Lounge sweet if starting out dry...

When you’ve had a hard day shifting furniture and negotiating with removal men, your dining options have two priorities – something quick and plentiful.

Spice Lounge on Blackpool Road scored on both counts, and has the added bonus of being practically opposite the Lane Ends pub, for a swift pint while we waited for our curry (they do offer a delivery option, but we were very hungry by this stage).

The first thing we noticed is that it is good value.

A portion of mixed starters, one lamb saag, one Murghi Mossallam, pilau rice and a garlic naan left us with change from a £20 note (95p if you want to be exact).

The starter was a generous collection of onion bhajis, vegetable samosas and spring rolls.

The samosas were good, the bhajis less so – rather dry and doughy with not much in the way of flavour.

Some yoghurt or dipping sauce would have been nice as an extra.

But, as we got to the main event, things improved considerably with two excellent curries.

The lamb saag was flavoursome without being particularly spicy, with big tender pieces of lamb and a rich spinach sauce.

The Murghi Mossallam sounded like a bizarre concept – chunks of chicken in a sauce with minced lamb in it, and an egg on the side – but worked very well.

The sauce in particular was rich and spicy, with the mince giving it real depth and the ginger a lovely additional heat.

It was accompanied with a good pilau rice and a garlic naan that could have done with a lot more garlic.

Although the extras could do with a little more attention, the star of any Indian meal is the curries, and these ones shone brightly.

Emma Pearson