Great for those on a budget

SHILPA'S, MIDLAND RD, BEDFORD

BY GARRICK ALDER

Shilpa's is still a young Indian restaurant and many will confess to having peered through its minaret-shaped windows.

Inside, it is sparkling white without being clinical, with tinted lighting that is bright without being glaring.

Service was prompt but not (thank goodness) intrusive with sufficient 'going down' room left between courses.

A wide range of drinks was available but my companion and I chose clean and crisp Cobra lager, very reasonably priced at £3.40 a pint.

My starter was stuffed mushrooms encased in crunchy batter, firm and very juicy with the delicate smokey tastes of meat and fungus.

My companion had Jalori Chat, which is a chicken chat on puree with cucumbers and a fried bread base. She described it as 'the best she's had in Bedford'.

For my main course I had Duck Delhi, big spicy cubes of solid meat (done to a consistency that highlighted the rather liver-like texture of the bird) with fleshy crunchy onion and sweet juicy peppers spitting and sizzling on the hotplate.

Duck is normally quite a heavy and greasy meat but this was (forgive me) light as a feather.

My companion had Lamb Xacuti, about which I had changed my mind due to my lamb mushroom starter.

She was so impressed that I begged a sample.

If I said to you that lamb went extraordinarily well with banana, you would probably back nervously towards the telephone but that's precisely what I am in fact saying.

The banana was transformed into a soft savoury solid whose residual sweetness played in contrastful harmony with the dark and steely flavour of the lamb.

Reflecting on this later, I thought of the fact that the traditional British Sunday staple, mint sauce, probably seems a rather odd thing to have with lamb.

Dinner for two, with drinks, came to £57.20 which is not bad at all but for those on a budget Shilpa's offers set meals for far less.