This restaurant has changed hands yet again. Once the Evershine, then Al-Habib's, and now Shaams. It's pretty much the same in décor and furnishings, and the price of the meals remain at the low end of the market - but the curries are much different.

We started with potato veggies (80p), chicken pakora (£2.00), onion bhaji (£1.10), potato bhaji (£1.50), and vegetable pakora (£1.40). With the exception of the chicken pakora, which was described as tough and tasteless, the starters were very good. They were all fresh and distinctly spiced, and the potato veggies were one we'd never come across before. Despite the name, they were boiled new potatoes in a tangy peppery sauce. Recommended.

Would the main courses be as well-liked?

Well, yes and no.

The dishes we sampled ran the gamut from excellent to poor. I'll start with the stinkers. I had mattar paneer, in which the peas were cooked to a mush and the paneer (one piece of!) tasted suspiciously like fried Wensleydale. Added to which, the sauce tasted unpleasant and had the texture of melted cheese. (The menu boasts of this restaurant: "The taste you've never known" - well, yes...) Definitely one to miss. As was the chana masala and spinach. Again, the sauce tasted unpleasant and was bulked out with what seemed like melted cheese. Highly unusual. The meat rogan josh was enjoyed: good pieces of lamb in a rich, medium-hot sauce. The chicken dansak (and the dansaks were the dishes to avoid when this restaurant was Al-Habib's) was very much enjoyed too: juicy chicken chunks in a pleasant ghee sauce with equal portions of lentils and pineapple, though the portion was on the small side. The Best on Menu, however, was the dall karahi, which scored a maximum ten out of ten. This dish was superb (and was recommended by the waiter): perfectly cooked dall in a dryish, hot sauce, distinctively spiced to provide a pleasing fiery afterburn and a wholly satisfying, rounded flavour. Also, the chapattis were excellent.

A bit of a mixed bag. Some dishes were very poor, others excellent. We'd recommend this restaurant to curry aficionados, and we'll be back in a few months to see how things have settled down.

(All dishes come with a choice of rice or three chapattis.)