Manjal

For those of you wanting to have the Christmas menu contact them first — visited recently and was told no Christmas menu — not on at the weekends and only available for larger groups — emails and website make no mention of this

Went after a year, their menu has changed, especially the names of some of the dishes. Their signature dishes which are South Indian or rather from Kerala, are now under the autograph section for starters and mains, which is what we ordered.
We ordered starters, group of 4, the devilled lamb, chicken 65 and squid. My favourite dish the devilled lamb, either the chef had forgotten how to cook it or they had leftovers which were recooked and served, it tasted deep fried, crisp and more like sweet and sour lamb from a Chinese takeaway. Barring this disaster there other starters were very good. For the mains we ordered Goan prawn curry, lamb, bone and liver mix and fish curry, appams/​hoppers and plain dosa and masala dosa. Everything was very tasty and tasted authentic! The dosas and appams were top class but the sambhar, needs improvement (more Udipi (From Karnataka) than Kerala or Chennai.
Total bill was 115 pounds, with a few drinks and includes service. They tend to close early on weekends, by 9.30, so go early. Hoping the chef fixes the devilled lamb.

Decent Indian food. The South Indian options are better than North Indian given the chefs and owners are from the south of India. The chettinad food dishes are especially very good. Bit expensive though and will score low on value for money. I generally have the prawn starter and South Indian chicken curry with paranthas. yummy!

I was seriously craving some good dosai (south Indian fare) when I was around Stratford and I kept racking my brain for some options… hmm, East Ham would be too much of a crazy trek at that time of the evening and I had just come in from Central so options like Woodlands seemed too far, and places around Wembley were impossible. I was convinced there had to be an option for all the Indian professionals based in Canary Wharf. I googled up ‘dosa canary wharf’ and lo, what do we have here, Manjal restaurant in Crossharbour? I’d never heard of it and Crossharbour, where I had been 6 years ago, used to be a dump so I was a bit suspicious but I clicked through to their website link anyway… hmm, impressive website and quite a wide range of Indian cuisine represented too, which normally makes me a bit wary because almost no place I have ever been to has ever managed to offer both North & South Indian fare to the same level of quality… but my craving for dosa was quite strong, so off I went…
Firstly, Crossharbour has really cleaned up, and how! Manjal was legitimately jampacked on a Wed evening, with seating indoors and outdoors right by the water — very pleasant. Inevitable chatter and noise as in any popular Indian restaurant so this isn’t quite a private, date type of place. The service staff is a bit over eager but not in an annoying way. Now, onto the important bit — the food.
Yum, the mango lassi was nice and think, freshly made, not some flavoured nonsense. I decided to put the place to the North-​South test, so ordered a typically North Indian starter (aloo tikki) and a typical South Indian mains (masala dosa) — no way would they get both right, I was sure.
The aloo tikki was amazing — the potato fritters were fresh off the stove and the cold toppings were simply delectable — love! I was super happy, so I was resigned to settling for an OK main at best. And then the dosa arrived… presentation was pleasant with a side tray of coconut chutney, tomato chutney, sambar. I tasted it and holy cow, this was exactly what I was craving for! I was a happy bunny indeed :)
This venue has just been added to my go-​to places whenever I am in the Wharf area, which tends to be often as I have friends and family working there… I highly recommend checking this out, especially if you happen to be in this part of town craving for some good Indian fare!