Moti Mahal, Covent Garden, London

[Harters]

From time to time, you know that a place is “right” as soon as you sit down. There’s an immediate feeling that the food is going to be good and the service is going to move along so effortlessly that you don’t really realise it’s happening. Moti Mahal is one of these rare places. We’d booked through TopTable and were immediately advised that, as such, the set menu would be available to us at 50% discount. However, we’d already decided to go with the main menu.

The food on the carte is not offered in the traditional western style of separate courses but simply as dishes intended to be shared and which arrive as they are cooked. If you’re unfamiliar with this style, it can cause a quandary but I’d taken advice on another board and knew exactly what we wanted to eat. In the event, the food did not arrive in a complete hotchpotch but in two waves, I guess sort of representing starter and main courses.

Chapli kebab – tender, moist, well seasoned lamb, with the flavour of mint in there as almost the traditional accompaniment to lamb. Here was meat is not moulded into a sausage shape and cooked until firm like a seekh kebab but, rather, served as a flat patty with the meat just pushed together into shape. It made for a very light and delicious item.

Nihari – Very long cooked lamb shank – probably the tastiest lamb of any cuisine we’ve eaten in a long time. The gravy fragrant with ginger and something else (cumin?)

Subz-e-bashist – a mix of broccoli, paneer, mushrooms and peppers. All individually seasoned and cooked in the tandoor. The peppers were particularly good with a tamarind (?) coating. That said, perhaps the least successful of the dishes and not to my partner’s taste.

Kararee Bhyein – Crisply fried slices of lotus stem, mixed with peanuts and finished with coriander. This was superb – the crispness bringing an uncommon texture to an Indian meal.

Bhalla papdi chaat – a curry house staple raised to a completely different level here. Superb mix of textures and flavours in one dish – crisp pastry, mealy chickpeas, soft yogurt, tangy tamarind, pomegranate seeds. Perfect.

Dal makhani – another “standard” but none the less for that.

A “cut your own” salad was presented with the first wave of dishes. And, with the second, a selection of breads - a standard naan, one with green chilli, and a tandoori roti. All very light and fresh tasting (well, they were fresh – the tandoor section of the kitchen overlooks the dining room, and we were able to watch the skill of the chefs.).

Quantities were just right for two people – albeit two enthusiastic eaters. I had room for dessert – a selection of halwa (carrot, lentil & saffron, squash & pistachio). My previous experiences with halwa have been a dense confection, served cold. Here it was warm and much lighter, the vegetables simply grated. Over them, the waiter shaved from a block of what he described as condensed milk, in the same way as you might shave truffle over pasta.

I’d be back here like a shot on our next visit.

[Harters]

I hadnt planned to eat here on this trip but having been warned off the Skylon on another thread, it was good opportunity to pop back.

I’ve eaten off their main “Grand Trunk Road” menu in the past but fancied a simpler presentation on this visit. The set menu seemed just the thing at £38. And when I saw that it was on offer at just £19, it became less of a bargain and more of a complete steal.

There’s a “freebie” cut-it-yourself salad to start, offered with a little dish of ground masala spices, another of flavoured salt and a tiny bottle of oil.

Chicken tikka was my starter choice – moist meat, with just the right amount of charring round the edges and just the right amount of spicing. It was served with a little coriander chutney and a raita.

It’s chicken, lamb or veggie for starters. And it’s chicken, lamb or veggie for mains. The Rajasthani lamb curry (Laal Maas) is a classic from the region. I recently had it at a restaurant near home (not one of my top five places – but in the top ten). Then the spicing was overly aggressive but not here. Of course, there is a good chilli hit but the other spicing was more subtle, more complex.

Alongside, there was a dish described only as “curried vegetables of the day”. I wouldn’t rate this as an outstanding success. Served dry and very well fried to an almost uniform brown, I confess to not really being able to identify exactly what was in there. Aubergine and okra, perhaps – but, in truth, it was really anyone’s guess. Tasted good enough, though, and a pleasant contrast to the meat dish.

There was also a very decent naan, bordering on being the crisper (and preferred) tandoori roti. Another vote for the two guys you can see in the kitchen manning the two tandoors. Really good stuff. I took an extra order of pulao rice to make sure my carb levels were kept topped up.

There’s a newish general manager and Michael Cheung is clearly running a very tight ship. You could just see that everything was working seamlessly. Good on him. But if I have one piece of advice for Michael, it’s ditch the £1.50 cover charge. It’s irritating and it’s petty. If need be, just up the price of a dish or two.