This 70 seater restaurant is divided into smoking and non smoking sections and has a wooden boarded floor, ceiling fans and a small decorative roof with hanging nets towards the back to give the appearance of a Nepalese village house. Plenty of greenery in large urns and a sizeable bar fronted by a stone balustrade and pillars give the bar area an almost Greek appearance. Elegant forged black ironwork chairs. top quality white tablecloths and huge wine glasses (two glasses and the bottles gone!) complete the picture of a very sophisticated restaurant. Even the toilets are sparkling, with individual hand towels by the basins.

We were served with crisp, spicy Popadoms interestingly folded into quarters together with three pots of chutneys while we studied the menu. These were complimentary and a nice touch. The menu is extremely interesting with not one dish recognisable from a standard high street curry house menu. That makes choosing a difficult task, but assures a return to try the rest! To start we had Bhutuwa (excellent ‘melt in the mouth’ chicken livers stir fried in a delicately spiced light sauce and served in a small wafer basket), Vegetable Khaja (a crisp vegetable filled pastry rather like spring roll but much lighter and tastier) and Sekuwa Parbat (a kebab of three large and tender lumps of barbecued lamb with onion). All were first class and artistically presented with salad garnishes neatly arranged around the plate. The starters were more nouveau cuisine in presentation and size but they were just about the right size for an appetiser.

Main dishes were Mooli Chicken (a mild dish of chicken which had been very well marinated to get the flavour ingrained in the meat, served with an extremely tasty sauce the predominant flavour of which was difficult to define), Piro Lamb (very tender pieces of lamb cooked in a dark sauce of chilli, onion and garlic) and Hariyo Machha (fish parcelled in spinach and cooked in a light coloured fruit sauce which had the appearance of Korma but much more flavoursome). All were superb with the flavouring of each being totally different and distinct from the others. No one pot formula curry sauce here! The Piro Lamb was marked on the menu as ‘very hot’ but although not as hot as Vindaloo in a standard restaurant it was hot enough, with the chilli being very evident and with a lot more flavour than just ‘chilli hot’ dishes. The fish dish had two pieces of fish which were monkfish (not any old fish) although this fact was modestly unheralded on the menu. For vegetable dishes we had Palungo Sag (fresh spinach sauteed with fenugreek) and Aloo Kauli (the nearest equivalent to a high street curry house dish being like Aloo Gobi, but with a fresher and more definitive taste of spicing). Both were equally delicious, and the rice dish of Rashilo Bhat (rice cooked with bay leaves and cardamom topped with and onion tarka garnish) and bread of Joano Patre, which was cut into quarters, was refreshingly different from the standard Pillau Rice and Nan. All dishes were prepared using top quality ingredients and were freshly cooked with a subtle hand at the spicing which gave each dish it’s own very distinct and delightfully different flavour. Wonderful stuff.

Portion sizes not large but quite sufficient. Service efficient although the waiter who served us could have looked a bit happier - he didn’t smile once as far as I recall. Perhaps he had had a bad day! As one might expect, prices higher than the standard high street curry house but only marginally so and I thought it was surprisingly reasonable for such a standard of food and cooking.

All in all, first class and one to be highly recommended.

Malcolm Wilkins - February 1999