Teza

Whilst northern Britain tends to react slowly to changing cuisine - well, it took the Italians the best part of half a century to change the face of eating out in Scotland - the enjoyment of eating Indian in Carlisle has been accelerated by the arrival of Teza in its midst.

This has been encouraged by the single minded approach of Head Chef Dinesh Rawat, described as being one of only a few Indian chefs in Britain who have a "deep understanding and progressive attitude on modern Indian food." Roughly translated this means virtuoso cooking, and it is exciting stuff.

"Bar" has a fairly common worldwide application, but not so "canteen", used here in the context of a place where you are welcome to call in at any reasonable time.

And what an experience awaits! Indian cuisine still believes in starters, so expect to find many of the leading traditional Indian varieties from grill or tandoor, but with flavourings and seasoning that may be a long way from tradition.

Hot main courses could be lamb vindaloo or chicken Madras, or on a gentler note the chicken tikka masala, that much loved dish now a part of our national awareness, or there is the Punjabi country dish Karhai Gosht, tender lamb stir fried with a spicy masala of garlic, onions and tomatoes. However, for some no Indian meal is complete without an encounter with the Tandoor oven, and one of the ultimate experiences just has to be the joining of two major cuisines to produce the Tandoori Mixed Grill, a platter loaded with chicken Malai tikka, Punjabi chilli, chicken tikka, lamb chop, Tandoori king prawn and salmon tikka.

Amongst the speciality dishes is chicken Makhani, chicken tikka in a creamy fenugreek (regarded since time immemorial as an ingredient likely to come in handy later in the evening) flavoured tomato sauce. Tiger prawns pan tossed with peppers, crushed coriander and cloves ensure that the taste of the sea is not wholly absent from the scene.

Seven spiced coated barbary duck breast, oven baked, served with stir fried spinach and curried sweet and sour sauce is the sort of dish a man like wish to keep for special occasions, and a woman too for that matter.

Teza is the sort of restaurant worth making a considerable deviation for, in a city that is not exactly renowned for culinary excitement.

To learn more a swift click will bring you to their Website , and hopefully their doors.