Mem Saab

Mem Saab is one of the new breed of Indian Restaurants. Out has gone the chinz, the flock wallpaper and the tremulous Bollywood soundtrack. In has come minimalism, cocktails and artfully illuminated Javanese Buddha heads. Unfortunately the Indian Restaurant plays such an established role in the British social environment that these refinements have not succeeded in setting them apart from their traditional role as a late-night venue for crowds of pissed-up, lager-quaffing yobs.

Mem Saab (which is huge) was half empty on a Tuesday night when our group of four arrived. For some reason we were guided to a table adjacent to a huge group of raucously drunken international cricketers. For all I know about cricket it could well have been the entire English team celebrating an Ashes victory (have we lost yet? oh, who cares?). Perhaps the restaurant imagined that we would feel privileged in our proximity to celebrity. But as far as I'm concerned, one group of drunken yobs is much the same as another and after our starters we asked to be moved. The waiter had to go and ask permission from the manager to move us - I think some staff empowerment may be called for!

The food was excellent. Even the chutneys that you get with the poppadoms were really individual and unusual. Maybe they are out of a jar, the same as in every other curry house but if they are then it's a better class of jar for certain.

Our main dishes were not out of a jar. The chicken was fragrant with fresh cardomom and ginger and the lamb was rich with garlic and had that strange quality of tasting of chilli, while not being too hot. How do they do that? I judge a good Indian Restaurant by their breads. You can buy nan breads ready made from a wholesaler but the real thing is so much better. Mem Saab nans come roasting hot from the tandoor (the Indian clay oven) and dripping with ghee - superb.

We didn't take deserts on this occasion but I have had them at Mem Saab in the past and they are excellent - proper authentic Indian deserts such as I have eaten before only at the kerbside in Rajasthan.

Mem Saab used to advertise that their chef had "cooked for palates as discerning as those of former US president Bill Clinton." Since it is well known that Bill's idea of a romantic dinner for two was to treat Monica to Kentucky Fried Chicken served out of a bucket, I'm not sure what sort of recommendation that really is. Those KFC buckets amaze me. The time surely cannot be far off when you will enter an American fast food establishment to be confronted with a row of huge American arses, their owners on all-fours, eating at a trough.

Mem Saab could be the best Indian restaurant in Nottingham. But they need to develop a bit more front-of-house gravitas - something at any rate which will keep the yobs at bay.