Urban Turban is by twice Michelin starred Vineet Bhatia (if not the first Indian chef in Britain to receive a Michelin star one of the first few) and it is his attempt to bring “street food eateries” from his childhood to London.

When Urban Turban opened in Westbourne Grove I turned my nose down at what seemed to be an imitation “Ping Pong.” Mind you this was a judgement based purely on what I could see through the windows. The fact that a “Ping Pong” restaurant was just a bit down the street meant I couldn’t help but contrast the two in their looks.

“Street food eateries” at Urban Turban means encouraging tapas style dining. When you get the menu it may seem confusing as to how much and what to order. The standard suggestion seems to be that you order two dishes from the Desi Tapas section plus a (main) “Classic Helping” or have four dishes from the Desi Tapas. Its unclear if the suggestion was per person or per couple. To make things a little easier you also have the choice of sharing platters one of which involves a “volcanic grill” which basically means you get the raw ingredients to cook on a hot “volcanic” stone at your table.

Alongside the food menu is a not insubstantial cocktail and wine. I went for some sort of (virgin) banana and nutella colada which was quite interesting. It was extremely sweet, but balanced by the coconut, and had that additional hit of hazelnut chocolate. Probably not everyone’s cup of tea but I liked it.

For our food, not really trusting the standard ordering suggestions, we ended up choosing two Desi Tapas dishes and three “Classic Helpings” along with two naan. Let’s start with the Desi Tapas dishes. We went for the ‘Gun powder’ prawns with spring onion, herb chutney and Masala ‘crab & sweet corn cakes’ with spicy ketchup priced at a staggering £7.50 each. What we got were four prawns and four cakes. Taste-wise I couldn’t complain – both dishes were extremely full of flavour and cooked pretty much perfectly. However, value for money-wise both dishes were substantially overpriced. When you consider I can go to a decent Chinese restaurant and for the same price get, for example, an equally delicious prawn noodle dish that comes with eight or nine giant prawns I think someone is having a laugh … all the way to the bank!

Priced slightly better but still overpriced for the portion sizes we got were our main dishes of Salli-Murg (Parsi chicken with apricots and straw potatoes (£10) and Lamb biryani layered with aromatic basmati rice enclosed in a flaky crust (£12.) I wouldn’t say that either of these dishes were particularly memorable either though we had no problems finishing the dishes. One was sweet and the other one just blah (but considering I don’t really like lamb that’s not surprising!)

Star of the night had to be the ‘Baingan Bharta’ which was a smoked aubergine and pea masala (£6) which was not only a decent portion size for the price but extremely tasty. It was simply delish – the right balance of smokiness and bite! The naans were okay though I was disappointed to find that the Chilli garlic naan was basically a plain naan upon which had been slathered what tasted to us like Lee Kum Kee Chilli Garlic sauce out of the jar! This is a sauce that most Chinese have in their fridges I think!

By the time we’d finished our meal we were quite stuffed so had to pass on the £6 desserts. A shame because they did sound quite nice if a little over complicated. Take the Cardamom panacotta, fresh berries, rose infusion and basil for example.

Its clear that the credit crunch is having its impact on Urban Turban (in fact I’ve read reports that plans to expand into a second restaurant have now been shelved). Unlike reported in earlier reviews we had no need for a reservation and indeed the place, on a Saturday night no least, never really got full. The atmosphere was still quite nice, however, and it’s a place you could easily have an enjoyable evening. Service too seems to have improved from its teething problems when it first opened more than a year ago as we had delightful and friendly service that was pretty efficient too.

The last word relates to our bill. This was, to me, staggering at £65 considering we had no alcoholic drinks and the food is not quite fine dining. My best advice is to not come to Urban Turban hungry or thirsty – come to taste a few of the dishes and maybe have a drink or two in a fairly nice environment.