Lazzat Kadah Pakistani & Indian Tandoori Restaurant - 61 Sydney Road Coburg

It's Friday night and I've had a lamb Tagines braising away for the last three hours. Henry is down and it is time to serve up for the two girls and me. Now braising meat for three hours you would expect it to melt in the mouth - this is as chewy as the proverbial old boot. The good news is that Imogen still wants to eat the couscous with some yoghurt; the bad news is that Erin and I are hungry.

Now since we have two children at home, Erin and myself cannot pop out to one of those fabulous media darling restaurants; you know the ones where they re-configure the molecular structure of compost and make it taste like foie gras!

Instead we are left with our bulldog clip of take-out menu's - and seeing we are trying to eat a little bit more healthier, pizza is out. Thai is mentioned, but we have to go and pick-up. What about a curry? It's Friday night and it's cold and we have a clean-skin - curry it is.

And what a curry it was!!

Lazzat Kadah translates from Urdu to 'house of taste'. No arguments here. There is a great selection of the 'crowd-pleaser' dishes such as vindaloos (my fave) to the more traditional types such as karela keema - bitter melon cooked with mince, herbs and spices.

Like I said, the vindaloo is my favourite, so it was a monty to be ordered. Now I like my curry hot, but the thing is we Australians do not have the same heat threshold as the creators of this dish, so it is always ordered, 'Australian hot'. Geez it was hot (very fortunate that we had an extra tub of yoghurt let me tell ya!). A milder chicken Makhani (which originates from Glasgow I am told) was also ordered along with the best Palak Paneer, spinach cooked with ricotta, herbs and spices, I have ever had along with the obligatory naan and roti. Thank God for tough lamb hey!

Now a lot of people don't pay much attention to their naan, but I do. A good naan has to be strong enough to hold a scoop of food in it without turning in to moist wheat before it hits you gob. This naan was spot on, holding its form long enough while I watched a performance from, 'So you think you can dance'; thrilling stuff it was.

I guess it is a good thing that restaurants like Lazzat Kadah do not get the same exposure as those media darling restaurants who redesign flavour, otherwise we would have had to wait until lunch time today for our order. The flavour here is real with no gimmicks whatsoever.

Now Brunswick over the last few years has really been getting it's act together when it comes to restaurants, and I think Coburg is going to follow suit very quickly. And like I say, Brunswick is the Gateway to Coburg.

Lazzat Kadeh gets a Gold Birk.