All tasty in the ghost town

This review was first published in October 2000

Despite its recent resurgence, Canary Wharf is still something of a ghost town after the post-office drinking brigade have fled to the suburbs. Its gloomy windswept aspect, and a taxi driver who might as well have been navigating downtown Bombay, made Tabla a very welcoming sight.

Set in an imposing Georgian building, Tabla eschews flock and embraces subtlety of spicing; the owners - Albert Ray, formerly front-of-house at The Ivy, and Iqbal Wahhab, ex-editor of Tandoori Magazine - claim to use no artificial colours or pre-prepared pastes. (Although when asked what was in a garlic pickle that tasted of linseed oil putty and acid drops, our waiter shrugged that it arrived in a jar.)

It's an elegant, spartan space and suffers from some of its customers, who, I guess, had poured in straight from the multiplex next door. One plaintive female diner was to have a longing for korma and mango chutney sadly unfulfilled. Food aims higher but sometimes misses; an authentically lacy dosa pancake was filled with a rather anodyne minced lamb mixture; crab cakes with coconut and chilli needed more oomph, more crispness.

Wild boar jungle curry - according to my date - still contained too much of the jungle: too-large shards of cinnamon bark and other whole spices were a little off-putting. Tandoori duck breast, however, was gorgeous - highly flavoured, succulent, tender. Side dishes - black lentils cooked in cream and remarkably non-oily roasted aubergine - rice and breads, particularly a dill paratha, were excellent.

The plaintive punter might've had a shock at the bill, too - with wine and tip, nearly £80 for two.

Tabla
The Dockmaster's House, West India Dock Gate, Hertsmere Road, E14 8JJ