Camden Tandoori Curry House, Camden Road

Stopped in for a sneaky Friday night curry at this place. Arriving at 7pm I am the only (probably first) customer. Later on a couple of people come for takeaway.

On the outside it's a very ordinary-looking side-street curry shop, though often with special offer banners. Apparently at lunchtime on Sunday you can get a whole tandoori chicken for a fiver. Inside there are nasty artexed walls about the colour of a raspberry milkshake, but otherwise it's bearable.

I order a couple of poppadoms and a sweet lassi to get me through the menu-examining process. The poppadoms arrive still hot from the frier, and come with pretty good lime pickle and the rest of the usual stuff. The lassi is excellent: sweet/sour, dry/creamy in just the right proprotions.

To start I have a reshmi kebab, which arrvies as a fairly spicy patty of bright red keema (they do not skimp on the food dye here) in a thin omelette. It's pretty good.

Since the sign outside really does announce a "tandoori curry house" I have the balti lamb tikka for my main, with pilau rice and a garlic-stuffer naan. It's a big disappointment: the meat is lean and well-cooked (and dyed bright red), in a thick, dark sauce which looks OK but doesn't taste of anything at all. It's not just bland but somehow completely neutral.

The rice is fine and the naan is passable, if a bit heavy, but the centrepiece is utterly pointless.

The service was fine and the bill, at a little over 20 quid including service was just abut OK. Despite the poor curry, somehow I took a liking to the place, so I might be back to see if they can do any better.