The Tamil Prince

Prince Durairaj rolled roti at Roti King before he took this corner pub, and the bread is still the reason to walk through the door.

Why go

It was The Cuckoo, a corner boozer off the Caledonian Road, until it was stripped back and reopened in June 2022 as a Desi pub: curries with pints, and a kitchen that looks out on the room through a window at the back (Top 50 Gastropubs). Jake Missing scored it 8.4 and spent his review on the question London invented and mostly gets wrong, which is whether a pub kitchen is doing the thing or wearing the label. His answer was that it does not matter what you call the place, and his evidence was the bread (The Infatuation). People eat bhaji and dhal at the bar with a pint in front of them. Dogs are welcome. The craft beer is chosen to stand up to the spicing.

Order this / avoid

• Order: the channa bhatura, which crosses the room like a lantern and is torn open into the chickpea curry. Roti, more than once. Grilled tiger prawns in garlic masala, charred and eaten with your hands. Pulled beef masala uttapam, blackened on top.
• Avoid: treating it as somewhere to swing by for a half, since people settle in and the tables go. Turning up at a weekend or for dinner without booking. Trying to keep your fingers clean.

What locals & experts say

• Jake Missing for The Infatuation, scoring 8.4, on the through-line, saying the roti warrants ordering over and over and that the pub would not be here without it: "Head chef Prince Durairaj was in the kitchen at Roti King before this and the bread here is just as flaky and irresistible." On what the place is: "Is it a pub? Is it a restaurant? It doesn't really matter. It's just a place you should go." ref
• Top 50 Gastropubs, on the form: "the capital's latest Desi pub, combining curries with pints, and, in this case, some exciting cocktails." On the drink: "The Tamil Prince is serious about its drinks and you'll find craft beers on the bar with enough zing to match the punchy spicing." That page is a directory entry, so it carries no ranking and none is claimed. ref
• No chef vote. places-db/london/data/chef-votes.jsonl holds nothing for The Tamil Prince, and no source newer than 2022 was found. The rung rests on one score and on a pedigree.

Good to know

• Where: 115 Hemingford Road, N1 1BZ, on the corner off the Caledonian Road, in the shell of The Cuckoo.
• City signature: this is one of the entries in the database that genuinely delivers London's gastropub signature, and it does it as a Desi pub.
• Booking: midweek you can walk in for a pint and some okra fries. Dinner and weekends need a table.
• Price: curries and snack plates were around ten pounds when it was last written up, with the grilled prawns just under thirty.
• Dogs: welcome.
• Hygiene: FSA rating 5 with all three components clean, inspected 22 November 2023. That is the last recorded inspection rather than a current one. ref

Jeff's take (his words)

Nothing here is Jeff's. His saved-places export carries an empty Note for The Tamil Prince, so jeff_note stays empty. The master row said the channa bhatura is essential, which the sources back up, and the entry was written from them rather than from the cell.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

should-visit — Prince Durairaj made roti at Roti King before he took this corner pub, and the roti is why the room works. Jake Missing put it plainly: the bread here is just as flaky and irresistible, and The Tamil Prince would not exist without it. The other thing to order arrives like a lantern, a deep-fried balloon of channa bhatura carried across the room to be torn open over chickpea curry. This is a real answer to London's gastropub signature rather than a pub with a curry menu bolted on: pints and craft beer at the bar, people eating bhaji and dhal on bar stools, dogs allowed, and a kitchen that watches the room through a window at the back. Mid band, around ten pounds for a curry when it was last written up. It stays at should-visit because one 8.4 from 2022 is the only scored verdict anyone has filed, no working chef has named it in the vote record, and nothing newer than 2022 surfaced about the cooking.