Pleasant looking restaurant in the high street which seats about 60 beyond the small waiting area. Decor of etched glass (plastic) screen dividers and pictures of Indian scenes in the alcoves provided an agreeable ambience. Standard menu listing all the usuals plus a duck version of every dish (ie duck tikka, duck dhansak, duck jalfrezi, duck tikka masala and so on).

Popadoms were sent back as they were soft and pliable. Accompanying four varieties of pickle also poor - sliced onions dry, a raita and a sweet chutney very runny and a standard lime pickle. Not a good start. The rest of the meal did improve slightly after this, but not by much I am afraid. The Onion Bhaji starters (two large round) were crisp on the outside but the insides were soft and very greasy, the Rashmi Kebab was very ordinary and lacked fresheness, and the Chicken Chat - which was served in a large folded puri and looked like an omelette - was quite bland and overwhelmed by the encompassing puri (I suppose it made it look big!)

The main dishes were also very, very ordinary. All dishes (Chicken Bhuna, Lamb Tikka Dhansak and Chicken Tikka Masala) can best be described as lifeless. All were in a fairly thick sauce which although having the 'curry’ flavour, lacked the zest of any fresh spicing, All three of us commented individually that the dishes tasted (and looked) like curries obtainable in packets from leading supermarkets. The accompanying Vegetable Bhajee was OK, but again fairly bland. Peshwari Nan, Paratha and Rice all OK - standard fare.

Service generally OK I suppose, but failing in certain respects. For example the main dishes were served before the dirty starter dishes had been cleared away, and we had to attract the waiters attention for the bill after waiting a fair while for his attention. Also I would question the booking system (so frequently a charade in high street Indian restaurants) as we booked a table but had to remind the person taking the booking to take our name (always raises the suspicion that bookings not taken seriously) and when we arrived we weren’t asked our name or whether we had booked but led to one of three remaining vacant tables. Not definitive of a non existent booking system of course, but I am not convinced we would have had a table waiting had the place been full. Prices and portions about average.

Overall a poor and very disappointing meal. My friend - who although not a total curryholic does eat Indian food two or three times a month - said it was the poorest Indian meal he had eaten in a long time. That about sums it up and you could do as well if not better by buying a supermarket home brand packet curry.