Tayyabs: North Indian/Pakistani restaurant, London

his is another London's paradox. Just like you can't find edible Chinese food in Chinatown, so you will be hard pressed for a half-decent curry on Brick Lane. You need to know someone in the know to take you to the right place. Luckily, I know Stephen who has eaten his way through most restaurants in the Big Smoke.

If you don't mind queuing for an hour to get cramped into a munchkin-size seat while waiters dash around with sizzling hotplates right above your head, enveloping you in clouds of aromatic vapours, Tayyabs is your place for quite munchable Punjabi grub (Northern Indian/Pakistani).

The moment you plop your derrière on the chair , you are served an excellent crunchy poppadom, a very fresh salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and onions and two little bowls of chutneys, just flavourful enough to perk up your appetite (provided you need that after all the queuing!). Relax, that is not added yo your bill!

Considered how ridiculously hectic the place is, service is excellent. Orders don't get mixed, the waiters are friendly (if not obsequious as some might like it), and everything arrives in the correct sequence (starters, mains, etc.)

A jug of salty lassi (£5) - light, cumin-flavoured and pleasantly frothy. It's perfect to quench the curry fire in your mouth and it also provides the safety lining that protects your stomach from too much spice.

Lamb chops (£5.50): with all the hype about them I expected nothing short of a revelation. They proved quite okay, not too heavy on spices, but on the skinny side and too well done, t my liking. The presentation on sizzling hot plates makes good for their drawbacks. Four hearty pieces of fileted salmon and sea perch in masala coating (£5.50), come on the same cast-iron plate as the chops. Their crunchy spicy exterior belies the fluffy juicy insides.

Curries didn't prove Tayyabs' forte. Wednesday's special - mughal korma (£6), lamb curry was somewhat spicier than your common-or-garden korma, but also on the oily side instead of korma's usual Mariah Carey-like creaminess.

Karahi bhindi (£5) - okra curry that we ordered to make good for all the meat indulgence, turned out the same: spicy, which I can actually enjoy, and oily, which I won't.

Peshawari nan (£2.50) was utterly sublime: half of it disappeared before I took out the camera. Sublimely delectable, deliciously seared thin crust stuffed with straw-yellow raisins apricots. I would never get tired of it, had I to have it every day.

Plain nan (£1.80) was baked to perfection too, sprinkled with melted butter.

Malai kulfi (£2.50) is an Indian frozen dessert that tastes like rich old-fashioned ice-cream. Never mind what it reminds you of, visually it has a very pleasant moderate sweetness to it as well as a deliciously solid texture.

Tayyabs, 83-89, Fieldgate St. London E1 1JU