My wife and I went there for lunch on our first date 20 ago and always rememberer how good the curries were. We went back to Manchester over Christmas and the cafe was exactly the same as we had remembered.

Rice and 3 curries, a can of pop, and add your own coriander and chopped green chillis all for only ?4.50 at lunch-time. ?4.95 at other times. The cafe looks a dive but the curries are great and cheap and it has a high food hygiene rating.

The veggie curries have a really good fresh flavour. One was a lentil curry that tasted fab. I would really love to know how to make it. The lentils looked almost black in colour. I asked the guy behind the counter and he said it was simple to make just fry the lentils in some chilli and then pointed to some chopped green chillis.

If anyone is ever in the area, could they please visit the cafe and let me know what you think might be in the black lentil curry?

As I was leaving I asked them which chilli powder to use, both chefs said "always use extra hot chilli powder, just use less of it for milder dishes".

I was passing a Farm Foods store and picked up a couple of packs of curry sauces by Mahal Spices for 69p per pack. I bought a pack of Vindaloo sauce and a pack of Balti sauce. They are not in a jar but in a pack.

We have just had the vindaloo and it is very good. Very hot but full of flavour. Vindaloo is too hot for me so I tone it down.  I squeezed in some tomato puree, drop of water, threw in a pack of frozen mixed veg (also from Farm Foods) and a pack of prawns.

Normally, I really don't like bought sauces (but I still keep trying them) but this is good. Nice depth of flavour.

I love veg curries. My Mrs loves Pumpkin and Dhal. I would love to have a go at this around Halloween time.

Veg or prawn biryani is my fave curry. It is the first thing that I always ask for so to compare restaurants by their biryanis.

After many years of trying, I managed to get it right and then go one better:

See here including photos:https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,8980.msg80523.html#msg80523

I agree with others. 'Geetas Premium Mango Chutney' is by far the best that I have ever tried. It is also nice with a bit of cheddar cheese on a cracker.

I have cooked a lot of curries with Okra. I get better results by cooking them whole. Cook them separately in a frying pan with a little oil on a low-ish heat. Once cooked, put them to one side. Just stir them into the finished curry.

I have just a tried another takeaway but this time from a highly rated BIR restaurant.

The dishes were not very oily... but there was a strong taste in each dish that wasn't good. I tried some again when it had gone cold and then realised the taste was of old deep fat fryer oil.

An interesting thing to learn from was that the Rogan Josh certainly had a lot of smoked paprika in it. I know that taste because I often cook with it. It was as if the chef had put too much in.

Whilst I am having a moan... it has been a very long time since I have had a good naan bread. These days they all seem to be very heavy and burnt a lot.

I have just had a BIR Rogan Josh and there was definitely a lot of smoked paprika in it.

There was very little flavour other than lots of salt and sugar. I have just realised that my own curries are now better. I feel a bit sad about it.