IT’S difficult to think of anywhere in East Lancashire where East meets West to dine out quite as successfully as at the Bukhara.

This isn’t one of those Indian restaurants serving dishes no-one living in the sub-continent would recognise, along with large amounts of lager to the accompaniment of endless sitar music.

The food’s worth sharing and we started by nibbling a couple of papadoms (55p each) with a pickle tray which consisted of six different jars that you could spoon onto your plate during the meal.

We decided to have a meat-free night so for starters it was Tandoori mushrooms marinated in a creamy saffron sauce and Chana Chaat (each £2.95).

The latter was described as ‘crispy corn flakes, potatoes and chick pea salad mixed with yoghurt, mint, onions and tamarind sauce’.

This tasted great with one reservation — the inclusion of a breakfast cereal didn’t really work and the cornflakes were far from ‘crispy’ after they’d been mixed with the other ingredients.

Main courses were Karahi Fish and Mughali Prawn Masala (£8.95 each) along with a single serving of pilau rice (which is plenty for two unless you like to consume the stuff by the bucketful).

For mix and match purposes these dishes complemented each other perfectly.

There were chunky pieces of cod cooked with onions, tomatoes, ginger garlic and lime juice while the prawns were deliciously bathed in onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic, coconut and fresh cream.

We washed the lot down with a jug of sweet, runny yoghurt-like mango lassi.

There might be a few minutes between courses on a very busy night but the wait is worth it for well-presented, good-value food served up in a place with a lovely atmosphere.