There are many good things about Poppadom, Vishneeth Tak's new Indian restaurant in Rathgar, but the best thing of all is not merely that the food is good, but the sense that the food is embarked on a quest for new discoveries. There is a feeling of inquiry and discovery about the cooking in Poppadom, which is an implicit rebuke to what passes for Indian food in just about every other Indian restaurant in Ireland.
But first, a word about some of the other good things. The decor is bright and colourful, but not at all gaudy, and while the paintings have a touch of realist-postcard about them, they work.
The design of the chairs and tables is modern - classic straight-backed chairs wrapped in white cotton, with crisp linen tablecloths and napkins - and there are invitingly big glasses. When you sit down they offer poppadoms and exquisite pickles - hot chili pickle; cool carrot pickle and spicy yogurt and mint, each playing off its seasonings expertly against the other.
Poppadom's other great asset is the presence of Vishneeth Tak at front of house. Many will remember him as the original front-man of Saagar, an Indian restaurant, on Harcourt Street. His work there was so fine that he redefined the whole expectation of service in an ethnic restaurant, and he is already doing the same thing in Poppadom: gracious, capable, assured, and with his small team copying him to the letter.
The menu offers a page of starters, a page of house specials, and then a list of vegetable dishes and "The Old Favourites", which the menu presumes need no explanation - chicken karahi; Bombay aloo and so on - and then there is a page of rice dishes and breads.
The descriptions of the dishes are modestly and conscientiously written. The unusual Laddakh Chhena, for example, is described as "A warm goat cheese fondue topped on a flaky `Taftaan' (layered bread from the northern frontier) flavoured with a sharp walnut and herb chutney".
This was quite precise, although the fondue was no more than a slice of goats' cheese, but what the menu doesn't tell you is that Poppadom serves these starters with what is effectively a Western salad - slices of red onion, strips of red and yellow peppers, carved carrots, sliced baby corn and a scattering of salad leaves - all on the same plate.
Now it is easy to understand that this is done to align with people's expectations of what a starter dish should include, but I think it is misconceived. Simple Indian salads would be much more suitable than this compromise, which suited neither the Laddakh Chhena nor the Chimbori Vada - crispy crab cakes flavoured with ginger, spring onions and scallions, which I loved but which my guest was less keen on, finding the sweet chilli chutney which came with them to be too sweet.
Our main courses, however, broached no compromise whatsoever, and their variety and judiciousness showed a kitchen keen to achieve the very best it can. Chicken Korma Shirazi, a Persian dish, had almonds, pistachios and apricots along with a rich saffron and cardomom sauce, with the velvety luxuriousness of the sauce almost making the presence of the chicken redundant. A mild dish such as this needs very balanced and subtle seasoning, which the chicken had to a T.
Charminar lamb, which is cooked by a method akin to pot-roasting with onions and tomatoes, before being finished with green peppercorns and lime, was even better, a dish so mellifluous and precisely executed that it had greatness about it. The lamb was achingly tender and suffused with its spices, though I didn't find the dish to be "hot", as the menu suggests.
We ordered a pair of side dishes with these, okra (ladies' fingers, as the more felicitous Indian name calls them) cooked with carum and wild onion seeds and tomatoes and shallots, which were impeccable, and tadka dal, a stew of yellow and red lentils, served with a tadka, an oil flavoured with cumin, garlic, onion and tomatoes, which is stirred in before serving. I would have liked more tadka with this, as the starchiness of the dal needs something to lift the flavours.
The restaurant offered a selection of small breads to eat with the food, and we were served fried paratha, plain naan, naan with garlic, onion and coriander, and Roghani naan, where the bread dough is enriched with milk and topped with various seeds.
All four were outstandingly good, light and doughy, perfect to be used for scooping up the food. In combination with the flavours of the chicken, the lamb and the vegetables it was blissful, and I must say that this way of eating, to try little portions of various dishes in rotation with different breads, is among my favourite ways of eating. If you go to Poppadom and simply order one dish and a bowl of rice, you may well miss the point, which is the intoxication created by the concatenation of tastes.
The room, on a Sunday night, was hopping, with every seat taken by the families, couples and groups of Rathgar folk, young and not-so-young. I suspect that Poppadom, with its suburban location, will prove to be a great success, like those other smart restaurants necklaced around the city such as Morels in Glasthule, Popjoys in Terenure, and ChinaSichuan in Stillorgan - clever places which give you good food at good prices in good rooms. Poppadom does all that, and with the presence of Vishneeth Tak, doses the equation with a little more delight.
Poppadom, 91a Rathgar Road, Dublin 6. Tel: 01-490 2383. Open 6 p.m.-midnight Mon-Sun. Major cards.