Bright hopes for EC1

This autumn, new restaurants are springing up like mushrooms. In fact, given the lack of rain and the unseasonable hardness of the ground this year, there will probably be more new restaurants than mushrooms.

But what do we want from a new restaurant? Or, perhaps more importantly, what do the proprietors think we want? To judge by Clerkenwell newcomer INDIA EC1, we want plenty of bright colours, a large, well stocked bar and friendly, attentive waiters.

Indian restaurateurs are in a bit of a trap - on the one hand, Brits are very fond of simple, old-style high street curries, but on the other we have started to laugh at simple old-style high street décor. New-wave restaurants such as India EC1 have certainly agonised over the décor side of things - smart primary-coloured chairs, a lofty room, a big budget for flowers - but the food here is stuck in limbo, half in and half out of the past.

The starters are familiar - onion bhajis, samosas, chicken tikka, sheek kebab, rani kebab. Kebabs are always a good test of a kitchen and here they are plated "new wave" style, surrounded by lots of iceberg lettuce and many, many slices of unripe tomato (a continuing theme, as pallid pink slices accompany all the curries and rice dishes). The chicken tikka is dry, while the rani kebabs - thin lamb chops - are tender but under-seasoned. Sheek kebab is the best bet but still lacks oomph.

The indecision of the proprietors shows in the array of main courses - on the one hand, The Classical Collection parades high street favourites such as chicken tikka masala, Madras, pasanda and rogan "available in lamb or chicken, a traditional dish from Mirpur" (where they must like their lamb fibrous and chewy, their sauce feeble and everything strewn with chunks of insipid raw tomato).

The new-wave side of the menu also disappoints - from The Contemporary Collection, chicken dipali is a very strange dish, with grilled chicken breast hidden under a strangely sweet sauce made with chickpeas. Then there is kamilau - within a border of pale tomatoes and lettuce you will find lamb mince and chunks of chicken tikka, both elements bound together by a sweet and thick sauce, the top scattered with flecks of something implausibly red. Every dish seems oversweet and over-sludgy. The old favourites may be outdated but even the new dishes cling grimly to the past.

The only ray of hope lies in the vegetable side dishes. Spinach arrives a dark viridian green, cooked with curry leaves and rich with oil - delicious. But with so much new and vibrant Indian cooking elsewhere, and with traditional and authentic recipes getting the respect they deserve, it is disappointing to see a bright new restaurant such as India EC1 take so much trouble over the décor and so little over the food.

India EC1
182 St John Street, EC1V 4JZ