Currying flavour; FOOD & DRINK: Jane Wolstenholme finds a hot place to go for the perfect Indian.

Byline: Jane Wolstenholme

THERE are some people who start to get alarming withdrawal symptoms if they go any length of time without a drink. My boyfriend has a similar problem - with curry.

I can think of little - bar being stranded in Siberia's most remote village - that would make him go a week without having at least one.

I'm convinced he could tell you more about the composition of a dhansak than the Head of Tasting at Vesta.

In short, he's been training all his life to be involved in a restaurant review like this.

And I knew, when we went to test out our local curry house Madhari, that if HE thought the food was good it probably means it is.

Inside, Madhari has that standard Indian restaurant look: Patterned carpet, patterned wallpaper, patterned everthing.

The menu however is exceptionally extensive with a big choice of starters and some interesting sounding specialities including Chicken Green Mossala and Dacca Chicken.

To start though we decided not to fill ourselves up on the likes of King Prawn Puri or Tandoori chicken and instead stuck to the obligatory popadoms with chutney.

It was a predictably perfect choice to kick off our meal and went particularly well with a couple of lagers.

For our main courses He went for Chicken Rezala (pounds 5.95) which was described as a richly flavoured dish made with thick gravy and spices, green chilli, capiscum, fresh tomatoes and onion.

As usual, he asked for extra fresh green chillies (the theory I think being that, if a curry doesn't make your eyes water and your nose run, then it's not worth having).

Thankfully, after much polite persuasion by our lovely waiter he was convinced of the error of his ways - and that the dish really was quite hot enough without them (although it was agreed that if he still wanted extra chillies once he'd tried some he could. But it never came to that).

The dish was an absolute triumph.

He said it was bursting with flavour and beautifully piquant - thanks to the chillies (this was after a couple of pints).

For my main course, I went for King Prawn Tikka which at pounds 8.20 was one of the most expensive things on the menu (most dishes were much cheaper in fact).

But it was worth every penny.

It consisted of huge juicy pieces of king prawns which had been skewered, marinated, spiced and then barbecued.

This gave them a gorgeous smoky flavour that was delicious with or without the sauce that accompanied it.

Both of us had pilau rice, chapatis and naan bread - all of which were great but left us feeling a bit on the full side.

But that's how we're supposed to feel when we come out of an Indian restaurant, isn't it?

We certainly left Madhari fully satisfied and ready to recommend it to our friends.

And from the Curry meister himself that's high praise indeed.

MADHARI Address: 552 Aigburth Road Liverpool L19 Telephone: [phone] Opening hours: 5pm to 11.30pm seven days a week Service: Quick and friendly Value: Good. Our meal including drinks came to pounds 23.90. Star rating (out of five): ****