Urban Turban suits me

The restaurant should have opened months ago but various setbacks with builders, the council, militant residents' associations and the like have held it back. Now, to prolong the torment, Westbourne Grove has been closed to traffic until August (at the earliest) while sewerage works take place. Try to overcome this hurdle of you can because Vineet is in the kitchen - and will be for the next few weeks - and he is a great cook.

He was, I think, the first person to figure out that the oiliness of salmon would make that fish an ideal candidate for the tandoor. Glazed with honey and mustard and served with a cucumber-dill raita, home-smoked salmon is an item not to be missed.

In that category I would also put grilled button mushrooms and chilli paneer (curd cheese); masala crab and sweetcorn cakes with spicy ketchup; lamb and green pea samosas with tamarind chutney and the dishes of stir-fried cauliflower and chilli chicken which are flavoured with spring onions and soya sauce in the Chinese manner beloved of Indians. "Chindian" food it is sometimes called.

If there is a criticism it is the size of the dishes, which are too dainty both for most people's appetite for Indian food and for the prices of £5.25-£6. Ordering one of the sharing platters would seem to effect an economy.

Classic mains are also on the small size but certainly enough for just two people sharing. Kashmiri lamb rogan josh and chicken tikka makhni (aka butter chicken) were beautifully composed with a freshness to the flavours that is rare in restaurants. Baingan bharta ( smoked aubergine and pea masala) and tadka dal were also excellent.

A Chindian main course is rice stir-fried with squid, scallops and roasted peanuts served with a dip based on lime, chilli, garlic and coriander. The seafood content was not hugely apparent but the combination of rice and dip was terrific.

We asked for a dish of green vegetables and a crunchy gingered-up stirfry arrived which should probably be added to the menu.

Desserts are imaginative and the selection of ice creams includes a delectable one based on stem ginger. Mango kulfi with baby gulab jamun was also rewarding but £6 seems not exactly a casual price to pay. Staff are helpful and sweet. The décor is a bit reticent and brown when the country that inspires the cooking has such a wondrous colour spectrum.

But Westbourne Grove, once known for student hang-outs like Khan's and The Standard, can now consider Indian food quite differently. Let's hope the planned roll-out of Urban Turban happens without a hitch.

Urban Turban
Westbourne Grove, London, W2 5RU