It had been discussed for some time among the members that to make a fair comparison across the diverse range of available Indian cuisines and curries it was necessary at some time to sample the various vegetarian options available to us in the city and surrounding area.

We had enjoyed non-meat sizzling platters, deep fried aubergine and various other vegetarian side dishes over the years, so it seemed to be a reasonable assumption that a vegetarian main meal along those lines would be more than acceptable and worth an exploration into what until now had been ‘the unknown.’

The Herb restaurant in Granby Street came highly recommended and having studied the website, the impressively tasteful decorative furnishings used to complement its interior and create an ambience uncommon among its rivals it was the obvious choice for our new exciting venture.

We booked a table for five on a Wednesday evening and we were pleased to find on our arrival at the appointed time that the restaurant was a busy hub of what appeared to be a cross section of happy diners including obvious regulars all of whom were blatantly enjoying their evening and their meals, which we took as a sure sign that we were in for a treat.

As we were shown to our table, we were given menus to study and offered drinks, which we ordered together with what was described as pre-meal snacks in place of the usual poppadoms that we normally have. The drinks and snacks arrived accompanied by three dips and we enjoyed the difference that these provided to what we consider to be the more traditional poppadoms.

The menus presented an assortment of meals which we were collectively unfamiliar with and having sought some clarification from our waiter, I’m sorry to say that we were no better informed than we were from just trying to decipher the dishes from their description in the menu.

We carried on regardless and made our decisions ordering two Masala Dosas, one Spinach Dosa, one Mix Uthappam and one Masala Uthappam.

I think that our unfamiliarity with the dishes, our interpretation of the descriptions in the menu and the somewhat lack of assistance from our waiter led us to making the wrong choices. Sadly, we found all of the meals to be bland, lacking in any distinctive flavour and without the abundance of vegetables that we expected. The sauces also did little to enhance the taste or compliment the main course.

For these reasons our scores are not going to be representative of what would be expected by aficionados of this style of vegetarian cuisine and we apologise to those readers and to the restaurant for the results awarded following our visit and I think that in summary it is fair to simply say that it wasn’t for us!