Bengal Spice Hildyard Row Catterick Garrison (from Darlington and Stockton Times)

THE young policeman couldn't have been nicer as he asked me to blow into his breathalyser.

Having committed a Moving Traffic Offence, the policeman explained, he was obliged to ask me to take the test. As the unsurprising but nevertheless reassuring zero reading was declared by the electronic gizmo, I was able to explain that my erratic progress around Catterick Garrison was caused by our hitherto unsuccessful attempts to track down the new Indian restaurant which opened there a couple of weeks ago.

After a gentle ticking off about straying across the centre white line in my quest for the elusive curry house, he was able to point me in the direction of the Bengal Spice with a hearty recommendation.

He had enjoyed a takeaway along with his colleagues and the collective verdict of the Garrison boys in blue was that it was top notch.

Bengal Spice is in Hildyard Row and has been open just three weeks. It's owners had have had a restaurant of the same name in Harrogate for some time and there's a certain polish about their Catterick venture - in marked contrast to the other Indian on the Garrison, the Asha Tandoori, which turns out superlative curries but in spectacularly dingy surroundings (well they were when we last called 18 months ago - apologies if they have had a refurbishment).

There's nothing dingy about Bengal Spice. It is decked out in modern Indian restaurant style with mode-ish leather chairs, wood flooring, lots of multi-coloured recessed lighting art and those ubiquitious flat-screen tellies (mercifully turned off).

The food may not quite hit the heights of the Asha, but it manages to be well above average. Our pickle tray (60p per person) was fresh and included an extraordinary chilli-mint relish to go with our crisp poppadoms (60p a piece).

Sylvia found her chicken balti (£6.75) hotter than she expected and although perfectly acceptable, it did not, in her considered view, reach the local benchmark for turbocharged baltis set by the Balti House in Yarm. The garlic pilau rice (£2.45) that accompanied it was aromatically fluffy and very garlicky.

I chose Taqur Thali (£9.50) - three small curries and a small portion of pilau rice. The king prawn masala was creamy and mild, the chicken tikka madras had a touch of the turbocharger about it in that heat kicked in a few moments after eating. The lamb tikka bhuna was only OK, owing to the chewiness of the lamb.

A side dish of sag bhajee - spinach curry - (£2.75) was a little watery, perhaps due to being made from frozen spinach which had been inadequately squeeze-dried/ drained before cooking.

Overall, the effect of our choices was on the hot side so we broke a vow in ordering an ice-cream dessert.

The vow, taken on a foreign holiday many moons ago, is never to eat at a restaurant where they have pictures of the dishes on the menu. The Bengal Spice, like many Indian eating places, buys in a limited range of ice cream based desserts which are luridly illustrated on a laminated menu card. We decided to share something that looked like a poor man's Knickerbocker Glory (£2.75) but which turned out to be very good at soothing our simmering mouths.

The bill came to £35, which included two halves of Indian lager and a sparkling mineral water for the driver who, particularly mindful of the earlier encounter with North Yorkshire constabulary's finest, was on his very best behaviour.

A welcome addition to the Garrison's limited range of eating places, the Bengal Spice sets the standard hereabouts for style and service. We don't think the cooking is quite up to the standard set down the road at the Asha but the superior environment makes up for it.

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