Popadoms, High Street, Newport

WHILE it is most popular in the early hours with the post-pub crowd, Popadoms proved a pleasant place for an early evening curry.

The food is inexpensive and there was a two-for-one offer on main courses when I visited with a friend on Thursday evening.

With a table overlooking the city centre, we began with popadoms and chutneys before moving on to starters of vegetable samosas for myself and a mixed Tandoori for my companion.

The samosas tasted very fresh and were possibly my favourite part of the meal, while the other starter was a tasty mix of lamb, chicken, potato and onion.

I opted for one of the specials as my main course - Chor Chora fish. This consisted of king prawns in a thick spiced sauce with garlic and ground mustard seeds, served with pilau rice.

This is a great dish for onion lovers, but there were rather too many for my liking.

My friend enjoyed her chicken Rougon and boiled rice, but we felt the food went cold quite quickly as there were none of the candle-lit dish warmers you usually get in an Indian restaurant.

We had no complaints about the saag bhagi and garlic naan we chose to accompany the meal.

Those with a sweet tooth will be disappointed as there is no dessert menu, so we made do with After Eights and coffee.

With two glasses of wine, the meal came to a very reasonable £30.90.