THE night after payday and unable to go anywhere because bars and restaurants had closed, my partner and I decided to phone for a takeaway.

Normally we order from the Chinese Kitchen – a few minutes’ walk from our front door – but it was closed and unlikely to reopen any time soon.

Determined to beat the blues, we began the search for dinner as neither of us could face another dull frozen ready meal – especially on a Friday night.

After ringing a few places, we tried Chillies – an Indian takeaway located at St James Retail Park in East Kilbride with a four-star online recommendation.

The man who answered was very helpful and explained we could have our ordered delivered or pick it up in store – provided social distancing rules were obeyed.

We agreed they could leave our food at our front door – which they did within a very reasonable time frame – especially on a busy night.

I had noticed that Chillies offered set menus and thought this might be a good way to try something new. Set meal C for £22 – immediately caught our eye.

Included was two poppadoms, spiced onions, chicken chaat and vegetable pakora. There was an option of two curries for the main of which we chose lamb curry and chicken tikka which came with

a large naan bread and fried

rice.

As we laid it out on our dining room table, we realised this was a lot of food even by our standards and began to wonder if we could manage to eat it all.

It was some feast, and plenty left over for the following night’s tea.

We managed to share the food equally. The poppadoms were nice and crunchy, the spiced onion full of flavour and the vegetable pakora tasted fresh. We almost forgot about the chicken chaat which bite-sized pieces could easily melt in the mouth.

It was then time for main course. I don’t usually eat lamb, but I do like it in an Indian curry. This one had a good texture and wasn’t too chewy or stringy, which can sometimes be a problem.

Although it was spicy, not to be recommended to those who can’t eat hot food, it still had plenty of flavour complementing it with vegetables mixed throughout the sauce.

The chicken tikka was also delicious and filled with vegetables and spices. Although slightly cooler than the lamb curry it added to the previous flavours nicely and rounded off the meal perfectly.

This was perhaps one of the best takeaways I have ever tasted. Every aspect was bursting with flavour and I cannot wait to order again from there. It’s safe to say we would recommend Chillies to a friend – even if it did mean going to East Kilbride.