A CURRY at Popadoms restaurant in High Street, Newport, will not disappoint.

My dining partner and I knew we were in for a treat when the quintessential Indian cuisine aromas greeted us as we walked up the stairs to the first-floor restaurant.

For starters, I had poppadoms (45p each) and a mixed tandoori (£3.50). I decided to try the house special Chor Chora fish for my main course. At £11.95, which includes pilau rice, it was the most expensive dish on the menu, but it was well worth the cash - king prawns in a thick spiced sauce with garlic and ground mustard seeds.

My dining partner had garlic mushrooms for starters (£2.50) and chicken tikka (£7.50) with boiled rice (£1.80) and enjoyed their meal thoroughly. For side dishes we treated ourselves to tarka dahl (£2.50) and keema nan (£1.95).

My only gripe was that my poppadom (strangely they are spelt differently from the name of the restaurant) was only lukewarm.

Perhaps it had been microwaved, rather than dipped in piping hot oil only seconds before being served?

To wash down our sumptuous curries we enjoyed Kingfisher and Cobra bottled Indian lager (£2.50 each). Both had a clean, crisp bite and were ideal drinks to go with the food.

Surprisingly, Popadoms does not offer a dessert menu, but two liqueur coffees at £2.75 each (I thoroughly recommend the Calypso coffee with a dash of Tia Maria) made an ideal finish for our bloated tummies.

The service was friendly and the bill brought the final pleasant surprise as the total came to £40.15 - nearly £8 less than I expected. I had not realised that customers get two main courses for the price of one (subject to conditions) on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Henry Widdas