Opened a year ago, this 40 seater is centrally situated and smart looking. Inside is comfortably furnished with a pink decor. We had booked a table, particularly as we had heard that booking was recommended. However, in the event this proved to be unnecessary as the place was only about half full, even though it was a Saturday night.

Complimentary Popadoms and pickles provided to begin with, which is always a nice touch. My starter of Tandoori Chicken was enormous (too much, really, for an appetiser) but the coating of tandoori marinade appeared to have been smeared over pre cooked chicken and then heated. The chicken had not been marinated in the sauce or, I believe, cooked in a clay oven as the taste or sauce had not permeated the meat. Indeed, the sauce could easily be wiped off leaving the chicken a pristine white! The Onion Bhajees two large flat pieces the size of quarter-pounder hamburgers - came with a nice salad but had very little spicing and were disappointingly flavourless.

Similar tales of the main dishes of Chicken Tikka Masala for my wife and Chicken Pathia for myself. In both cases there were ample large pieces of chicken but it didn’t seem to have been cooked in the sauces. While the sauces were tasty enough, although certainly not hot, the chicken pieces themselves were flavourless. As with the chicken starter, I removed a piece from the Pathia, wiped the sauce away and was left with a plain white piece of chicken which had no flavour at all - not even that of cooked chicken! It appeared very much as though there were a variety of sauces in the kitchen and the ‘cooking’ involved heating them up and putting in pieces of pre-cooked chicken/meat, giving it a quick stir and serving. Same story for the Aloo Gobi, where the potato and cauliflower seemed to have been put in a sauce and mixed around - no spicy flavourings in either vegetable. The saving graces were the Vegetable Pillau Rice which was superb - plenty of diced vegetables and well done - and the Peshwari Nan which was light, fresh and an enormous Balti Bar size.

Portions were absolutely humungous! We asked if we could take away what we had left, more for a second assessment than the standard of the food. (The second tasting on the following day didn’t change our views though). I also noticed a number of other people also took away the remains of their meal, so it was not just us who found the portions huge. As prices are about average it provided excellent value in terms of quantity of food for the money even if the cooking left a lot to be desired. Service was friendly and efficient and all in all it was an interesting experience. All good except that very basic necessity - the cooking and spicing of the food. As my wife commented as we left, although it was a pleasant enough and filling meal we couldn’t tell we had been to an Indian restaurant as it left no spicy flavours or slight tingling hotness on the tongue. That about sums it up.

Malcolm Wilkins - March 2000