Bell Bottom Indian Eatery Edinburgh

Women! They can't half lower the tone.

Allow me to elaborate. Picture the scene. A bright, cheerful 1970s style dining room in an Indian restaurant. A table for three. Around it are seated Scotland's finest restaurant reviewer and two influencers, LH and MR. These ladies blog under the titles of @veggieburgh and @margieatsedinburgh respectively. Unlike me they are rewarded for what they do.

LH, happily, is now a regular in the Tom Eats! column. I hope MR will join that happy band.  It's on the basis of a previous endorsement from LH that we are here in Edinburgh's Polwarth district, just a mile or so from the city centre. Bell Bottom Eatery was founded by former banker Pankaj Rawat, who now runs several businesses in the town. There is, apparently, a reason for the 1970s theme, but I think I was too engrossed in other things to hear it. Reading the massive menu, for one, chatting to Leena the lovely manager, and, of course, enjoying the wit and repartee from my gorgeous dinner companions. So I wimp out and leave the ordering to those who have been here before.

The Chips!

And what, pray, is the very first choice? The CHIPS! Apparently a must have here for LH. In fairness, not just ordinary fries. These come with a chilli and garlic sauce, sprinkled with sesame seeds. I was going to come back to these, but a boil is best lanced in the early stages. While it was a very tasty plate, I detest chips with gloop. Instead of being crisp and upright, like so many of you, these were rendered flabby and soggy. Yuk.

Things got very much better very quickly. Momo are new to me. Originally from Nepal and Tibet, these are little ball/dumpling things. We had a tandoori chicken version, and very fine they were too. Every country in the world does better things with aubergine than us. Evidence of that in the Crispy Aubergine Chaat. And another new experience, Pataka Veg. I thought they were the ones which looked like gyoza dumplings (who was doing the cultural appropriation from whom?), but I may be quite wrong. Who cares? Very nice they were.

At this stage, I think the ladies were doing a bit more ooh-ing and aah-ing than I was. (For those of you who may be new to this process, that's a critics' term, one or two down from wow!) That was about to change as Leena brought the mains. It was LH who introduced me to the delights of paneer. That's a quite firm Indian cheese, totally tasteless by itself, but, in the hands of a master, the base for many a veggie delight. That woman has even had me enjoying tofu. You can see why they call her an influencer. This was a tikka shashlik, whatever that means. Awfy good.

Prawn Malai Curry

I'm saving the best till last. It's a photo finish between the Prawn Malai Curry and the Aloo Gobi Masala. Regarding the latter, I have to say that if you mutter the word potato in my ear, I will generally follow you anywhere. Once upon a time the word cauliflower would have had the opposite effect. As a union in the melting pot of this kitchen, it is sublime. But will it get the stewards' nod ahead of the prawns?

The prawns have it. Why? Generally Indian places are like eating at Casa Johnston. The food will taste great but won't look so good. Here at BB they manage that which I thought impossible, namely elegantly presented Indian food.

What a wonderful evening, the place, the food, the service, the company. But as for next time? Ladies, you've had your chips.