It isn’t often that you come across a restaurant that truly offers something totally different. Halli on Granby Street manages to do exactly that. Everything on the menu is authentically Southern Indian and is 100 per cent vegetarian. The inspiration for the menu is Udupi, a town in Karantaka where vegetarian and vegan foods are abundant. The menu boasts over 50 items with appetisers, soups, dosai, curries, pulavs, breads and various sweets, all of which take inspiration from southern India’s rich culinary heritage.

Quality and tradition collide on a menu that sets the mouth watering after a passing glance. You can mix and match from any section of the menu, but amongst my feast I chose to sample one of the speciality dosai. A dosa is a sort of pancake made using a traditional recipe of soaked lentils and rice, which are then ground together and fermented over night. I tried the mysore masala dosa – this dosa is thinly spread with tangy red chutney and melted butter with a mixture of spiced potatoes and onion (£5.75) – delicious. Special curry dishes include the excellent mutter paneer, which was spicy and creamy in equal measure with the light spices perfectly complemented by homemade cottage cheese (£4.95). Side dishes included my particular favourite, beans palya – beans cooked with coconut toor-dal and mustard seed. Offset by a fragrant rice steamed with tamarind juice and spiced with fried peanuts, the whole meal was declared a foody’s delight – and it’s good for you to boot.

Halli also offers outside catering and their expertise and experience mean that you can be sure of absolute quality and attention to detail. Halli cater for weddings, birthdays, anniversaries and corporate functions and even offer the excitement of an open kitchen where hot dosai and other dishes are prepared in front of your eyes. “Welcome to Halli – the village vegetarian where tradition meets quality”.