When we look at the birth of Spice Hut, we have to touch upon the history of British fast food. Fish and chips is the quintessential British fast food takeaway, it is the dish that all tourists that come to England want to try. However, if you actually observe the British streets nowadays, fish and chip shops, or chippies as they are known locally, aren’t as common as another fast food category. The fast food that you absolutely cannot escape on the British streets is fried chicken. You’ll find main streets that have numerous fried chicken shops, it’ll be hard for you to roam most parts of London and not come across one. The people behind the till serving you the chicken even have a specific term: bossman. In areas that are more populated by Asians and Turks, these shops also serve doner kebab. So, typically, if one is hungry, they’d order a wholesome meal of chicken and chips with doner. Growing up in such an area, this was our common takeaway food. Meeting up with the lads would include such meals.
Naga Doner
The difference between the Turkish doner and Asian doner was that the Asian version was more saucier and it would be known as “spicy doner”, and spicy here means just with onions, pepper and saucier than your usual Turkish doner. This then developed into an actual spicier affair. In areas such as Whitechapel Road, a lot of these fried chicken and doner shops were owned by Bengalis. And Bengalis love love their spice. So, when they made spicy doner, they ensured it was actually spicy. They had two unique takes on the spicy doner: shatkora, which has a very unique citrusy flavour and then the infamous naga, which is notoriously unbearably spicy.
Spice Hut
After this brief British fast food history lesson, we now come to Spice Hut. Spice Hut is one such fast food joint, which was born on Whitechapel Road in 2005. They have taken the naga flavour and mega popularised it so much so that people up and down the country have heard of or tried it and takeaways up and down the country have replicated it or attempted to do so anyway. Their naga doner and especially their naga wings are famous all over the UK. I have not seen such a fast food spot have such an impact on the food scene. They’ve got 23 branches now up and down the country, which is unheard of from such spots. And they’ve literally got others imitating them from their dishes to even their name! Now, that’s impact!
Getting there
Nearest station: Stepney Green Station
Nearest mosque: East London Mosque
Parking: most if not all the roads behind the East London Mosque are free evenings and weekends, but there is literally a competition for parking spaces. So, be prepared to drive around in circles and wait till you find something to pounce on.
Note: they have numerous branches scattered around London and the whole country!
