Red Fort

The Red Fort remains a landmark among London's North Indian restaurants, maintaining high standards despite changes of chef, interior and menu over two decades. With the high standards go high prices - though on our visit, packs of guffawing office workers filled the sleekly furnished dining room, drawn by an online half-price food offer. This proved to be an excellent deal, with no diminution of culinary standards.

A simple starter of seekh kebab was a princely version, the lamb finely minced to a paste-like consistency, then sensitively flavoured with a garam masala of freshly ground spices: quite sublime. Although every curry house makes similar claims, the Red Fort's menu really does contain original recipes from the courtly cooking of the Moghuls. That curry house staple, bhuna gosht, showed regal lineage, with chunks of lamb in a warming, ginger-flecked curry.

Even the simplest of our dishes, from the dals to the breads, was perfectly evocative of the real India, both past and present. The seafood dishes tend towards the contemporary, the samundari ratan seafood stew containing scallops, an ingredient not seen in the kitchens of the Raj. A perfect venue for smart occasions, where the whiff of fenugreek won't offend.