Chowki
2-3 Denman Street, London W1
Telephone: 020-7439 1330.
Open All week, noon-11.30pm (10.30pm Sun). Price Meal for two with wine, £25-£30.
Score: 7.5/10

Is there any more dispiriting an appetite suppressant than finding on a menu a snippet of gnomic wisdom that makes no sense in the context? Of course there is: the sight through a hatch of a dramatically leprous chef handling a chicken fillet, for example, or of Andrew Lloyd Webber sitting at the next table with Donald Rumsfeld, Davina McCall and Radovan Karadzic.

Even so, the line on the menu at Chowki, the most modern of four Indian restaurants in a quaint little side street off Piccadilly, was off-putting enough. "Success is a journey, not a destination," this revealed, and while there is much to be said for this nugget of Hindu mysticism (it might have cheered up Captain Scott during his frostbitten last hours at the South Pole; although possibly not much), on a menu it has the aura of a pre-emptive excuse.

"I'm sorry, you'll have to wait another hour because I delivered your food to the wrong table," you could imagine a waiter explaining, "but success is a journey, not a destination." Or even: "Please accept our apologies for the food poisoning, and we wish you better soon, but success is a journey - in your case, regrettably, to the gastro-intestinal department of St Thomas' hospital - not a destination."

At this nascent stage of lunch, slouching uneasily on a red ottoman (there are no chairs with backs to them at the three refectory-style tables, so if you have a posture like mine, do wear a surgical corset), the emptiness of the room adding to the gloomy, dark woodiness of the decor, I was reflecting on a variant of the phrase. Perhaps in this case it really had been better to travel than to arrive, even on the District line the day the British Society of Lovers of Electrocution had held their annual convention on, and sadly off, various platforms.

And then my friend arrived, we ordered from the proverb-free section of the menu, the food swiftly made its journey to its destination, and everything proved a success after all. More than that, it was apparent why, of all the thousands of cheap restaurants in London, Evening Standard readers once selected Chowki as their favourite.

There are long and fairly tedious spiels in that menu about the style of the cooking, which changes each month to focus on three different regions - in our case Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Chettiar. But the gist is that it's determinedly authentic, homely cooking, as far away from the catch-all curry saucery of the high street as the cool Rajasthani decor is from flock.

We ordered vastly, sharing both individual dishes and a "feast" (a collation of dishes served in little bowls on the one huge plate), and liked just about everything. Minced fish dumplings with onion and crushed spices, fried to a crisp finish, were beautifully fluffy inside and had the comforting flavour of an Indian scotch egg, and char-grilled mutton marinated in ginger and coriander had the depth of taste that makes this dishonoured meat such a favourite with the Prince of Wales. Spicy lambs' livers with curry leaves and mustard seeds had a nice twang of lime.

The non-vegetarian feast comprised a chicken seekh kebab, lamb kofta and fish pakora (again deep-fried, with a lovely, pasandery mellow flavour), followed by a delicate lamb dish, a slightly nondescript chicken Chettiar and good, gutsy fish curry, all served with a minty sauce, lentils, rice and excellent paratha - a nicely balanced, if lukewarm, medley that seemed preposterously generous for £17.95. That a delectable side dish of aubergine, potato and tomato had been cooked with cinnamon, curry leaves, garlic, freshly ground chillies, roasted cardamon seeds, coconut and poppy seeds gave a hint of the effort the chef puts into his work.

There are minor irritants about Chowki (the verbosity of the menu, the meagre wine list, the urgent need for traction after two hours on the ottoman), but it provides large amounts of thoughtful, imaginative food at incongruously low prices. That doesn't make it a destination restaurant, but it's one well worth the journey all the same.