We're at the Kashmir Curry Centre on Spital Hill, Sheffield, and for a minute we don't recognise it.

We haven't gone to the Mangla up the road by mistake, have we?

Instead of the mismatching bare tables, Indian transport caff style, each is covered with an identical plastic tablecloth.

What's more, all the chairs are swathed in flowery patterned material.

And on the walls, previously decorated with nothing more than maps and posters, are fancy photographs in chunky wooden frames. And embroidery.

But here is the familiar figure of the owner, self-styled curry philanthropist Bsharath Hussain (and who could doubt it at his prices?), reading his copy of The Star. That's a brownie point.

He explains that it's been this way for a couple of years.

"After 30 years I realised that if you buy some plastic it all looks the same," he says, gesturing at the tables.

We're not the only ones caught on the hop.

So is Harden's Restaurant Guide, just out, which lists the Kashmir (one of seven in the city) with the comment: "Great cooking as long as you don't mind the bare tables."

The menu is still as short although prices have gone up. The splendid set meal meat thalee has soared from £8 in 2002 to £12 today but that's inflation for you. The food is still great value, with plenty of starters at £2 or below and curries mostly at a fiver.

And there's something new – five South Indian starters are pinned to the menu.

"You must have poppabombs. They're amazing. You get instructions on how to eat them," advise the family on the next table.

Who could resist the menu description: "Poppabombs, real name Golgappa (Pani Puri). Crisp shells which you fill with tamarind sauce and golgappa masala. Pop the whole thing in your mouth and WOW!"

Bsharath appears with the dish, four little deep-fried spheres of puri cracked open to reveal a filling of what looks like puffed wheat but isn't. They come with two bowls, one of tamarind sauce and another of a greenish liquid.

"The flavour comes with the liquids," he says, leaving us to it.

I loved them in a sort of 'one bite and it's gone' sort of way (this is said to be India's favourite street food).

My wife preferred them without the green stuff.

I was also fascinated to see idli, a steamed rice sponge cake, on the menu, previously only glimpsed in Indian recipe books, but they'd run out, so we settled for dhokla, little squares of sponge made with chickpea flour with onion seed and dessicated coconut, served with a green coconut and coriander chutney.

Nice but my wife was obviously off anything green. She left the chutney. Both cost £2.

Bsharath and his wife are working their way through a cookery book at home. "When we've got it right I bring it to the restaurant and give it to the kitchen and say, hey boys have a go at this," he tells us.


KASHMIR CURRY CENTRE
123 Spital Hill, Sheffield.
Tel: 0114 272 6253.
Open Mon-Sat evenings (until midnight). No credit cards. BYO (or get drinks from the pub across the way). Street parking.
My star ratings (out of five):
Food 4
Atmosphere 4
Service 5
Value 4
Indian restaurant category. Do not compare ratings between places of different style or price.

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