Restaurants

By Guy Dimond

Mandalay was not the first Burmese restaurant in London – a couple of less professionally-run places preceded it. Neither did Mandalay spark off a Burmese food trend – it is London’s only Burmese restaurant. The Ally family who run it have not published a cookery book, do not appear on ‘Ready Steady Cook’, and do not attract celebs or paparazzi to their restaurant. But Mandalay deserves to be in a hall of fame for its consistently excellent cooking, low prices, and manager Dwight Ally’s invariably charming service, ever since it opened in December 1994.

The Ally family arrived in London after decades of living in Norway. where they ran a successful restaurant in Oslo. ‘We moved to London because of the British Empire connection, just to try it, and we are still here more than 15 years later,’ brother Gary Ally told me. Their choice of location – at the drab, northern end of Edgware Road, in a box-like shop unit – wasn’t the best, but most of their customers are very happy to travel across London for Mandalay’s extraordinary food and cosy atmosphere.

Burmese food borrows noodles and stir-frying from China, herb and spice flavours from South East Asia, and slow-cooked and deep-fried techniques from India, but puts them together into a distinctive cuisine that is lighter than Indian, and more complex than Thai food. Mohingar, for example, is a dish of rice vermicelli noodles, with a spicy sauce of catfish which has been slow-cooked down to a paste with onion and flavours of lemongrass, shrimp paste and ginger. Another signature dish is khauk-swe (pronounce it ‘cow sway’), of egg noodles in a spicy coconut sauce and shrimps or chicken.

The menu’s lengthy, and even if you think you know South East Asian food, quite different to the food of the countries surrounding Burma. I’ve eaten here more than a dozen times over as many years – my first visit was just weeks after it opened , and years later, I still find every meal here thrilling. On a recent visit, it was the pickle-style lamb which took me by surprise – not like the Indian dish called achari lamb, but with similarly complex flavourings created by marinating the lamb in vinegar then using a lot of chilli, coriander. Beef and pork, both present in Burmese cooking, are absent from this menu and the range of vegetarian dishes is extensive and interesting, from the piquant papaya salad to okra stir-fried in a thick soy and sesame sauce. The cooking is done by Dwight, his wife Farzana, and Gary’s wife Rebecca.

In 1996 Mandalay won the Time Out award for the Best Budget Meal in London, in the face of stiff competition. Prices have changed little since that time; the decor hasn’t changed and Dwight’s charm has not diminished despite many years of patiently explaining the dishes to every table of customers. The bill will be a nice surprise, but be sure to book as enthusiastic crowds follow the road to Mandalay.

Time Out London October 2009