THE food keeps coming as the buses crawl endlessly by on Pollokshaws Road while we chat on long wooden trestle tables, try to work out how many people are in the kitchen over there and talk about the many restaurants that have come and gone on this very spot.
The paneer, a mild crumbly cheese, is made here every day by Ranjit, or "my mum" as the waiter proudly described her earlier. When it arrives the paneer pakora is fresh, crisp and cleanly-fried with a few spices in the gram flour batter and some chutney sandwiched deliciously inside the cheese itself.
Ricotta was made by my Nonna in her kitchen in Glasgow long after she moved here from Italy and paneer, though much drier in texture, is not a million miles away, I say to the waiter. The food here is from India, the Punjab in the north-west of the country, so there's no rice but paranthas, square rotis, stuffed with potato, bright green fenugreek, spiced and served crisp, buttery and delicious like super-charged potato scones. Easily finished.
There are mooli paranthas with radish, aloo paranthas with potato and gobi paranthas with cauliflower, but next up for us are samosas, golden and super hot from the fryer and packed with spiced mashed potato and served with channa - chickpeas cooked in a sweet, spicy mixture including mango. There are four people in the kitchen, Bobby eventually decides, peering from here through the hatch into the back. We can see them now, cooking, chatting standing, waiting for orders. "My mum and her friends," says the waiter.
It all feels comfortable and familiar but I do have a soft spot for family businesses. When I was a kid, half my life was spent in back shops, either my parents' or those of the relatives we went to visit in Italy. Meals were taken there, guests welcomed, homework done and when our heads could firmly clear the counter my sisters and I graduated to serving out front. Eventually, when we could lift and stir, we even got to help make the ice-cream in the back.
Out here serving tonight? Brothers, cousins. We're told Ranjit had catered from home until this restaurant - recently, and very briefly, a takeaway - became available for let and the family decided to take a chance. The brothers have day jobs and come in to help their mum when they get the chance. Right on cue an older brother comes in and momentarily sits down at the table beside us and chats. Takeaway cartons of food come and go across the counter as people wander in to collect them. A man in a cream linen suit stands at the window waiting; a young couple eat at a trestle table near the window.
We decided against the Panjabi Tea for Two with its samosas, pakora, chutneys and selection of Ranjit's Punjabi sweets, though we'll be given a couple of them, light and flavoured like tablet, when the bill arrives. Instead we ordered thali. A silver tray arrives with brown lentil daal, the sabji (vegetable dish) of the day, which includes peas and cauliflower, and a stack of hot, fresh roti which are just 99p on the menu. This is the only dish we struggle with - its flavours are muted and we're urged to eat with our hands, but the texture is wet and thin, our technique hopeless. That purple chutney is delicious, though. Perhaps we've already just eaten too much already.
The menu is to be tweaked, we're told, the prices adjusted, dishes added. It's a dangerous spot, this, to open a restaurant; a dark chasm between looming buildings where funnelling traffic slows and snarls momentarily before the road opens up again for the last clear run into the city. But vegetarian Indian food is light and easily digested and still just a little bit different. Family-run restaurants usually go down well with customers who appreciate the personal touch. These are early days and it's a small-scale operation but I suspect they'll do well.
Ranjit's Kitchen
607 Pollokshaws Road, Glasgo (ranjitskitchen.com, 0141 423 8222)
MENU Punjabi vegetarian dishes cooked by mum Ranjit and served by members of her family including her sons. 4/5
ATMOSPHERE Wooden trestle tables and benches, hand-painted murals and large picture windows. Small and homespun but in a good way. 3/5
SERVICE Brand-spanking-new family-run business where everybody is anxious to help and keen to chat. Friendly. 5/5
PRICE Varies from 99p for a roti and £1.25 for a parantha to £8.45 for the thali with daal, sabji and two rotis. Erratic but good value. 4/5
FOOD Crisp samosa, channa made with mango, paneer pakora and methi parantha all excellent. Light and maybe even healthy. 8/10
TOTAL 24/30
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