This trip was a challenge for satnav Sandra.

Sandra's is the disembodied voice of our satellite

navigation apparatus.

She's a bossy little madam at the best of times, and she

seemed more than usually tetchy as she guided us to Thornbury

Hall, a grand stately pile deep in the Staffordshire

Moorlands.

I suppose Sandra was piqued because we'd be getting a

splendid feed at the end of the run and she wouldn't.

Still, she got us there, and in less than the estimated

time.

Bravo, Sandra!

Since the early 1990s, Thornbury Hall, a Grade II-listed

Georgian mansion, has been a hugely successful "Indian"

restaurant, showered with awards for the quality of its

cuisine, which is authentic Pakistani.

The Son and Heir and I took our seats in a room with rich

red walls, polished wood, drapes, tapestries, chandeliers,

pictures, prints and ornamental copperware, all vividly

evocative of the exotic East.

It was as if an old India hand, having made his fortune in

the heyday of the Raj, had come home and turned his gaff into a

shrine to the culture of the subcontinent, complete with relics

of the Mogul empire.

The isolated mansion is certainly an unlikely setting for an

award-winning restaurant specialising in dishes whose origins

are on the other side of the world.

Our visit was prompted by the news that head chef Dhamendra

Vassaramo recently beat off 5,000 rivals to take the title of

International Indian Chef Of The Year.

Could there be a better recommendation than that?

Unfortunately, it was Dhamendra's night off. I expect he was

out spending the £1,000 prize money, and good luck to him. I

won't pretend we weren't a tiny bit crestfallen, however.

The menu is a mouth-watering selection of traditional

dishes, promising a variety of flavours and aromas, but what I

think will most impress first-time visitors to Thornbury Hall

Rasoi (it means 'kitchen') are the prices.

Starters average less than £4 (meat samosa is only £2.50 and

chicken pakora £3.50), while tandoori dishes range from £6.50

for chicken to £13.90 for king prawns, and the house specials,

featuring chicken, lamb and seafood, as well as vegetarian

options, are mostly priced in the £6-£7 area.

In other words, many of the main courses at Thornbury Hall

cost less than starters I've had elsewhere.

Herself being absent due to a heavy cold, I thought I'd push

the boat out and start with a whole baked trout. She intervened

by paranormal means, however, for our charming hostess

regretfully announced that the trout was off (not off as in too

ripe even for the cat to eat, but off as in not available).

Instead I had a tasty prawn pancake (£3.90), while The Son

and Heir checked out the Thornbury kebab special (£4.50), a

delicious selection of chicken tikka, lamb tikka and sheekh

kebab, which he rated as excellent value compared with similar

starters sampled in other restaurants.

He was less impressed with his chicken pasanda (£7.50),

fillets of lean chicken marinated in spices and yoghurt. While

he couldn't fault the texture and consistency, he found the

dish disappointingly bland.

We'd waited so long for our mains that I began to wonder if

they'd sent out a search party to track down Dhamendra and set

him to work on my Thornbury kattha-mettha (£6.95), for when it

arrived it looked and tasted like the creation of a master.

The pieces of melt-in-the-mouth lamb and chunks of sweet

peppers in an inspired blend of spicy, sweet and sour was a

credit to Dhamendra's understudy.

We shared a nan bread (£1.50) and wonderfully savoury

basmati rice cooked with a special stock, onions and mushrooms

(£3.50), but having earlier availed ourselves of the

complimentary poppadoms, dips and chutneys, we agreed to skip

dessert lest Sandra refused to show us the way home.

She did, but her language was vile.