The Gladstone Arms

There are many culinary questions and posers that have a somewhat philosophical feel to them. If an hors d’oeuvres is a starter, what is a canape? What is the difference between grilling and broiling? Or when is a pie not a pie? All valid questions, but not necessarily ones with which a prestigious curry club should be concerned with. Perhaps, more pertinently, we should instead ask when is a curry not a curry?

Following the success of Brigadier’s in winning the CHOTY award for 2024, the OCC opted to visit another of London’s Desi pubs to see if the quality could be replicated with The Gladstone Arms in Borough chosen as the first curry house for 2025. I say curry house, but The Gladstone Arms is anything but a curry house. In fact it bears about as much resemblance to a typical curry house as I do to Virat Kohli. It is more your typical old school backstreet boozer that sells food and has a superb selection of beers. This was more than a little bit of a curveball venue to visit. There was no front of house to welcome you and show you to your table, no menus on the tables and not too many people indulging in food. It is, after all, a pub. After removing some chancers from our allotted table, the OCC sat and readied themselves for a good old fashioned curry.

And then we were handed the menus… This was not going to be an old fashioned curry. The menu at ‘The Glad’ consists of 14 small plates (also available as mains); sides of salad, rice and chips; and 4 pot-pies and 1 curry. Open mindedness was needed from the members in attendance. We ordered a selection of the small plates to be shared as starters (or hors d’oeuvres if you wish) with each member choosing one dish. We had: avocado papri chaat, chilli cheese toast, onion and potato bhaji, chicken karagee, traditional chicken tikka and smoked goat bun sliders. In spite of the pub being extremely busy – the cost of living crisis doesn’t seem to have reached the SE1 post code area just yet – the dishes were served in good time and with a good nature from the waiting staff. All dishes were consumed and very tasty with the papri chaat and the chilli cheese toast (paneer and fresh chillies on a brioche bun) the undoubted stars of the show.

Next, came the mains. The limited curry options on the menu meant that we ordered the one butter chicken curry available as a dish to share whilst we individually tucked into our pot-pies, a distinction that I’m glad they made on the menu as the dishes are served in oval pots with a pastry lid and are not encased in pastry so are therefore, in my opinion, not true pies – you can sod off if you think a shepherd’s pie is a pie, it’s mince with mash on top. I had the kid goat keema pie which was some very pleasant and nicely spiced keema mince under a puff pastry lid. I thoroughly enjoyed it, however those who chose the chicken tikka masala pie were somewhat disappointed as their pie fillings were exactly the same as the butter chicken curry dish to share. Although the chicken thighs in the curry were juicy and tender and the makhani style sauce really nice, I’m glad I didn’t get a double whammy of the dish. Each of the pot-pies came served with chips! Certainly a first for me at any OCC meet to be offered ketchup and mayo when asking for allllll the sauces.

The food was washed down with a few pints of the pub’s excellent selection of beers and came to £39 each including tip but excluding drinks. The OCC left nicely full, but not as completely stuffed as we perhaps normally would from a meet. There’s no doubting the quality of The Glad’s food, it’s really tasty and definitely worth a visit to this venue if you’re south of the river – I’ll certainly look to venture there again to try more of their beers and sample more of the small plates such as the keema pao sliders and breaded Bengali spiced prawns. But, at the end of the day, it’s not what the OCC are looking for in our search for curry perfection. So, when is a curry not a curry? Not when it’s pie and chips.

SCORES: Customer Care = 6.2, Service = 6.0, Value = 6.5, Quality = 6.9, Atmosphere = 6.5, Total = 6.42