664379 Tue Nov 03 10:00:37 -0800 2009 4 42 U.K./Ireland 0 5152212 30 years ago, when everybody dressed up to go out and eat in india, its was either mostly chinese, sometimes south indian but almost always punjabi. butter chicken, tandoori dishes, naan - all stuff you couldn't make at home. one step down from the punjabi restaurant - in terms of ambiance, not necessarily quality - are the punjabi run truck stops, the dhabhas, with a few dishes but done legendarily well. and then a rope bed to relax in after eating. needood, like tayyabs, is like a dhabha. and i liked the seekh kebabs, rotis and naans here even more than at tayyabs. the dal was a pleasant surprise - for once, not excessively oily - almost delicious. but alas the vegetables - pounded beyond belief sitting sullenly in a pool of oil - good grief, does ANYBODY eat this stuff? as for the dry meat and the lamb chops etc: lamb really doesn't do well under indian treatment. it gets way too dry. what you need is goat - and then maybe the chops and dry meat etc would be palatable. right now its like eating rubber. in summary: good-to-excellent seekh kebabs and dal, good naan and roti. i avoided the chicken tikkas because they (as does tayyabs) grill them as opposed to using the tandoor - which is bizarre. somebody should send over a plate of reshmi kebabs to show its done. and i'd avoid the rubber lamb and the veg dishes. Tue Nov 03 10:00:37 -0800 2009 11086 howler 1 5152811 howler, you are sort of right when you say 'like a dhaba'. There is a difference between Pakistani Punjabi cuisine and Sikh Punjabi cuisine. Dhabas are traditionally run by Sikhs, and originally catered for long-distance lorry drivers, a profession dominated by Sikhs in India. In India, I have never come across a lamb chop or sheekh kebab in a dhaba. Standard order at a dhaba would be a whole tandoori chicken and several naan/kulcha, perhaps sides of tarka daal and palak paneer, and in winter, makki di roti and sarson da saag. At a Muslim restaurant, grilled meats with rumali roti and biriyani couldn't be missed. By the way, do you know of any dhaba-style Sikh Punjabi restaurants in London? Tue Nov 03 12:56:37 -0800 2009 5152212 74453 medgirl 2 5152996 well said, i should have been clearer. i was trying to point out that we should think of needo/tayyabs more as we would a dhabha, with a few things done well, than as a full fledged punjabi restaurant. Tue Nov 03 13:47:27 -0800 2009 5152811 11086 howler 1 5157326 It's a shame you avoided the chicken tikkas - they are excellent, one of the highlights of the grill - really succulent and tasty. Why would you avoid them because they are grilled? (PS mods, can we can this thread merged with the other thread on Needoo?) Thu Nov 05 02:30:28 -0800 2009 5152212 147975 pj26 2 5157335 We don't have the ability to merge threads, but we're locking this one to direct the discussion to the other at: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/649685 Thu Nov 05 02:45:37 -0800 2009 5157326 2 The Chowhound Team