- Ready?
- Yeah, ready. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Welcome to Worth It UK.
(enthusiastic bagpipe music)
You gettin' the bagpipes?
- I'm gettin' a lot of bagpipes.
- [Rich] A lot of noise in general.
- [Charles] Yeah.
- Welcome to Worth It, oh. (sirens wailing)
- This week. (tickled laughing)
- Do something in the edit.
(horn blaring)
- Jesus Christ.
There's a lot of bagpipe noise, does that matter?
- Bagpipes are good.
Yeah.
- Welcome to Worth It UK, a show where we
try three different foods at drastically different price,
the word drastically seems like a weird--
- You could say whatever you want.
- I would never usually even say the word drastically.
- They started up again.
(cameraman laughing)
- [Cameraman] Great.
(funky music)
- Elephant in the room, it's not Steven,
Adam, and Andrew sitting here.
We're the UK, kind of, knock offs.
So bear with us.
- I'm Joe. I do the sound.
Right, the magic of this show is to try three foods
at drastically different price points
to determine which is the most--
- Worth it!
- This week, we are tasting Britain's favorite food.
- Curry. - Curry!
- Fish and chips.
- It's curry.
We've established it. - We've already said it, man.
- It's definitely curry.
Right guys, our first stop is
Whitecross Street Market in East London.
- I've been a cockney.
- Whitecross Street.
- Hey Rich, what's Whitecross Street Market?
- It is the oldest market in London!
(pained exclaiming) - Nice, awesome!
(firm smacking) (pained exclaiming)
(amused chuckling)
- You excited?
- Yeah, I feel sore now.
(bongo drum rolling)
- [Jaz] My name is Jaz, I'm here at Whitecross Street.
This is my store, and it's called Karuna.
- [Rich] Where did the name Karuna come from?
- My mother helped me a lot initially
to start off the business, and her name's Aruna.
I've been at Whitecross Street for around 17 years.
I'm one of the longest standing traders here now.
So, we specialize in Indian street food.
We basically do three different
vegetarian curries every day.
- The word masala, is that sauce?
- Yeah basically, that's exactly what it is.
You've got tomato puree, cumin, got the coriander powder,
turmeric, chili powder, garam masala.
So that's the basic mix.
You can formulate that into each individual curry.
Today, you'll be having the Gobi Matar Cauliflower and Pea,
a Split Lentil Tarka Dal, and the Bombay Potato
on a bed of rice at four pounds.
(percussive music)
- It looks damn fine.
It looks really good.
- [Rich] Look how colorful it is.
- [Charles] Oh, god, it's like a rainbow.
- Do you remember the ice creams you'd get
as a kid that was the three colors?
- This is like the curry version Neapolitan.
- Three in one with some sides.
- Cheers?
- Cheers. - Cheers.
Let's go, I'm gonna sweat a bit.
- What?
- Mmm, oh my god.
That's really good.
- Well, you're makin' a complete mess.
- Yeah I know, I'm sorry.
- [Rich] Do you want a napkin?
- [Charles] No.
Yeah, maybe.
- It was perfect on the spice factor for me.
I don't like too much spice, makes my nose run.
- You got the cauliflower there, you got the rice as well.
That kinda adds what you would be missing in a meat dish.
The lentil gets a 10 out of 10 for me.
- Oh, heck yeah.
Really impactful flavor, I would say.
- Umph. - Yeah!
- It's an umph-y curry, isn't it?
- No, definitely.
It's like each part of the meal is a different part
of town, and you're sort of going through one to the other.
- That's why this is such a good dish.
You can't get bored of either one.
- No, you can barely get the lid on when we got it,
it's filled to bursting.
For four pounds, I don't know what more we could ask for.
How you doin' over there, Joe?
(upbeat jazz music)
(cheerful music)
- Curry fact.
London contains more Indian restaurants
than Mumbai and Delhi combined.
- Really, is that true?
Where did you get that one from?
Well then, it's obviously not true.
And now, we are off to Brick Lane.
- Yes sir.
Brick lane has some of the most curry houses in London.
It's really one of London's cultural hot spots, and--
- Where curry was born.
- Not quite where curry was born.
- You do know where curry originated, don't you?
- Korea?
(tickled chuckling)
(upbeat music)
(big band jazz music)
- My name is Ronny, we're Nazrul.
This is the oldest restaurant in Brick Lane.
It's all about atmosphere, it's all about food.
It's about quality, the traditional dishes.
These are like, madras, bhuna, how they cook in India,
how they cook in Bangladesh, how they cook in Kashmir.
But you know, chef specialties from chef secrets.
He can't even tell me, if I got at the kitchen
and ask him, he's not gonna tell me.
That's the secret.
We get all the ingredients fresh here,
nothing is precooked, everything is grilled,
marinated first, to a tandoori oven.
He makes his own sauce, and he prepared it from his version.
It's sweet and sour, little bit of kick,
but it's not spicy, it's not gonna burn your tongue.
You'll be havin' Chicken Tikka Blast at 15.95.
And let me know, let my food talk, not me.
- I like the little tomato crown there, it's cool.
- [Rich] And the multicolored rice is just awesome.
- Yeah, it's just a well presented meal, I like it.
- [Rich] Oh, I got a big thing of something.
A bit of bark.
- I feel that's a cinnamon stick?
- Sorry, cinnamon.
Everyone should tear their own bread.
- A man should tear his own bread, yeah.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
- Oh, it's really nice.
- Yeah, this is good.
- It's not hot, it's just a nice
little flicker of spice, right?
- Yeah.
What I really like about it, is
it's actually quite sweet as well.
- I think I could eat a lot of this.
- Cheers, buddy.
- Gotta have beer with Indian food.
- Oh yeah, of course.
I feel like the more I eat this,
the more I discover about what's in it.
- It's actually quite complex.
There's been a lot of love and care gone into the
preparation of that chicken, you can
really, really taste it.
Give us a Charles description.
(Charles laughing)
Of what this experience is like.
- It just taste like having a great time with good people.
- Having a great time with good people, yeah?
No, no, wait with me.
You gotta wait your turn. (Charles laughing)
Nice, right?
- Right, right.
Now scoop.
- Over your side, yeah.
But you don't.
Scoop on your side!
- Yeah, but I haven't done anything to that, have I?
- Joe, have you got any more curry facts there?
- No, I've got curry jokes.
My grandad had an accident eating curry.
Yeah, he slipped into a coma.
(Charles laughing)
But it's fine, for all he wanted,
he ended up next to my nan.
That's two jokes.
- God, that is-- - Two jokes.
(gravelly laughing)
(comical wheezing)
- Right, that's enough of that.
Our final stop is in Mayfair.
- Swanky.
- Also, they need a week's prep time
to make this masterpiece.
(gentle piano music)
- We are at Benares restaurant, and my name is Atul Kochhar,
and I'm chef patron of this restaurant.
We won our Michelin Star in 2007,
and it's almost 10 years we have maintained it.
Benares menu is always about what's happening
at the moment in this particular month.
I strongly believe our ethos are, if we let mother nature
do the job really well, as a cook,
I would have to do very little.
Today, you'll be tasting truffle
and mushroom and saffron kulcha.
Kulcha is a stuffed naan, so to speak,
which will be smothered with gold leaf butter.
And then, it's drizzled with Single Estate Balsamic Vinegar,
which is really, really fantastic.
And this will be served with venison keema,
starting with a garam masala.
When we say garam masala, it's cinnamon, cardamom, clove,
and then add salt, onion, and garlic, put the meat in.
And then, when we finish it with a little bit of tomato,
at that time, just to thicken the keema,
really, handful of chocolate.
That chocolate actually makes the sauce,
and morel mushrooms, which are really at the peak
at the moment, so flavors will be humongous and really big.
And that is the most exclusive dish on our menu.
We sell it for 210 pounds.
- I'm ready.
- You ready? - I'm ready, formally.
- So am I.
- This is an incredibly exciting moment.
- I am so pumped.
Wealth just emanating from this dish.
It really is something else to look at.
- Jordan has obviously dressed for the occasion.
- [Jordan] I'm wearing shorts.
- I was gonna say we should tear,
but they've provided us with a weapon.
Cut this into four pieces so we can have two each.
- [Charles] There ya go, buddy.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
(dramatic piano music)
It's just really (bleeping) good.
It's like a parade.
There's just all this fancy-ass food
going on tour through your mouth.
They're chuckin' out venison,
they're chuckin' out bits gorals.
They're like, hooray, hooray!
- Still like a curry with naan bread,
it's just a really, really special curry and naan bread.
Can you taste the gold?
- I can taste the gold.
- That truly is the definition of wealthy, isn't it?
If you excrete gold?
(enthused laughing)
This is quite an experience.
It's the setting--
- Oh, oh, one thing that I want to mention;
the cutlery is magnetic.
Hold on, wait, how we get this?
See that? Wait.
Pulls together. (knives clanking)
- You taste the venison, and then there's
this very slight, bittery-sweetness
that must come from the chocolate.
- Which you're not really used to in curries, really.
Just this incredible fusion.
- At the end of the day, any food that is nice bread
and something to dip it in or eat it with,
I don't think you can go wrong.
- [Charles] Yeah.
- Wait, you've got to do the sound.
Where did he get that from?
- They let me have a fork.
(dramatic orchestral music)
- Worth It Winner time.
So obviously, all the restaurants were incredible.
But, we have to decide which was the most worth it.
- My Worth It Winner has to be Benares.
It was a curry with literal gold in it,
why wouldn't it be the Worth It Winner?
- I did like Benares a lot, I did like Nazrul a lot,
but my favorite is Karuna.
I loved it, the street mart.
I just felt very cool getting food from a street market.
- Yeah, it felt a bit hip.
- Joe, what was yours?
- Nazrul. Nazrul.
The little tomato on the top, the crown.
King of the curry.
It was mwah.
- It was what?
- Mwah. It was like, mwah.
- You mean, (kissing).
- [Joe] Mwah.
(kissing)
- Ooh, don't blow after.
What are you blowing?
I think we got through first episode.
- [Charles] I think we've done it.
- [Rich] I think we did it.
- [Charles] Nice one, Lance.
- Hope that was alright.