A new leaf

"Yes, we're catering for a western palate," Shekhar Sharma, assistant restaurant manager at Bay Leaf said, making small talk as we prepared to leave the small restaurant.

Indian cuisine had been promised. "Flavours of India revealed," the menu proclaims. And that it was, albeit tempered, with all the staples putting in an appearance.

My companion merely found her nimbu pani — lime juice with water and sugary syrup — refreshing. My sweet lassi, on the other hand, was considerably better than the last one I'd had; the sweet clashing with the yoghurt's tang and gently tickling the gills.

Settling into the elongated dining room, my companion and I were struck by fact that Bay Leaf managed to instill a sense of warmth into the restaurant, despite the overabundance of marble — on the table tops, walls and floors. Deep red panels with gold overleaf sparsely decorated with wooden artefacts adds to creating a cosiness that isn't stifling.

Cohesive unit

It's near impossible to make a mess of vegetable samosas, especially when you're using fresh ingredients in a thin doughy shell, as they do here. The chef's first real challenge came with the sesame prawns, a test passed gracefully — the garlic and mustard in the marinade, two flavours that can work against each other in the wrong hands, came through as a cohesive unit.

As our waiter had promised, the chicken vindaloo was gently spiced, although the small potato marbles failed to impress my companion. The menu's "hot, spicy" claim has to be taken with a pinch of salt, although the sauce paired with dal went some way to redeem the rather dry parathas and rotis.

Shekhar's recommendation of the coconut and chilli lamb proved spot on. It is here that Bay Leaf's pandering to westerners proved fortunate, as it's all too easy to kill flavour in favour of spiciness. A bit too mild for my taste (you can ask for it to be very spicy), there's no doubting this allow the complex compound of the different spices to come to the fore. Another bonus was that the succulent chunks of meat separates at a mere touch, almost melting away on the tongue.

Go hungry. As a self-confessed dessert man, I'm ashamed to admit I didn't have space to indulge their sweet fare, although this is also testament to the success of Bay Leaf's very reasonably priced starters and mains.

And as if to prove just how welcome westerners are at this Indian establishment, Shekhar would only let us leave after promising to return for their "must-have chocolate brownies".