IT may not be the most stylish or innovative Indian restaurant around, but there’s something very comforting about Ali’s.

At a time when virtually every other Indian restaurant is painting its walls white and laying wooden floors in a bid to look modern, Ali’s hasn’t changed for years.

Similarly, the menu offers fairly standard fare but at prices which, thankfully, appear to have stood still with the décor.

It’s always popular and it was packed out when we visited on a Friday night so we were lucky to get a table.

As I said, there are no real surprises on the menu so we opted for two chicken dishes – a dhansak and a Ceylon. We also chose a plain naan bread and a plain boiled rice.

It was a real effort to resist the temptation to order my favourite side dish of chana masala (spicy chick peas) but I knew from past experience that that would have left us with too much food.

The dhansak was deliciously hot and spicy, with a strong sweet and sour tang to it. The chicken was good quality and there was plenty of it.

In contrast, the Ceylon was rich and creamy, just like a korma but with a chilli kick. We were surprised by this as we were expecting a tomato-based curry but as it turned out, it was absolutely delicious.

It tasted of coconuts and sweet almonds, lulling you into a false sense of security until you hit the chilli. But it contained just the right amount of heat and the curry proved the perfect dipping sauce for our naan bread.

We weren’t offered puddings – I don’t think they do them – but by then we had satisfied our curry cravings and were ready to roll home.

Our meal, plus poppadoms, chutneys and a couple of rounds of drinks came to a bargain £25.75.