Review

Every night is party night at the Kohinoor Tandoori. Depending on the evening of your visit, you might happen upon a 'Special Night Wednesday', 'Hungry Sunday', 'Magic Monday' or the 'Tuesday Bangladeshi Fish Curry Night'. The town side of Mill Road is awash with restaurants and takeaways, so having special nights every night is the way that the Kohinoor sets itself apart from its main competition less than a hundred metres away.

The entire restaurant is festooned with green foliage, a vision of green that is part cosiness, part holidaying beach hut

On entering, the festive atmosphere remains. The entire restaurant is festooned with green foliage, a vision of green that is part cosiness, part holidaying beach hut. This effect is consolidated by the mirrors, and gentle pictures of beaches and cascading waterfalls.

The menu is home to the usual British Indian favourites, whether your desire is a rogan josh, balti, kashmiri or korma. However, there are also a number of house specialities, such as roop chanda, a lightly spiced fish, served with a fairly thick sauce and cooked in coriander; and the nawabi ayr fish, fish steaks served with diced onion and mixed peppers. They also offer to cook any other dish you would like, if it is not on the menu and they have the time and necessary ingredients.

The night of our visit was Special Night Wednesday, where a starter, main course, naan, rice and glass of wine will set you back less than a tenner. We each chose starters, the king prawn butterfly - a gigantic prawn served with salad, and a vegetable pakora. Our main courses of a vegetable biriyani and chicken bhuna with pilao rice were served promptly. Whilst the servings aren't as large as some similar establishments, it meant that we didn't leave lots of on our plate. The waiting staff delivered with aplomb, as they really seem to take the party atmosphere in their stride. Also, there's always a member of staff available to deal with any problems - no flapping about wildly, only to be ignored, here.

One slight gripe is that after ordering our food, a fifteen-strong group of students arrived, who, despite booking a table, found that it hadn't been arranged. However, the situation was resolved quickly and the students were certainly enjoying themselves by the time we left. Also, the toilets, whilst adhering to the colour scheme of the rest of the restaurant and being perfectly clean, could do with a lick of paint here and there.

Other than that, it's the small touches that make the Kohinoor. One of us ordered the 'Punky', an ice-cream in a plastic penguin, presumably designed to appease children for whom spicy food is not to their taste, and mentioned that the last time we had one, we used it on our desk at work until it was lost in an office move. This meant we were given another one later on, free of charge 'in case we lost it again'. Regulars are clearly welcomed as old friends, and as well as the customary hot towel and small chocolate, we were also given a small glass of port. It's the small touches that make the Kohinoor a welcome place for a good, local curry.