Babek

Tucked away down Elgin Street is Babek, a small but bright and airy modern Indian restaurant. Much as I like to load up at The Tandoor on Lyndhusrt, this Saturday we wanted spicy marinated meats but without having to loosen our belts and waddle out afterwards.

The menu is small, which I love - it demonstrates the restaurants confidence - doing what they know best and doing it to perfection, and that's what we are paying for after all. You can either opt for the tasting menu - a ten course extravaganza of everything they do, or just choose any of the courses separately. Having had the full menu on the last two occasions, we just choose our favourite bits from last time (which by the time we had ordered, amounted to pretty much most of the menu anyway).

We had a couple of plates of Mutter Ki Tikki, little fried pea cakes accompanied by a dipping sauce with a good spicy hit. These were followed by fiery jumbo piri piri prawns, paneer cheese, tandoori chicken and peshawari lamb chops, completed by warm daal and excellent fluffy warm naan and sweet sheermal breads. The meats were marinated to perfection, and I'd certainly order it all over again next time.