Brilliant

One of Southall’s oldest restaurants, Brilliant remains in the top rank of local eateries thanks to its combination of high-quality Punjabi-based cookery & glitzy panache. There’s now seating for 250 diners on two floors, including a large banqueting suite. Evenings see a young, multinational crowd sipping cocktails (mixed behind the burnished copper bar), viewing Bollywood hits on the flatscreen TV, & enjoying potently aromatic, flavour-packed food from the tuned-up kitchen. For starters, a shared helping of butter chicken is the house speciality, though the ‘healthy option’ of tandoori tilapia fish also has distinctive merits. Next, lamb chops are suffused with a punchy garam masala spice mix, while vegetable jalfrezi shows an African influence with sweetcorn joining the more familiar peppers & mushrooms. Desserts veer from traditional gulab jamun to westernised strawberry cheesecake.