Gurkhas Diner

Balham, gateway to the South! For some of us, Balham will always be inextricably linked to The Goon Show. Uneasy memories of Peter Sellers's cod travelogue may have delayed the gentrification of this part of South London, but Balham is now highly desirable and the rows of terraced houses are filled with sleek young professionals and their families. Lingering on from earlier times are a good many cheap and cheerful Indian restaurants, but in the autumn of 2003, new proprietors took over the electrical goods shop on the Boulevard and turned it into Gurkhas Diner, a venue offering something a bit different - Nepalese food.

We are so used to the hybrid menus at most curry houses - chicken tikka masala, etc - that any eaterie ignoring these cliches tends to grab the attention.

From the moment that you walk in, it is immediately obvious that Gurkhas Diner is anything but a diner. The light and spacious room has a parquet floor, this is a restaurant where your napkin comes in a stylish napkin ring. There are also oversize wine glasses, a sure sign that the establishment is trying hard to make an impression.

Great efforts have also been made with the presentation of the dishes on the plate and there's a good deal of 'arranging in towers' going on. From the starters, dayalu is a simple potato cake made with lentils, a thin patty, well-spiced and fried until crisp, it is served with a fine-grained, spicy sesame sauce (confusingly described as 'pickle' on the menu). The nakasee is also good - this is a bamboo skewer of chicken with another delicious sauce. More hardcore is the bhutuwa, which is made using chunks of highlyseasoned-chicken liver.

Main courses include a series of dishes cooked in the 'chuli' - a charcoal-fuelled beehive oven that performs much the same as a tandoor. Gurkhali chicken is very good, with a green marinade and strongly flavoured. From the other mains, khasi tang is a large lamb shank served on the bone with a rich gravy. While 'sherpa hot' is a dish that looks as if it hails from Lancashire, a sound lamb curry is topped with discs of potato giving a new credibility to the term hotpot.

Vegetable dishes are also attractive. Rato farsi is a mild curry made with pumpkin and palungo sag is a dish of fresh spinach lightly cooked with fenugreek seeds, very dark green, very fresh. Try the piro bread which is a small nan stuffed with a mix of potato and fresh chillies. Puds are sweet, dudilo kera is the Nepali for banana fritter. The Katmandhu beer is served cold, and imported from the Godavari brewery in the Himalayas which is good news, as the majority of the 'Indian' beers are now brewed in the UK under licence. Gurkhas Diner deserves your support for daring to do something different, and also for an enthusiastic smiley welcome.