After its traditional summer holiday, the Lucullus Baráti Társaság - Hungary's premier gourmet dining club - got back to "business" the Friday before last with a dinner highlighting the cuisine of northern India. But instead of having the feast at one of the growing number of upscale options among Indian restaurants in Budapest, it was held at the Hathi Indiai Kifőzde, a very unprepossessing little kifőzde (fast food restaurant) in the heart of District XIII. "This really isn't about the atmosphere or the table settings," Gábor Turóczi, one of the founders of Lucullus, said almost apologetically as we arrived, "But the food here is what's most important."

Hathi has been open for about a year and half, the chef/owner being a veteran of Budapest's Indian restaurant scene who previously spent a long stint cooking at Maharaja. Besides a few framed tapestries there's little to the dining room besides a DIY sunflower-yellow paint job and some rough wood tables. But I didn't mind this, or the plastic plates and silverware. And none of the other 25 or so guests seemed to either, especially after the food started pouring out.

The meal started with thick vodka and mango juice cocktails served in plastic shot glasses (and excellent mango lassis for those going the non-alcohol route). The first appetizer was garlic cream soup - thin like a broth, and intensely garlicky. Next came plates loaded down with mixed pakora - vegetables (cauliflower, onion, and potatoes), house-made cheese, and chunks of chicken coated in garbanzo flour batter and deep fried. They were served with minty yogurt sauce and another cinnamon flavored sauce I was too hungry to catch the name of. Then came the bright orange tandoori chicken and chicken tikka (chicken breast marinated in spices and yogurt and cooked in the tandoori oven).

Before the main courses arrived, everyone poured into the small kitchen to watch the chefs tossing and shaping the naan dough (above) and dramatically slapping it onto the inside of the tandoori oven. Along with the naan, the main courses were chicken tikka masala (chicken stew in a spicy pepper sauce) and chicken hathi (a milder chicken stew with pistachios and raisins). With them came Punjubi chole (garbanzo beans in a gingery sauce) and dal makhani (black lentils). For dessert there was gulab jammun (a rich ball-shaped pastry made with milk and milk powder and drizzled with honey, below).

Fortunately, all of the things we sampled at the Lucullus dinner are available on Hathi's regular menu, which features appetizers for Ft 250-450 (€1.00-€1.73), main courses starting at Ft 450, and a whole tandoori chicken (the most expensive offering) at Ft 1,200. The four types of dessert are just Ft 250 each. The place serves no wine, but it does have Indian Cobra beer, at least when I visited. In the end, there was no reason to apologize for the lack of décor (or its out-of-center location). Despite its low-profile, Hathi's food can easily compete with Pest's more flashy and expensive Indian restaurants. I know I'll be back.