Kati roll

Kati roll is a kind of street fast food popular in Calcutta. In Bombay, we call kati rolls frankies. Aga brothers in colaba always served up a mean frankie. I was quite excited to hear we finally got a branch of Kati Roll in central London. I've already had a taste of their food in New York and it was a nice spicy quick bite. Frankies aka kati rolls are basically parathas fried on a tava with ghee/oil, this may or may not have an egg added onto it depending on your preference. This is then stuffed with beef/chicken tikka/ shammi kebab/ potatoes /paneer. This stuffing is marinated in spices and garnished with red onions and lime juice. This is Indian street food at its best.
Last Monday after meeting S for a quick pint at the charming grand old Cittie of York in Holborn, we headed of to Kati Roll on Poland street. The place was empty on a Monday evening, the gentleman at the counter yanked up the volume on the desi music once he saw us. The bright orange walls plastered with large old hindi movie posters added to the ambience of this little box. We had a chicken tikka roll and a shami kebab roll. The tikka roll was very ordinary, the chicken was rubbery and a let down. The shami kebab roll was yum and we had specifically asked him to make it spicy. It was a decent quick meal and didn't quite break our pockets.

Did I love Kati Roll ? Well, given that I have not found another option in london, I will go back. I can go back and have the shami kebab rolls very happily as long as I remember to tell him to crank up the spices. The veggie options- aloo masala rolls were tried out by a friend this weekend and were honestly quite bland. There is potential in this little box serving rolls they just need to get their spices right. I cannot rave about it but I would go back for a quick meal.