After a busy Sunday morning, before heading out to Wokingham and Farnborough for business, my brother and I had a window of opportunity to grab lunch near his flat in Pimlico. I decided that this would be a great chance to do one of our Offbeat Eats Health Check re-visits to one of my favorite spots of 2019: Gopal’s Corner, located in Market Halls Victoria.
Back in our 2019 Visit, Gopal’s Corner (which is, itself, a little brother to the more famous Roti King, which since 2019 has itself grown to 6 locations) really impressed me with their Malaysian offerings, such as mak mee goreng (stir-fried egg noodles with a chile pepper and peanut sauce), their dosa, and, particularly, their sublimely good roti, served up with a bowl of Malaysian-style kari (curry). The combination of the delightfully flaky and crispy roti and the rich and flavorful kari made for a delightful, almost comfort-food deliciousness that was good enough that I made several attempts over the last few years to replicate the technique (and, during the pandemic, even taking an online course in replicating their technique offered by Gopal’s Corner as a fundraiser). It’s one of the best simple meals I know of, and I wanted to see how they were doing.
Arriving at Market Halls Victoria, I had pretty much the same experience at 2019: it’s still a “Food Hall” concept with about 9 different vendors selling food, and a centralized bar and seating area common to the restaurants. That concept has struggled a bit in the United States, particularly during and after Covid, but seems to be still quite vibrant at Market Hall Victoria, although of the current list of vendors, only two of them, Gopal’s Corner and Black Bear Burger remain from my 2019 visit; the rest have turned over (which is probably an overall success of the concept). So it’s good to see the place busy, and that many of the successful locations like Gopal’s continue to do well, too (there are now Gopal’s Corner locations at four different Market Halls, the others being Canary Wharf, Oxford Street, and Paddington).
Gopal’s Corner itself has changed very little since our last visit, aside from a freshly-painted new sign and tweaked logo. It’s basically an ordering counter (with a menu that, aside from inflation, appears unchanged from 2019), with an added attraction that you can watch them make their signature roti: each roti is rolled out from dough into a rough circle on an oiled sheet, and then flipped repeatedly like a dishrag to stretch it out into a paper-thin layer of dough, which is finally folded up and then placed on the hot griddle to cook. After crisping up, they take each roti and hand squish it to crumble it up a bit, and then serve it up with a fresh bowl of kari. It’s really fun to watch, although they make the process look far easier than it really is (I know, I spent much of the winter of ’21 trying to replicate these results, with only modest success).
Of course, I couldn’t resist getting the exact same order I enjoyed in 2019: Roti Canai with a side of Chicken Kari. While the guy making roti is almost magically fast, Gopal’s Corner usually has a healthy line, so we retired with our buzzer to the nearby table, enjoying a Camden Town Eazy IPA while waiting for our order. So that part of the Market Hall Concept is working well, too.
Soon enough, the buzzer rang and we collected our orders. Mine was the exact same roti canai and kari that I enjoyed in 2019: the same flaky and sublime roti, and a Malaysian-style curry with a very rich and fragrant sauce. Honestly, if I was getting just the kari, I might think it was a little thin, but combined with the roti it’s almost a perfect combination, dipping the chunks of roti canai into the kari. This is exactly the perfect combination of spice and texture, and the sort of relaxed street food eating that hits “comfort food” levels of satisfaction.
And that Roti Canai? This is simply some of the best roti I’ve ever had. This is a classic case of the magic being that there’s no real magic: no special ingredients, just flour, salt, a bit of sugar, a bit of condensed milk, and margarine (really, I have the recipe): it’s all in the execution of making the dough right, getting the gluten developed to get the right stretch, and mastering the tossing and grilling of the resulting roit. In other words: technique. And they’ve mastered it.
So yes, Gopal’s Corner is still one of my go-to places for London that’s nearly obligatory for each visit (and it helps that there are now multiple locations I can get to, I literally walked right by the Paddington location on arrival in London this trip). About the only thing that may cause me to not visit Gopal’s Corner is that I still feel a need to try one of the full Roti King locations at some point.
