Spice Village, Drayton, Portsmouth food review: A chicken madras Goldilocks would have loved

So wrote Robert Burns in his poem ‘To a Mouse’. It’s apt to remember the phrase at this time of year as we head towards Burns Night on January 25, the anniversary of the poet’s birth which many people of a Scottish, culinary or literary persuasion celebrate through food and poetry.

But it was brought closer to mind when the best laid schemes of the Dish Detective certainly went all awry when, for a variety of reasons, a post New Year prandial treat to the Spice Village in Drayton had to be cancelled. But having tantalised the taste buds with the thought of curry there was no other option to swap eating in with eating out

The Spice Village makes an imposing bookend to the parade of shops in Havant Road, setting up home some years ago in what was once the New Inn. It is airy, roomy and well lit inside and was fairly busy on the night of our visit with tables accompanied by a full range of diners from celebrating families to younger, more boisterous groups to couples of all ages.

The website promises ‘authentic, traditional and new cuisine’ bringing together ‘all that is good’ about Bangladeshi and Indian dishes.

We ordered three chicken mains - madras, tikka jalfrezi and tikka massala to suit a wide range of palettes. My experience with a madras is that you run the risk of it falling into two camps - lovely and hot but with little taste, or tasty but with no heat. Goldilocks would have approved of the dish which came out of the Spice Village carton as it was just right - a lovely zippy zest to the spiciness but with a very rich taste. The tikka jalfrezi was also commended for being on the right side of the spicy scale and the tikka massala, complete with a sprinkling of almonds on top, was rich and creamy. In all three cases the sauces came with fair-sized chunks of good quality chicken.

The mains were accompanied with generous portions of aloo gobi, saag aloo and brinjal bhaji. The best of the bunch was the saag as the potatoes maintained a firmness to the texture, while the aubergine in the brinjal bhaji had an almost smoky taste.

The one disappointment was the additional extras. I love a crisp poppadom and a moist, buttery naan bread. Unfortunately it was the poppadoms which were a little too chewy and the naan drier and lacking in flavour. The onion bhajis - although pleasing with four in the bag and of a good size - were dry and crunchy.

Not the best for the accompaniments but this did not detract from the overall quality and taste of a very enjoyable and filling meal shared among four of us at a cost of £54.90.

I have had a number of disappointing take-away curries over many years from different parts of the country which come with an almost processed, formulaic taste. But this was certainly not the case with the Spice Village. It appears that whatever is going on in the kitchen for those diners eating in is replicated to a similar standard to those queuing for their takeout bags.

Providing I can avoid further ‘gang agely-ing’ I will return to put that to the test.