"We chose Lala's after hearing good things about it and experiencing many of the other Indian restaurants in the town centre. The Huddersfield site is the latest of four in the chain following those in Bradford, Wakefield and Batley. The latest addition to the family is in the prestige location of St George's Square, just across from the train station. This makes it not only convenient in terms of transport access, but impresses you before you even get started with its beautiful architecture.

Whilst being sat very happily on plush sofa's in the bar area waiting for a table we got the chance to properly soak in the Georgian charm of the building itself. The 'bling rococo' style it has been done out in only added to the sumptuous feel of the restaurant. It certainly was different from my last visit when it was a branch of the Yorkshire Building Society! Large chandeliers are accompanied by tasteful black carpeting, curtains and furniture, plenty of mirrors and diamante accents. All seating was on one level for approximately 100 covers but there was still plenty of space to be comfortable and no risk of banging into fellow diners!

We visited Lala's on a Wednesday night expecting it to be quiet but it was full to capacity and buzzing when we entered. Our charming and extremely knowledgeable waiter who seemed to have worked for the company for a number of years was as helpful as could be, offering assistance on menu choices with a smile. Drinks and lovely crisp non- greasy poppadoms and a pickle tray arrived promptly and our orders were taken after his very helpful assistance.

The menu itself is very varied and well priced, included authentic specials dishes and offered good choices for vegetarians and pescetarians if meat is not your thing. A children's menu was also available, although sadly it was of the standard chicken nuggets and chips variety. There are no 'chilli' indicators, but this was explained to us as being because each dish is cooked to taste.

We ordered the Prawn Puri and Liver Tikka to start and waited..... and waited..... and waited..... more than half an hour later one of the waiters noticed we still had no food and went to locate it for us. I think our order may have got lost somewhere in the kitchen, but to be fair there were two very large parties of 28 and 14 in at the same time as us. The food arrived sizzling hot five minutes later, delivered by the chef himself with an apology.

Puri's are one of my favourite dishes and I was extremely happy with the one I was served. The prawns were juicy and the sauce spiced exactly as ordered so I was really able to savour the beautiful masala sauce. My fellow diner adores liver tikka so was pleased to see it on the menu to see how it measured up. It was apparently cooked perfectly, although I was told it could have done with a bit more spice and more than a little cherry tomato to cut through the richness.

By this point things seemed to have settled down a bit and our mains, pilau rice and a very impressively sized hanging garlic naan were brought out on good time. Despite being tempted by a number of the dishes on offer I had the Lamb Pardesi on the waiter's recommendation. The meat was cooked just right and there was not too much of the delicately spiced sauce that meant I was able to properly enjoy the well sized chunks of lamb and mushrooms with spinach. My eating partner tried the Chicken Tikka and Keema Balti which he stated was one of the best combinations of the two he had ever tasted and appreciated the addition of fresh coriander in particular.

The toilets were found to be as well fitted out as the restaurant itself and (contrary to my experience in a lot of Indian restaurants) were relatively clean and included plenty of toilet paper. My only minor criticism is the lack of soap for hand washing in a restaurant where a lot of your eating is by hand! Attention to such little details can actually matter and seemed a bit of an oversight given the care lavished on the facilities and decorations overall.

We were offered sweets and coffee but were sadly too full by this point to consider them due to the very reasonable portions provided earlier in the meal. The bill when it came was a little over £40 with everything in. In terms of alcohol we had only had a bottle of Kopparberg and a Cobra beer which had been reasonably priced. The only surprise was £3.90 for a rather flat lime and soda, which appeared quite steep!

Overall we had a thoroughly pleasant evening in a very warm and welcoming environment that I would love to visit again."



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