Omar's is a small restaurant in the revived heart of Bradford, a short walk from the Alhambra. It's nicely decorated and has a good atmosphere, and while the service could be faster, the extensive menu boasts curries that are well above the city's average.

We were last at Omar's almost a year ago, and we thought it high time we returned to see how things were getting along. We found the quality of food pretty much as before - some dishes scoring highly, others not so. There's been a price rice in the interim of 30p to 40p on some dishes.

We kicked off with onion bhaji, (£1.20), mushroom bhaji (£1.50), and chicken pakora (£1.80). The onion bhajis were pretty average, if slightly underdone. The mushroom bhaji, expensive at £1.80, were very variable: some were succulent, while others on the same plate were overdone and lacked mushroom. The chicken pakora was deemed excellent by our tame carnivores - good chunks of chicken in spicy batter.

My dish, balti vegetable spinach, was very good: a wide selection of veg - including aubergine, courgette, and carrot, among others - in an excellent spicy, but not too hot, sauce. Dish of the day, however, was the balti chicken pathia, scoring an unbeatable ten out of ten. (Pathia is a sweet and sour dish cooked with tomato puree, mango chutney, lemon juice and black pepper.) The other dishes didn't rate do highly. The Balti Shearer ("kofta meat or chicken balls in medium sauce. Guaranteed to score with your taste buds" - from the menu) scored only seven. It was like the description said, but it couldn't find the nets - it was mediocre lacking any distinct taste. The mushroom dopiaza was disappointing, a little thin and bland.

We finished the meal with an example of truly awful coffee at 65p per cup, and were dismayed to find that Omar's does not serve deserts.

All in all, like last time, a mixed bag of dishes. Omar's serves well above average curries at reasonable prices, and is well worth a visit if you're a committed curry fan.

In Birmingham, baltis are all the rage. In Bradford, a few restaurants have started serving their meals in great, oversized, red-hot woks - and I fail to see why. Quite apart from the danger of third-degree burns, balti dishes serve only to make one's portions appear minuscule. Okay, gripes over. What was Omar's like?

Of all the restaurants we've reviewed, none have earned such a varied range of opinion. Some of us thought our meals superb, while others considered theirs barely average.

We began with onion bhaji (£1.00) and mushroom bhaji (£1.30). We thought the onion bhajis were a bit scrappy and lacking in onion, but the mushroom bhajis were excellent - full of flavour and succulent, though it must be said that the portions were small and the prices pretty steep. Also, the sauces that accompanied them were thin, tasteless and watered down.

I sampled balti vegetable and mushroom, and loved it. The vegetables were various and well-spiced, the sauce rich. The chapattis were tasty but on the thin side - I could have done with four or five to do justice to the curry. MariaM was well pleased with her vegetable dhansak in a thick, rich sweet sauce flavoured with ginger and coconut. Others were not as satisfied. The chicken dopiaza resembled a pre-packed supermarket curry, according to BobG, and IanW and JohnM found their vegetable bhuna and vegetable rogan josh very bland. (A word on the naan breads: they're obscenely big. BobG tried a keema naan peshwari (£2.00) and could only eat half of the thing.)

The coffee was up to the usual standard to be found in Bradford curry restaurants - dreadful: thin, tasteless and insipid.

So, a mixed review for Omar's Balti House. I loved my dish and would certainly go back for more - it's another restaurant we'll try in six months or so.