Tayyabs

Tayyabs on Fieldgate Street in Whitechapel has served Punjabi cooking since 1972, becoming the flagship of British Punjabi dining and one of the most consistently popular restaurants in London for value and quality. The menu centres on tandoor-cooked meats and dry curries, with signature dishes including lamb chops from the tandoor, dry meat curry known as karahi gosht, and seekh kebabs served with naan and mint chutney — dishes that have drawn long-standing queues since well before the restaurant expanded to its current size. Tayyabs operates as a BYOB restaurant with no corkage charge, an unusual and popular policy that keeps overall costs low even for a full meal with wine or beer brought from outside. The dining room is large, loud, and informal, spread across several floors to accommodate the restaurant's popularity, with a fast, high-turnover service style suited to sharing large orders across a table rather than individual plates. Pricing runs £15–£28 per person à la carte, making Tayyabs one of the best-value meals in London relative to the quality and quantity of food served. Reservations are accepted through tayyabs.co.uk and are strongly recommended to avoid the long queues that regularly form at the entrance, particularly on weekend evenings. The Fieldgate Street location sits in the heart of Whitechapel in East London, within walking distance of Brick Lane, giving diners an easy way to combine a Tayyabs meal with the surrounding curry houses and street food of one of London's most significant South Asian food destinations.