Happy buzz at Hot Stuff

Hot Stuff - the small restaurant run by the Dawood family - hasn't changed at all. In 2005 there are 28 seats rather than 18, a modest sum has been spent on bright paint, and there are a couple of tables out front on a rather unsalubrious section of pavement, but it's basically business as usual. Prices have moved upwards, but only by a pound or so a dish.

This is the same cheerful place it was seven years ago and the menu still features honest East-African-Asian dishes with almost everything priced at under £5.

Hot Stuff may only be a 28-seater, but in the kitchen to the rear you'll see seven or eight folk busily cooking, dishing-up and then waiting tables, and the food is served briskly and efficiently.

The resto is BYO (but makes no charge, unless you have the temerity to bring your own soft drinks) so wander into the offlicence next door where you'll find a large refrigerator with a decent range of cold beer - everything from Cobra and Kingfisher to export-strength Nigerian Guinness.

This resto is one place where the 'specials' repay investigation and when someone comes to take your order it's worth enquiring whether there are any starters like the mixed seafood - a small plate of calamari, crabmeat, prawns and so forth in a lightly chillied thin sauce, fresh tasting and very good. Team it with one of the excellent wholemeal rotis, or a special paratha, which is very flaky and very buttery.

The meat samosas are also notable, dry not soggy and filled with plenty of mince. Chilli chicken is not very chilli, but good for all that. Hint at wanting a bit more kick and your waiter will dash off to the kitchen for a saucer of chopped fresh chillies to add some pep.

When deciding on a main course, don't overlook those specials, and there is a particularly good selection of vegetarian dishes - three or four bean curries: chickpeas, red kidney beans, black-eyed beans, each costing less than £3.

The main dishes include some familiar faces such as rogan josh and butter chicken, the latter served as chunks of white meat in a loose and buttery gravy. The rice is good and the mushroom pillau is obviously something of a favourite with the locals.

A 'lamb karahi Madras' is a little less successful, the spicing well balanced but a bit on the tame side.

Should you get as far as dessert your waiter will proffer a large laminated card with Cold Stuff in the graphic style of a road sign. On the back is a range of commercial ice cream desserts - these are rarely any good unless your ice cream craving tells you otherwise.

Hot Stuff's greatest asset is its atmosphere - the place has a happy buzz. You may also be lucky enough to eavesdrop on the conversation at the nearby table of five respectable-looking gents - four Brits and a Yank --who are discussing the battle strategies of Napoleon.

With Vauxhall Cross so close at hand you cannot help but speculate that budget cuts have forced MI5 to take their CIA visitor out for curry.

Hot Stuff
Wilcox Road, London, SW8 2XA