Hason Raja

There are so many curry houses serving the same food badly these days that it makes a change to visit a restaurant that does what it does very well. The Hason Raja, named after a poet from Bangladesh, has the stock curry-house dishes, Chicken Tika Massala, Chicken Jalfrezzi and so on, but it also has an assortment of less familiar dishes like Goose Ki Parchy (goose cooked in an aniseed and poppyseed blueberry sauce) which makes it a cut above the typical Indian restaurant.

When my fellow reviewer and I visited we opted for a mix of the traditional and the contemporary. My Tandoor Paslion, a slow-cooked, marinated rack of lamb, was delicious. The meat was tender and soft, falling from the bone with the extended cooking, while the sauce was richly spicy. My partner's meal was similarly successful. Having a taste for garlic (and a fear of vampires - it was Halloween folks) he opted for Garlic Murg Tawa which was chicken cooked in a garlic and ginger sauce. Believe me, dear readers; it was a dish that did exactly what it said on the tin, and it had the pleasant taste of garlic but, thankfully for me and the rest of LondonTown.com, it came without the overpowering stench.

Hason Raja is a rarity ? a decent Indian restaurant, prepared to serve unfamiliar dishes that taste great. And, above all, it?s good value. If you?re on Southampton Row and fancy a curry, this is definitely your destination.