Bryn Evans visits a popular York restaurant sporting a new look

I had been in training and the omens were good. My performance in a pre-season friendly had been impressive, my stamina not in question. On that occasion the table had been cleared with the proficiency of Ronnie "The Rocket" O'Sullivan compiling one of his lightning maximum breaks.

I was relaxed, I was confident, I had avoided all snacks during those crucial last hours before popadom kick-off. But at the Jinnah in Micklegate this week I was flummoxed.

The food was wonderful, but I had wanted to report to you my experiences of pudding - even though it would have probably been no more than an ice cream.

My canny and stylish selection of after-meal liqueur would have impressed, I have no doubt.

But as the dishes were cleared after Antonia and I had made a valiant attempt upon the west face of the main courses and sundries, I knew we had chosen too widely and too well. There was to be no pudding, no coffee. All we could do was cogitate on a splendid meal.

Though it's easier to write about things that haven't turned out for the best, there's no point fibbing.

This was probably the best Indian food either of us had ever experienced.

I mention our failure to get past the main course only to emphasise that it was the quality as well as the generous quantity of the dishes that defeated us.

The calm and thoroughly civilised ambience of the Jinnah is another of its selling points, even more impressive given that it is perched in the midst of the Micklegate Run.

Now it's got a new look after a massive refurbishment and new additions to the extensive menu.

We were early evening visitors - in fact the first of the night, but by the time we departed, the place was thronging.

Among the groups and couples were a brace of men eating in appreciative silence at tables for one - something I've always thought is a sign of a top kitchen.

The service was exemplary, attentive without being fussy, swift without being jostling.

Everything about the restaurant was spotlessly clean without feeling antiseptic, and the seats were more comfortable than they looked.

And what of the food, I hear you bellow?

Exquisite is my reply, though with a tiny niggle to prove that my critical radar hasn't been dismantled.

Starters of succulent chicken pakora for me, garlic nan for Antonia, were perfect.

I'd plumped - a word it's all too rare to get the chance to use - for a main dish at the kitchen-challenging end of the spectrum.

Nawabi Khana is tantalisingly billed as "most complex of all the great curries". Twenty-one spices had apparently been individually roasted, and the result was lamb - chicken is another option - in an extremely satisfying, delicately-savoury sauce.

We shared a pilau rice, and Antonia's Chicken Tikka and Brinjal Bhaji - aubergine - were the best she'd ever tasted. My attempt to factor in (delicious) Bombay Aloo - potatoes - probably proved the final pudding-halter, but I'd do the same again tomorrow.

That niggle? No more than that the peshawari nan - you're right, it was a sundry too far - was a tad fluffy.

That apart, the evening was a delight, a night when even the lime pickle on our carousel had been noteworthily excellent.

The bill at £38.05, including drinks, was neither cheap nor expensive. The price was right for a very fine meal.

Restaurant: Jinnah

Address: 105-107 Micklegate

Telephone: 01904 659999

Reviewed: March 18, 2000

Food: *****top notch

Value: ***good

Service: ****very good

Ambience: *****hard to better

Disabled access:yes