Our global culinary tour continues and we settle in a cozy table at Manjal located at Canary Wharf. Named after the Tamil word for turmeric, Manjal presents their guests with Indian and Sri Lankan cuisine. Check out our full experience here!
Manjal means turmeric in Tamil, a staple in a lot of South Indian foods that gives it a vibrant yellow colouring, but also adds flavor and kills of any bacteria living in the food.
Manjal is a five-star restaurant with a five-star hygiene rating and opened up in 2013. In 2018 they decided to open a second branch in Loughton and that has been running strong aswell. Manjal has also won many awards including ‘Best Restaurant’ voted by Canary Wharf Management, the Met police and Tower Hamlets Council and a ‘Certificate of Excellence by Trip Advisor. The restaurant is also available for events and private dining and this is great when it is so close to Canary Wharf.
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I visited the Canary Wharf branch after work but Manjal is also known in the area for having a great lunch menu and many of my colleagues’ head there for a quick bite to eat at lunch time. The restaurant itself is situated right next to the waterfront and therefore from certain tables you can see the water, and you may catch the odd fisherman, boats cruising or event the O2 Arena.
The setting is lovely although it is within another restaurant therefore can be a little hard to find at times. The atmosphere is very pleasant, and they have some music playing in the background that really sets the tone for the evening. The décor is very subtle with white cloths covering the tables and the staff are really friendly and efficient.
The menu they have on offer is very varied and there is a good selection of food, so you are totally spoilt for choice. I wanted to try something different and therefore I decided to order the Green Banana Bhajia, Cashew Nut Pakora Chicken Lollipop. I thoroughly enjoyed the starters and was impressed with the Cashew nut pakora’s as I absolutely love Cashew nuts in general.
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For mains I obviously had to order the Masala Dosa as I was craving that anyway. The dosa was huge and filled me up. I ordered the normal potato dosa however if you prefer there is a chicken and lamb option aswell.
I decided today was treat day and therefore I ordered some desserts to finish off my meal. The Taste of India is a great idea as you get to sample a few different desserts in one go including gajar halwa, gulab jaman and rasmalai. With this I also ordered the Honey Roasted pears which were absolutely delicious and highly recommended.
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Overall Manjal was a pleasant dining experience and although it is a fine dining restaurant in London I feel like it didn’t break the bank in terms of spend.
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Vallisa Chauhan
Author
Vallisa Chauhan (@vallisachauhan) presents the Flagship breakfast show on Lyca Radio 1458. She has scripted and produced a full feature film called "Those 4 Walls" and is currently working on other projects. She loves travel and movies and tries to fit in both as much as she can.