Kuldeep Singh’s earlier venture featuring Indian country-style cuisine, Mela, won him much praise, including ‘Indian Restaurant of the Year in 2001. His new venture just off Piccadilly Circus presents ‘Indian Home-Style Food’ and features a menu that changes every month, enabling a regular visitor to embark on a virtual tour of the 36 regions of India.

When we visited in July the three regions showcased were Punjab, Goa and Hyderabad, and the informative menu was very helpful in giving a summary of the specialties characteristic of each (as were the waiters, who were efficient, charming and knowledgeable). There’s plenty of choice – three starters and three or four main courses from each region – and although you can select a ‘regional feast’ of three courses for the bargain price of £9.95, you can happily mix and match. And in fact the whole menu is priced at an amazingly low level for this location - £1.95 - £3.50 for starters, £4.95 - £7.95 for main courses, £2.75 for puddings. When you consider that all main courses also come accompanied by suitable regional breads, rice and sometimes a vegetable as well, the value is extraordinary.

The food is definitely interesting, too, if a little heavily spiced. It’s not that I don’t like hot food – I love it – but there were dishes where it was impossible to taste the basic ingredients, which was a shame. A good example of this was my starter, from Hyderabad: ‘stuffed dumplings of seasoned raw banana soaked in yoghurt, tempered with mustard seeds, curry leaves and cumin’. Sounded delicious, and indeed it was, but I would have expected to have tasted some banana, rather than just yoghurt and spice. The same problem was true of a Punjab starter, ‘stuffed patties of potato, shallow fried to a crisp texture, served with mint and tamarind chutneys’, and of a main course of king fish and okra. My main course of a sour mutton stew in a lentil puree was quite delicious, however. There are also many very tempting vegetarian options.

Two big plus points are that the food comes in manageable portions, and is beautifully presented. The starter arrives in a leaf-shaped white dish, which fits neatly into the plate for the main course, brought as soon as it is ready – the menu helpfully points this out for those who might assume they are being rushed.

Puddings are also regional and much more interesting than most on offer in Indian restaurants. We tried a multi-layer cake from Goa called bibinca, and a sweet from Punjab called amirti. This was fascinating – ‘split white lentils ground to a fine paste, piped and fried in hot oil in spirals until golden brown, soaked in saffron flavoured sugar syrup’ (the menu is big on detail!). If it sounds heavy it wasn’t, and what they don’t tell you is that it comes half-covered in edible silver leaf so it looks as good as it tastes.

There’s a good wine list, again at very reasonable prices (nothing over £16) – we chose a delicious South African Chenin Blanc at £12. Coffee is excellent – ‘on a par with mine at home’, said my companion, which is high praise indeed.

The one thing that really lets this restaurant down is the décor, which is rather tacky – red plastic, chrome, teak and red leatherette seats that aren’t particularly comfortable. The whole place looks as if it was done in a raging hurry and on a shoestring budget, which is a shame. If you can overlook that though, and want a good meal in the heart of the West End without being ripped off for a change, Chowki is stunning value.