Best samosas in London
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Today is 08-MARCH-2012 and in about 2 months I will be completing 5 years in the UK. Out of those 5 years, I lived in Miltonkeynes for 2 years. So, I have been living in London for about 3 years now.
These 5 years did not change my attraction towards Indian food. I have tried to taste a lot of Indian snacks in London. Among Indian snacks, Samosa is one of my favourites. I've had samosas in different places and the following is a short list of the places in London where you would find good samosas:
1. According to me the best samosas in London can be found in the Ambala sweet stores. They have branches all over the world. The first time I had them was when some one at work got them from the Ambala branch at Brick lane (Address - 55 Brick lane, Aldgate East, London, E1 6PU). They tasted quite nice. After a couple of months I found another Ambala store near my place. I spotted this store near Hounslow East tube station (Address - 123 Kingsley Road, Middlesex, Hounslow, TW3 4AJ). One of the best thing about their samosas is that they taste the same in all Ambala branches. I asked the shopkeeper if the store had been opened recently and he smiled and replied "It's been here since 10 years" (or 15 years. I don't quite remember). I was a bit embarassed but then shortly asked him if it was an Indian shop or a Pakistani one. To that he said "As the name suggests, it was originally opened in a place called Ambala in India. However, the owner migrated to Pakistan later. But most of the time since its establishment, it was in Pakistan". I thought to myself, "In that case, I would rather believe it to be Indian :P". As far as I am aware they do not give chutney along with the samosas and the samosas are very less oily. Each samosa costs about £0.75 to £0.80 pence or Rs.64. Other branches - http://www.ambalafoods.com/info/Stores.html
2. The 2nd best samosas I've had in London are from a shop near my place which is called "Chappan Bhog" (Address - Unit 1, 328 Bath Road, Hounslow West, Middlesex, TW4 7DJ). They have branches in some other countries as well. The potato masala inside tastes differenct and nice. I like their chutney their sweet tamarind chutney the most. The cost of their samosa is £0.60 pence or Rs.48. I would like to mention here that they have the best kachoris I've ever had in the UK. They are almost the same as we get them back hom in India. Compared to the Ambala samosas, these are a bit more oilier. Other addresses - http://www.chhappanbhog.co.uk/
3. The 3rd best samosa would be the ones from "Dehli Wala"(click for address). As far as I am aware they have got 2 stores. One is near my residence on Vicarage Farm road, Hounslow West and the other in Southall. They are usually accompanied by generous quantities of chutneys (red tamarind and green chutney) and each costs £0.50 or Rs.40. Compared to Dehliwala, very small portions of chutneys are served by Chappan Bhog. However the Dehli Wala's samosas are very oily. The samosas I am mentioning here are the big Punjabi samosas. They have very delicious mini paneer samosas as well. They are finished in minutes when I sometimes get them to my work place :). Their price is 3 for £1 or 3 for Rs.75 to Rs.80
The samosas I've had apart from the ones mentioned above were quite average (Including the mini samosas, and the ones in Chini Chor). I would rather consider the frozen samosas by "Shana" better than these. Recently my colleague, Sunil Desai, suggested me about a shop in Southall called Bikanerwala. I have yet to taste their samosas. If I like them, I will add it to the above list in an appropriate position. If you think you know some places which do nice samosas in London, please let me know so that I can add it in the list along with your name.
Bad review of Ambala samosas at dd lane - I've been to the Ambala in Ilford a couple of times. The first time I went there was to but the Habshi barfi. It was good. I also saw the famous Ambala samosas there. But they looked as if they were fried many times. So, I chose not to buy them. I went to Ambala, Ilford again after a few weeks to buy samosas. A bunch of samosas looked reddish and the bunch next to it looked alright. I requested the shopkeeper to give me 5. He started taking the samosas from the bunch which looked reddish as if they were fried several times. I quickly stopped him as asked him to pick from the other bunch which looked better, comparatively. So he gave me 5 from the other bunch. I then asked him the price of lamb biryani and he said £6.90. I thought the price of the biryani was a bit too much considering Ambala being a mere sweet shop. When I had the samosas, I thought they were very average, lacked taste and didn't have the taste that the usual Brick lane or Hounslow Ambala have ! My wife didn't eat the samosa as she thought the potato curry sued inside was rotten. I guess she might have been right as the same night my stomach got upset and I got loose motions until the next day afternoon !
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