Restaurant: Everest Spice (takeaway only)
Location: Holloway, North London
Address: 53 Hornsey Road, Holloway, London, N7 6DG
Phone number: 02076072115
Delivery hours: 5:00 PM to 11:15 PM
Food: Indian/Nepalese
UPDATE: Sadly Everest Spice has permanently closed at this location.
Our love affair with this Indian take-away started many years ago, way before I went gluten free. Back when we lived in Camden in the late 2000s, Everest Spice used to be our favourite takeaway restaurant by miles. It wouldn’t be that much of an exaggeration to claim that we practically lived on it at some point. A combination of long work hours, chronic exhaustion interfering with our will to cook (partly due to undiagnosed coeliac disease for me… and laziness for my boyfriend! hehe) and let’s face it, a total addiction!
Then the gluten free diet happened and along with it came the minefield surrounding eating out so we just gave up on take-aways for ages. We were such regular customers that I wouldn’t be surprised if they wondered what happened to us when we drastically stopped ordering from them. ?
Fast-forward to several years later and we found ourself moving back to North London. And what a surprise it was when we discovered us and Everest Spice were practically neighbours! Well not quite, but so close. 😉
We resisted for a while, but my boyfriend eventually decided to give them a call and it turns out that they’re quite clued up on gluten. The chef was helpful and advised us about what dishes are safe. Amazingly my two favourite dishes that I always ordered – hairyo chicken and mattar paneer – happen to be gluten free so this makes things even better! Indian food is often naturally gluten free anyway, but it does depend on the restaurant and it’s always reassuring when a place is genuinely aware of gluten and cross-contamination.
I highly recommend them if you live close enough to order. Their curries are great, use good quality ingredients and the portions are generous. You know how some Indian take-aways are so stingy and only put a few tiny pieces of meat in their (sometimes suspiciously watered down or overly ‘sweetened to fake a flavour’) curries? Well not at Everest Spice! You don’t have to fish for the lonely pieces of chicken swimming in your curry because there’s tonnes in there!
When it comes to avoiding cross-contamination, basically any curry using meat/ingredients cooked in the tandoor is a no-no due to them also cooking gluten containing foods like naan bread in there (so always verify this with them when ordering something), but otherwise there are many gluten free options. Just give them a call and ask questions about the specific curries you’re interested in. If the person taking your call doesn’t seem too sure, don’t worry, ask them to ask the chef and they’ll be able to confirm which dishes are safe and which aren’t.
And now a glimpse of the delicious curries:
Hairyo chicken (chicken cooked with an homemade mint, coriander, ginger, chilli and garlic paste) and mattar paneer (indian cottage cheese cubes and green peas cooked in an onion and tomato sauce).
Popadoms and a mango chutney dip, which come for free with every order.
You can visit their website —> here <— to view their whole menu.
Enjoy!
