Welcome to Chefwhites

Tiffinbites is a new fast food Indian on Wardour Street, London. I wouldn't normally point you in the direction of an Indian takeaway, but this is something different.

When you walk through the door everything is right. The floor tiles are large terracotta affairs, there's real wood on the walls, there's sophisticated lighting in the dining area, well lit fridges so you can see the food, 'Le Parfait' jars with different coloured lentils and such like as dotted around the place. I could go on. The male staff are clean shaven. All the staff are well groomed, friendly and helpful, and remember this isn't America, this is an Indian takeaway in Soho London.

The building and the people are right so what about the food? The food is so far removed from the usual Indian takeaway offerings, it's a different beast. I had the Jeera Chicken, Dal Saag and Lemon Rice Tiffin with a garlic naan and a bottle of water. All the food was hot and tasty. The portion size was perfect, not too big not too small. The bill was £6.20.

It's been set up by two guys, Jamal Hirani and Jonathan Marks, who worked together at Marks and Spencer for 6 years. Apparently they were both buyers in the ladies underwear department. Hirani comes from a north London family who are in the food business, Marks was a long time M&S employee, who left in 2000 to set up his own management consultancy, before teaming up with Hirani in September 2002 to work for Tiffinbites.

With their first class product, and exceptional marketing skills, (their website www.tiffinbites.com and stores are packed with information, loyalty programmes, tastings, promotions) Hirani and Marks deserve every success.