It's hard to find a good Indian restaurant these days - so many of them have turned to mush! But when I do find one, I want to crow about it, and the other week I went to Thali on Old Brompton Road in London, which is a bit special and definitely worth knowing about. Here's why...

Thali is situated on the Old Brompton Road, just a short walk from South Kensington tube. It's an interesting part of London - central, yet away from Covent Garden and the Theatre District - and here you'll find lots of locals as well as tourists. Despite being a fine dining restaurant, Thali is not all that expensive and it has a very homely feel to it. It's small and cosy, but with an Indian rickshaw stuck on the wall! Downstairs is a great space for larger party groups - there was one there when I visited.

I recognised a lot of the dishes on the menu from the UK high streets (they do chicken tikka and tandoori chicken), but many of the dishes are ones that most of us won't recognise - and that is just so refreshing. I tried the crab patties to start (crabmeat coated in mint, coriander and spices), the lamb chops with masala spices, green cardamom, cloves, lime and yoghurt and the palak chat (spinach with sweetened yoghurt and chutneys) - and all three were stunning. The crab patties were light and incredibly flavoursome, the lamb chops were beautifully spiced. But it was the spinach which stole the show among the starters - it takes 24 hours to make it apparently and what you have here is crunchy spinach leaves in a wonderful dressing. They taste fresh and fabulous and unlike spinach I have tasted in any other Indian restaurant. Oh, it was good and I'd go back just to order that again!

For the main course I was less adventurous and tried the chicken tikka makhani and the Goan fish curry. The chicken was wonderful in a lighter than usual sauce and with very, very soft chicken. And the fish curry was hot with subtle textures and flavours in a creamy tomato sauce. Along side our mains we couldn't resist trying some kulchi (cripsy fried levened bread with cheese) which was unusually light and cripsy and some dal makani (black lentils seasoned with mild spices (the lentils held their texture perfectly). We also tried the bindi do piyaza - okra which was crispy and cooked to perfection.

I will have to go back to Thali, not just for the beautiful spinach but to try some of the more adventurous main courses. There was tandoori partridge and venison bhuna to name just two of the unusual dishes. Yes, Thali is an Indian restaurant that's a real find - a mix of comforting dishes cooked perfectly, and more cheffy ones luring you out of your Indian food habits to more exciting climes! Discover the Thali menu for yourself.

By the way, you might notice that we're publishing a lot of Indian recipes at the moment - Divali is coming and we're getting ready for it. Today we published chicken jalfrezi and rice kheer - we'll keep those Indian recipes coming up to and beyond Divali on 23 October. And check out our Halloween recipes too for 31 October - they're lots of fun!

Bye for now and happy cooking.

Carol