The Balti Centre claims on its menu 'the ultimate in Asian cuisine' - setting itself a standard hard to live up to. It's a smallish, intimate restaurant with loud Asian music and rather overdone Eastern décor.

We started with onion bhaji (£1.00), mushroom bhaji (£1.80), and Bombay aloo (£1.80). The onion bhajis were the best we've sampled in a long while, the batter crisp and the onion fried to perfection. The mushroom bhaji and Bombay aloo were of the sauce variety, both dishes plentiful and delicately spiced. On this form, the claim that the Balti Centre serves the ultimate in Asian cuisine seemed no idle boast.

We were looking forward to more of the same from our main dishes, but sadly the standard of the fare that followed was well below that of the starters. My own aloo matter was fine, the potatoes nicely spiced and the peas exceptionally sweet, and there were no complaints with the chick pea curry - both curries were above average. The vegetable dhansak and vegetable rogan josh, however, were very disappointing. They were almost identical, but for the addition of a few raw sliced peppers in the rogan josh. Both dishes consisted of a tomato puree base more in keeping with bolognese sauce, and were so mild that the curry could hardly be tasted. In fact, one of our group commented that her dish was more like something to be found on the menu of an Italian restaurant.

On the plus side, the chapattis were well above average, as was the coffee with which we finished.

We felt that the Balti Centre would do better if it ditched its ketchup-style sauce on some of its dishes - some diners might find it palatable, but it's hardly authentically Asian.

(All dishes are baltis and come with either rice or three chapattis.)