TUCKED away at the bottom of London Road is my new favourite curry house. Sidbury Spice is one of Worcester's newest curry houses and our recent visit was a huge success.

It's not the biggest restaurant in the world, but when our party of five arrived on a recent Friday night they were able to seat us quite quickly and greeted with a warm welcome.

We were forewarned that Sidbury Spice is not licensed and so we arrived armed with bottles of wine, bought at the nearby Bath Road service station.

This is a curry house with a contemporary twist. The restaurant is light and airy with a high ceiling and plain painted walls.

On the down side it somehow seemed to lack atmosphere and is perhaps best suited to larger parties of diners, who are warmly welcomed and can create their own atmosphere.

Tastefully decorated to contemporary tastes, it is modern in design and has none of the traditional Asian decor or authentic background music.

On the plus side, the service was quick, efficient and very friendly.

The food is described on the menu as contemporary Pakistani and, as well as most of the usual favourites, it has about 20 speciality dishes.

We opted for a mixture of plain and spicy popadams for starters with trays of pickles, which came to £6 for 10.

The popadams were freshly cooked - very crisp and crunchy. The pickles, incorporating mango chutney and lime sauce were delicious but we could have done with a little more.

For main course I chose the chicken lagaan - one of the restaurant's speciality dishes - and it was delicious. The succulent pieces of chicken were served in a thick sauce, flavoured with mint and mango chutney - spicy and fruity, but not too hot.

Other members of the party opted for prawn korma, which was described as "excellent", chicken tikka pathia - "the best I've had in a long time", and chicken tikka balti - "very nice". We accompanied our main courses with two fried rice, two plain nan and a peshwari nan.

The plain nan was hot and sweet and beautifully fluffy as was the peshwari.

Main courses range in price from £4.95 to £8.95 and rice dishes from £1.50 to £2.95.

Our bill came to £51.20.

Away from the usual array of curry houses of Worcester, you could be in danger of overlooking Sidbury Spice, but a visit is strongly recommended.

SIDBURY SPICE, 84 SIDBURY, WORCESTER, WR1 2HY Tel: 01905 763337 SERVICE: **** FOOD: **** VALUE: *** AMBIENCE: **