South Woodford’s wonderful Grand Trunk Road has launched an excellent new weekend brunch menu that’s reasonably priced with a variety of flavoursome dishes and a bottomless drinks option.
I’ve raved about Grand Trunk Road before. Back in 2017, when the restaurant was still fairly new, I reviewed it. I loved it then and I love it now. The South Woodford fine dining restaurant is near enough to my Walthamstow home for me to consider it local. More importantly though, the modern Indian cuisine served at Grand Trunk Road means I keep it in mind for occasions when I might normally plan to head toward central London for my meal.
So when invited by the restaurant to try its new three-course brunch menu I was keen to accept.
Priced at £29.50 per person, the menu is available from noon to 2.30pm on Saturdays and Sundays. A bottomless drinks option costs £45 and features limitless mango lassi, Prosecco, Bellinis or Bloody Marys (with 90 minute cap).
Appetisers include akori (masala scrambled eggs) with fresh coriander, green chilli and ginger with tomato and sultana chutney; crispy stuffed vegetarian samosa chaat topped with sweet yoghurt, mint and tamarind chutney; and tilapia dusted with pepper, turmeric, and carom seeds with mint and coriander chutney.
The main courses are chicken supreme kebab marinated with green herbs, chillies, cream cheese and smoked over charcoal; cauliflower with spring onions, garden peas, ginger and cherry tomatoes; jackfruit dumplings cooked in an aromatic sauce; slow cooked black lentils tempered with dry fenugreek and cream; and ground lamb cooked with spicy gunpowder masala and topped with a fried egg. Basmati rice and potato and coriander stuffed naan is served alongside the dishes.
For dessert, there’s an especially tasty saffron rice pudding with gulab jamun.
I enjoyed a sample of all dishes. The chaat, the jackfruit, the chicken, and the lamb wowed the most, but everything tasted was a treat. I would be especially hard pressed to decide between chicken and the lamb for my main course as I would be happy to devour either again.
As with my previous Grand Trunk Road experiences (as an invited guest and as a paying customer), service was exceedingly cordial, efficient and friendly.
Grand Trunk Road is located at 219 High Road, E18 2PB. Find out more at gtrrestaurant.co.uk.
