Watan

Watan is located in the middle of the perpetually busy Broadway in Southall, opposite the landmark Gifto’s restaurant and food shop. The latter is a Southall institution that has been operating since 1968. Watan moved here in July 2024 and is a cavernous place that can seat 350 people, plus a further 120 in a function room. Through Watan’s picture window on the high street you can see charcoal grills with hunks of meat on skewers being turned by chefs, before being brushed with ghee and dispatched into the busy dining room. Watan serves Pakistani and Afghan dishes, and is a family business founded by Bismillah Ullah. It has sister branches in Ilford (which can seat 370 people including the banqueting hall) and Tooting (a mere 250-seater, but with capacity for 215 more in assorted function rooms). On this hot August night, with traffic moving at a crawl and crowds milling around on the pavement and among all the fruit and vegetable shops and sari shops of Southall Broadway, it would be easy to imagine that one had been transported to a busy street in the subcontinent.

They are reluctant to take reservations for small parties (“only for 12 or above” when I tried to book), so Watan is first-come, first-served, and there is a perpetual queue for tables. However, it is such a big place that things move along briskly, and we waited just ten minutes on a Sunday night. No alcohol is served here, nor can any be brought in, but they serve soft drinks and very good lassi. The menu majors on charcoal-grilled meat, though there are a few prawn and fish dishes, and some token vegetable dishes as well. However, the meat is the main emphasis here, with dishes to suit any appetite, such as a whole lamb at £395 and raan (slow-cooked lamb) at £95, both to be ordered in advance. As you sit down, a side salad and a trio of sauces appear.

I started with tandoori lamb chops (£12), which comprised four chops served with caramelised onions on a metal tray. The meat had quite good flavour, cooked just a little longer than ideal but certainly not dried out (13/20). King prawn biryani (£20) was the dish of the night, the rice aromatic and the grains distinct, the prawns tender (14/20). Achari chicken curry (£12) had pieces of chicken in a sauce flavoured with pickling spices such as fenugreek, fennel, mustard and nigella seeds. The tangy sauce was a touch oily, but the chicken pieces were nicely cooked and avoided dryness (13/20). Chana masala (£8.50) tasted better than it looked, the chickpeas tender enough though the sauce, based on tomatoes and onions, with cumin, coriander, turmeric and garam masala, was a little one-dimensional. It was also a touch oily (12/20). Better was saag paneer (£12), the paneer soft and moist and still with a little firmness to its texture, with spinach whose flavour came through well (13/20). 

Paratha (£3.50) was a touch greasy, having been brushed with ghee, but was served hot and fresh, and the texture of the bread was good (12/20). Naan (£1.75) looked like it might be a bit rigid in texture when it appeared, but it turned out to be perfectly decent (12/20). Bear in mind that naan bread these days is £5 at Dishoom and £8 at Benares at the time of writing, so £1.75 feels like something from an earlier era.

Gajar halwa (£4) was a vast portion that was just a little dry on the outside but fine in the middle, the slow-cooked carrots and creamy milk solids flavoured with cardamom. There was enough ghee to give richness without making the dish too buttery, and it was not overly sweet (12/20). 

Service was friendly, if a little slow at times, but functioned well enough. The bill came to £45 despite our wildly over-ordering, and they will pack up any leftover food for you to take away. It would be easy to eat here for £30 or even less all-in. Overall Watan delivers what it promises, with a bustling atmosphere and reasonable cooking at a very modest price.