VDeep

60 Henderson Street, Edinburgh

0131 563 5293

Lunch/Dinner £10-20

Food rating 9/10

DO you want your restaurant to be run by a comedian? As a rule, I'd say no. Who needs a joker in the kitchen? Or one of those chefs - and I have come across a few of those - who serve up "witty" dishes: deconstructed Jammy Dodgers, would-be satirical takes on bangers and mash, chicken kievs etcetera, which are about as funny as being forced to sit through an evening of Ken Dodd. Actually, I don't want some cocky geezer laughing at his own jokes behind the stove. It's fine by me if the chefs and proprietor are humourless types. Seriousness, application, focus, discipline, these are the hallmark attributes required.

This is by way of explaining why it was that I wasn't optimistic about VDeep in Leith. It has sprouted up where The Vintage used to be, with a reconfigured kitchen team from that operation, and a dramatically different "curry and craft beer" menu, devised by broadcaster and professional funny guy, Hardeep Singh Kohli. Now, I knew that Mr Kohli was a discerning supporter of good food, a regular judge at the Organic Food Awards, for instance, but that doesn't automatically mean he can make a restaurant work.

And then there was the beer thing. Craft or industrial, I have never been convinced that beer makes the best partner for sub-continental food. For me, beer is too filling and gassy. My stomach begins to bloat just thinking about the prospect of a full meal, Indian or otherwise, washed down by several pints. Well-chosen wine makes a lot more sense to me.

So, as you can see, I wasn't really "feeling" it. And when I scanned the menu and came up with offerings like "Bubble & Sikh", "Tutti Rooty" and "Full Indian", I feared the worst. But with each dish that arrived, brought to the table by none other than the droll Mr Kohli himself, I realised that I had got this place all wrong. The food is terrific at VDeep, and if it stays that way, it will definitely mean that this is now the best, and most interesting "Indian" option in the capital. No way is it a faithful rendition of Indian cuisine, although there's an adherence to its often ignored principles, notably an insistence of using fresh, whole spices, blended and roasted for each dish, combined with a modern awareness of provenance and popular food trends. VDeep nods to restaurant fashion - a vindaloo uses pork cheek, short ribs get a bhuna beef treatment - but there's a gastronomic intelligence and sophisticated palate underpinning everything that effortlessly rises above knee-jerk modishness.

I wouldn't have thought of putting venison (made in springy, lean meatballs) into a mellow "korma" sauce, but the fresh tomato sweet acidity of the korma, with its non-native undertones of what I took to be crushed juniper, worked a dream, and put it in a different league entirely from the standard curry house stuff. KFC (Kohli Fried Chicken) served up plump, juicy buttermilk-tenderised drumsticks in a brittle coating that had the texture of pork crackling. The "Bubble and Sikh" I mentioned was a vegetarian option to thrill any omnivore: crusty-fried patties of cubed potato bound in a glorious spicy, coconut mass, capped with mellow fresh coconut pickle, and dressed with an appetite-stimulating tamarind sauce that aided digestibility. Slow-cooked mutton leg cooked with "achari" pickling spices was so unlike the thousands of dishes by the same name you'll find in tedious curry houses: melting, delicately, yet perceptibly spiced, and made all the more edible by its endearing slight sourness. Even the pakora, so often greasy nuggets of stodge, were delights, the batter crisp and dry with a rich chickpea taste. Cauliflower, poached in spiced milk, and with cheddar cheese insinuated at some point in the process, had the soothing, mellowing effect you feel when stroking a silky dog.

I love the way they use fresh ginger at VDeep, almost as an ingredient in its own right. Its heat spiked the spiced rhubarb crumble, a blushing pink fruit-centric dish, lightly dusted with crumble, and contrasted with a cooling coconut milk ice cream perfumed with lemon.

This place is impressively fresh and original, and I'm not joking.