Location is a vexed issue for restaurants. Rickshaw & Co, in Glasgow's Partick Bridge Street, is a newish unit that started life as an upmarket bar.
Turns out that Partick was quite happy with its existing howffs and felt no need to pay more for fancy glasses and flattering lighting.
The unit was mothballed before lockdown and sat sad and dusty until the summer, when it sprang into colourful and fragrant life.
With an eye to those who eat via their camera phones rather than their tastebuds, the decor is groovy and mostly orange and pink. There is an actual rickshaw in the entrance, complete with lurid paintwork and floral garlands. The ceiling is wallpapered with Indian cinema posters and there are, that I suspect came from other rickshaws, lining one wall.
It's not what I'd choose for my own front room but it's a cheering backdrop to a casual dinner out. And it works for a certain demographic - when my millennial daughter realised where we were going, she broke into a wide smile.
Turns out she had passed it several times, thought it looked amazing and was dying to visit.
While she was delighted to be out with mother at an enticing restaurant, she was also feeling rubbish, with a scratchy throat and runny nose. The cocktails - which I thought looked interesting, with spicy touches thrown in - were rejected.
Her booze-free choice, a mango maza mule, was the perfect alternative. To me, mango, cucumber, lime and ginger did not sound like a party. But topped up with sparkling water, this was surprisingly delightful and made her feel better from the first sip.
The menu majors on Mumbai street food with some more substantial dishes and other madey-up items that have little to do with the actual food eaten in the sub-continent.
The kale and quinoa salad, with optional chicken tikka, fell into this unenticing category.
The Millennial is not an adventurous eater - did I bring the wrong one home from hospital? - so we kept to the mainstream. Plenty of vegetables and pulses for health, warming spices for her sore throat and double carbs because it's Scotland and it was dark and pouring.
Okra, also known as ladies' fingers, are one of those tricky vegetables. Carefully done, they are a textural delight with their suede-like pods and smooth seeds. Sloppily prepared, they become slimy and deeply unpleasant. They need to be on the dry side, hot enough to be cooked but pulled from the pan before they disintegrate. These were all of the above, topped with fat curls of onion and just enough tomatoes for lubrication.
Plus methi, one of my very favourite flavours, a green herb with an elusive taste that seems to only exist in restaurants.
My attempts with it at home have never been successful. So this was a jackpot.
The tarka dal was also strong. Soupy, spicy lentils are perfect rainy night food, especially given the restaurant treatment with a haze of butter.
Millennial loves paneer, another ingredient I struggle to make interesting at home. The classic fried cheese and peas in a tomato sauce is not particularly groundbreaking but it is reliably good eating. It could have been freshened up with some more coriander, or a shard of wilted spinach, but it was still pretty fine just as it was.
Lamb lajawab was a new one on me but the description - slow cooked meat with black pepper and other whole spices - was enough.
I especially like these when they are cooked by a considerate chef who has picked out the cloves, cinnamon sticks and cardamom pods so that I don't crunch into them.
The meat was melting, the sauce was dark and fragrant .
The only off note of the night was the Goan fish curry. It was not bad, it was just in a different, lighter key to the rest of the meal.
Salmon is not the best fish to pair with a creamy coconut sauce - a less fatty fish would have worked better.
But the fault was mine in ordering it when the Bengali prawns, for example, would have sat more happily with the other dishes.
That's what happens when you are too busy gossiping with your daughter to read the menu .
I hope more people find Rickshaw & Co. In a city that's spoiled for excellent Indian restaurants, it's lighting up a dull corner of Partick.
Bill for two: £48.85
Rickshaw & Co, 9 Partick Bridge Street, Glasgow G11 6PN
0141 341 0815
Disabled access - Yes
Opening hours: 12 noon -11pm
Food 7/10 - Zingy
Decor 3/5 - Bollywood bright
Toilets 4/5 - Fresh and clean
Service 4/5 - Attentive
Value for money 3/5 - Pricey for Partick
