This was our first visit to the Manchester Road branch of the Shah Jehan. It's smaller and cheaper than Omar's Shah Jehan in the centre of town, but the fare almost attains that restaurants very high standards.

We started with vegetable samosa (£1.00 for two), onion bhaji (£1.00), and mushroom pakora (£1.30). They were uniformly excellent. The samosas were packed full of fresh, hot, sharply spiced vegetables, and the pastry was superbly flaky. The mushroom pakoras contained vast succulent mushrooms in a crunchy, tangy better, and the onion bhaji were just as good, well-cooked and tasty.

So far so good, but would the main meal live up to the very high standards set by the starters?

The mushroom ka salan was very much enjoyed: plentiful mushrooms in a tangy rice sauce, with a delightful background taste of cardamom. The dall tarka was described as, "The best dall I've tasted for ages," and consisted of small brown lentils cooked in a heavy, rich, piquant sauce. I asked for my channay alloo to be prepared apna-style (or Asian style: a little hotter than the norm) and it was excellent: the chick peas were cooked to perfection in a thick, satisfying and mouth-tinglingly spicy sauce, and the potatoes were diced to just the right size in order to absorb the curry flavour. The alloo mutter was described as little mild by MichaelH, but was enjoyed: again, nicely sized potatoes and sweet, mouth-watering peas.

We finished with some strange-tasting coffee, but we didn't let that spoil an overall excellent dining experience.

As you might have guessed, we were impressed by the Shah Jehan. It serves high quality Asian fare at very reasonable prices, and the portions are generous. We'd urge every reader of the site to make the two mile journey from the city and give this restaurant a go.

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