Despite the name, which makes it sound more like a Chinese take-away, this has a wholly Indian menu and is run by the same family as run The Gandhi and others in Gravesend. The owner also runs the new Tufail restaurant nearby. A fairly wide menu which includes all the usual dishes.

The food has varied greatly over the years, as the following reports indicate.  I first tried it two or three times during 1995/6 and the food (and delivery service) was not particularly good. I then left it until September 1997, when it had improved, and orders over the next three years provided a good formula curry. My various reports during that period referred to "Onion Bhajias being crisp, light and spicy..... Chicken Pathia in a rich dark sauce with a good sweet/sour balance...... Vegetable side dishes OK ..... Tarka Dal sometimes a little thin but well flavoured".

However, in February 2001 I paid a visit after some six months gap and I was extremely disappointed. I reported then that "the dishes were uniformly lacking in underlying spiciness and all tasted as though just a sprinkling of curry powder had been added. The Chicken Pathia was particularly disappointing as it had no spicy hotness at all and lacked the flavour that I remember from previously". Perhaps it was the chef’s night off, or possibly another change of chef, and I commented that "it would  be some time before I go back".

I tried them again in December 2001 and was still disappointed, although the food was different. I reported that "All dishes seemed over cooked with a slightly burned flavour about them, and even the pillau rice looked like demerera sugar!"  Once more I said that it would be some time before I ventured a return.

I did return for a 'check-up' in March 2003 and met with no greater success. The Chicken Tikka Dhansak again had a slightly burnt, almost smoky flavour to it and although fairly hot tasted as if they had simply thrown some chilli powder in as it lacked any freshness of taste. The Tarka Dall and Mixed Vegetable were similarly dull and lifeless. Again I said it would be a while before I returned.

I tried again in June 2005 and it was much  better, and I became a regular again for a while, during which time  I found all the dishes very flavoursome - the Pathia with a strong sweet/sour contrast and fairly hot, and the Jalfrezi was another of my favourites.The vegetable dishes were also all tasty, and it was encouraging to see it back to the good formula curry standard it once was.

However, from mid-2007 I began to find reliability of delivery times quoted when ordering have tended to be erratic, so I stopped using them for a while, but a year or so later I found they had improved (the delivery man said they had improved things in more recent times, and aimed to provide a reliable service, so perhaps they got a reputation for unreliability)

Despite using them every couple of months or so, intersperse with the many other I use, my most recent experience was dreadful. Everything was absolutely swimming in oil and mashy. The Chicken Tikka Pathia was far too oily, even after pouring off the surface oil slick, to be tasty, and the two vegetable dishes (Aloo Gobi and and mixed vegetable) were simply an oily mishmash. The Tandoori Chicken was also not up to their past standards, being dry, tough and poor quality chicken.  It was awful. I hope it was a one-off bad experience rather than a permanent change of chef (and you never know, do you?), but as there are so many other options to choose from I'm afraid that, once again, it will be a while before I go back 

Malcolm Wilkins - May 2010