaj and general manager Glen Leeson), this smartly rendered Islington spot both flies the flag for the desi pub while also pushing the medium forward. I can think of few other places where the sneak-attack of exceptional food in unassuming surroundings has felt quite so intricately wrought and electrifying.
