Address - Shinjuku-ku, Takadanobaba 3-4-17 (Sakae Dori) Opening hours - Every day from 11:30am to 22:30pm Map - See directions Telephone - 5386-8551 Menu - In Japanese and English CC - OK

For the past few years me and my closest friends have spent almost every Friday night at Yeti. I love the place and I really don't mind going so often, but some of us recently feel Yetied out, so last week we went to a new Indian restaurant that has opened recently on Sakae Dori, the street that runs along the left side of the Yamanote outside Takadanobaba station. That's an unusual place for an Indian restaurant to be, in the midst of dozens of pachinkos, yakitori joints and other assorted, exclusively Japanese paraphernalia. I therefore suspect the fact it was empty when we went was not incidental, and that we might not enjoy Great India's company for long. Let's enjoy it therefore now that we can, because it's good and reasonably priced, even though the menu contains no surprises.

They have eight kinds of naan, including kabuli naan, good biryanis, tandori fish, tandori chicken and many interesting snacks. Lunch goes for 800 yen and evening sets for 2380 and 3800 yen.

A note from reader Dan Dumas

Frank, you have reviewed Great India in Takadanobaba. There are four others that I know of. One is in Shinjuku on the same street as Studio Alta, but closer to the crossing. The other is between Shin Okubo Station and the north exit of Seibu Shinjuku station on Shokuan dori (across the street from Hello Work). I have eaten at the Shin Okubo branch and found it very good. My only complaint is that the inside is lit up brighter than a convenience store. There are also two branches in Ikebukuro

Shinjuku 03-3358-1536
Shinjuku 3-23-1

Shin-okubo 03-5272-6336
Hyakunin-cho, 1-5-4

Ikebukuro (east exit) 03-5950-8801
Ikebukuro, 2-13-2

Ikebukuro (north exit) 5951-5903
Ikebukuro 2-48-3, N.S. Plaza Building