Curry Garden, Blackheath, SE3

There’s a decent buzz in Curry Garden despite the doors just opening up on this smallish Indian on  a weekday night. In a village that has a glut of Indian and Nepalese restaurants you need an angle to stand out. And the Curry Garden’s angle is to offer a series of colour coded meal deals offering popadoms, chutneys, main meal (your choice of chicken, lamb or prawns), veg side dish, rice and nan.

There are 16 of these meal deals, using colours to make things simple for us poor customers befuddled by too many choices. So all you have to do is cast your eye over the options and choose the Red deal, the Blue deal, the Pink deal and so on. The idea, I am told, is to not only to keep things simple but also to offer good value to customers who have less in their pockets these days (please insert your favourite thing to blame here: banks, Brown, Cameron, the ultra rich, unions, the hole in your pocket).

Luckily £12.95 was still in my pocket so I could go for the Prawn Jalfrezi, Sag Paneer, Mushroom Pillau and Chilli nan. This is the Beguni meal deal. Now, you might be thinking, that’s not a colour. Ah, but it is (it’s Bengali for purple). With so many meal deals I just assume the creators of the idea ran out of colours?

The deals start at £10.95 (eg. Lamb Madras, Bombay Aloo, Pillau rice, plain nan) and is cheaper than if you order the same items separately. Swapping of items, within reason, is allowed. But what’s the point of that? At these prices just play Curry Roulette and call out a colour without even looking at the menu I say.

Curry Garden, 72 Tranquil Vale, Blackheath, London, SE3 0BN. Tel: 020 8852 3267/1401. Open: Mon–Sat 5.30pm-midnight, Sun noon-midnight.

Curry Garden snapshot

Food ① ② ③

Decor ① ② ③

Value ① ② ③ ④

Atmosphere (early on Wednesday night) ① ② ③

Service and friendliness ① ② ③