The best baltis in Birmingham

For a proper Birmingham balti, go to Shababs at 163-165 Ladypool Road, Sparkbrook, B12. It opens every day from noon until late, the car park opposite is free, and the balti arrives in the thin steel bowl it was cooked in. Ladypool Road, Stoney Lane and Stratford Road make up the Balti Triangle, which held more than 40 balti houses at its 1990s peak. Only a handful of the originals are left. These are the ones to eat at, and how to tell the real thing from a curry in fancy dress.

What a balti actually is

Pakistani and Kashmiri cooks in this corner of south Birmingham created the balti in the mid-1970s, cooking to order for customers coming in from the pubs. The rules are simple. It is cooked fast, in under ten minutes, over a high flame, in vegetable oil rather than ghee, in a thin pressed carbon steel bowl with a flat bottom and two flat handles. It comes to the table sizzling in that same bowl. The bowls are still made in the city, in Washwood Heath, by the Birmingham Balti Bowl Company. As the Good Food Guide puts it, a dish served in cast iron, coated in peanuts or baked under a pie crust is not a balti. Order a naan to share: the big family-sized ones are part of the ritual, torn by hand and used as the cutlery.

Shababs, 163-165 Ladypool Road

Shababs is the biggest of the survivors and the oldest balti house still trading in the Triangle. Chef Zaf Hussain runs it; his father settled in Sparkbrook in the 1960s after moving from Pakistan, and his brother took over the restaurant in 1987. Zaf learned to cook baltis as a teenager and talks about keeping the tradition going for his family and for Birmingham. The menu runs through biryanis, jalfrezis, bhunas and dopiazas, but you are here for the balti. It is a member of the Association for the Protection of the Authentic Balti, the group of eight restaurants that keeps the original recipe honest. Book ahead on a Friday or Saturday; regulars will tell you the weekend is rammed. See shababs.co.uk for the menu and bookings.

Shahi Nan Kebab House, 353 Stratford Road

On the Stratford Road side of the Triangle, B11, Shahi Nan has been going since 1974. It is a Pakistani street food specialist as much as a balti house, so start with kebabs off the grill before the balti lands. Shabaz Khan, son of the owner, has said the family feels responsible for holding on to the tradition for as long as they can. It is another member of the authentic balti association. The neon sign outside is the one everyone photographs.

Popular Balti

Secret Birmingham's round-up of the survivors puts Popular Balti on the list of Triangle houses still trading, alongside Shababs and Shahi Nan. It is the one to try when you have done the big two. Order a balti and a naan for the table, as the area has done for fifty years.

Beyond the Triangle: the Pershore Road

Two Kashmiri family restaurants on the Pershore Road are worth the bus ride south.

• Royal Watan, 602-604 Pershore Road, Selly Park, B29. The family have run it since their father opened in 1984. Build your own balti, or order from the page of Dad's Secret Recipes: nargah murgh made with ghost pepper, and lassawalla gosht, lamb on the bone from Grandma Bi's recipe.
• Akram's, 1526 Pershore Road, Stirchley. Open from 5pm every day and going since 1980. The baltis are on the lighter side, the naans are big, and an After Eight still comes with the bill, a habit as old as the restaurant.

Adil's, and why there are so few left

Adil's at 148-150 Stoney Lane opened in 1977 and is the house most often credited with coining the balti, with chef Mohammed Arif bringing the cooking style from Pakistan. It closed after 43 years. The reasons the Triangle shrank are not mysterious. Most of the houses rented their buildings, and rents rose once the balti got famous in the 1990s; many of the founders' children did not want the trade; and a campaign for protected European status for the dish ended with Brexit. At its height the area fed around 20,000 diners a week.

Ladypool Road now

The road has not gone quiet, it has moved on. Walk the length of Ladypool Road and you will pass Antep for Turkish chargrilled kebabs, Shinwari Dera for Afghan chappal kebab, Al-Bader for Lebanese and Moroccan mezze and Lahore Village under its pink sign. Come for a balti at Shababs, then come back for the rest.

The balti, uptown

For where the city's South Asian cooking has gone since, book Opheem on Summer Row. Aktar Islam, who worked in his father's restaurant in Aston as a teenager, built it into the first British Indian restaurant outside London to win a Michelin star. It is a tasting menu, not a balti, and it is a very different night out. The Triangle is where the story starts.

Know before you go

Many of the family-run balti houses do not serve alcohol and have long let customers bring their own; ask when you book, because it varies. The Triangle is a short ride south of the city centre. Go hungry, go in a group, and order more naan than you think you need.