The Prahna Indian Grill, Edinburgh

Prahna: Breath, Considered A Life Giving Force

Prahna Is Not Breath

Prahna Is The Creator of Breath

Prahna Is Not A Curry House.

Prahna Is Creator Of Darn Fine Indian Food.

The bits in italics are the mantra which appears at the top of the menus of this little place, tucked away in Corstorphine, a suburb in the west of the capital. It's not the sort of area where you expect to find something that bit different.

It's easy enough to write obscure blurb, I suppose. The website has more of it, about blossom trees (hence the decor - see left), peacocks and dark wood. But the bit which resonates the most is their stated desire to serve you the finest locally sourced ingredients, bringing to life all of your favourite past time dishes with a new Scottish twist. That we can understand.

I can say with certainty that I'll be back, as we certainly didn't scratch the surface of what is an intriguing menu. In our defence, the company comprised two couples who hadn't met up since The Great Plague. The agenda was simply catching up on the last four years over a curry. The menu was not dissected: we chose quickly from the more familiar sounding section headed Proud Curries.

I don't think we even noticed the chapters named Indian Reimagined or A Journey To Indian Royalty, and, other than registering that they don't serve poppadoms, the starters passed us by as well. Our loss, I fear.

You could kick off with Pink Crayfish (served with pink grapefruit and an avocado paprika mousse) or One O Clock Gun Powder Potato. Gunpowder spice is a south Indian concoction of dried lentils, sesame and all manner of tasty spices. If chicken is your thing, start with Coronation Street Chicken Salad or Corstorphine Chicken Tikka.

India Reimagined is heavy on fish and seafood, again with a south Indian influence. Kerala is one of my favourite places in the world. I'm particularly drawn back by the promise of a Sea Food Cochin Carnival, but the Tandoori Crackling Duck sounds intriguing too. The reference to Indian Royalty is in the choice of three biryani dishes. I confess I'd never understood the point of biryani until I ate one in a former maharajah's palace in Jaipur. The aromas released as the dish was unwrapped were, well, fit for a king.

Back to our group of four Philistines. Having ignored such delights, what did we eat? From memory we munched our way through Railway Chilli Garlic Chicken, Monkfish Curry, Adipoli Prawns, Lamb Rogan Josh and Dal. None of these was the customary huge plateful, and the rice and naan were served in modest portions too. At the end I paused for thought. Had I had enough to eat? Then it dawned on me. I was pleasantly full instead of experiencing the normal swollen-stomach-overly-tight-trouser sensation which is the usual concomitant of going out for a curry.

Prahna is Not A Curry House.

Prahna Is Creator Of Darn Fine Indian Food.