STREETS OF LAHORE

You're walking past the row of independent shops on Ilford Lane and you catch the smell first: charred meat, cumin, something warm that makes you hungry immediately. Streets of Lahore is exactly what it promises—unfussy Pakistani food that tastes like someone's actually cooked it properly rather than following a formula. The room's straightforward, nothing fancy, but that's never the point. You come for the karahi that's properly charred, the biryani that doesn't skimp on the meat, the kind of naan that still has char marks on it. It's the sort of place that's become properly embedded in the area because it does the basics brilliantly and doesn't charge London prices for it.