while our starters proper take the meal up to a level with a lip-smacking combo of flavours. On the one hand, there’s chat masala, a fragment mint and chickpea concoction which is almost as addictive as nicotine. On the other, there’s wo, a traditional festive food (you can taste them Kathmandu streets in the smoky chicken and lamb) which, if it was sold at Ashton Court, would threaten to put most other food stalls out of business.
And so, as it were to the summit. Both main dishes, that modest chicken korma and the more extravagant sea bass nani, more than live up to expectations. The korma is reportedly “scrumptious”, delicately flavoured and grease-free (no yoghurty slicks here), while the nani boasts two nicely cooked bass fillets sat alongside asparagus and butter beans beneath a sumptuously creamy source. A lush spinach sag bhaji, subtly spiced alloo tarkari (potatoes), pilau rice and naan provide the necessary accompaniment, and instead of coagulating into a big, horrible, tastebud-destroying curry-esque mess, each flavour(mustard seeds, pomegranate seeds, coriander, things i’ve never heard of) holds its own without becoming overpowering.

Now feeling somewhat less elegant than the decor, we round things of with a delicious pistachio and almond kulfi and a slightly disappointing Kathmandu sundae (drop the over-aerated cream, guys) before concluding, over coffee, that here we have definitely top-notch Indian/Nepalese cuisine, a real eye-opener for anyone who thinks Indian food begins and ends with chicken tikka or that Pacific Rim fusion chefs have a monopoly on modern pan-Asian cookery. OK, so the location might not be ideal (watching the Colston Hall turning out at 10pm isn’t exactly the highpoint of the evening) but everything else is pretty much on the button.