Brian O'Hanlon returns to Khan's, one of Londons most celebrated Indian restaurant where he finds instant, inner man gratification and food he could literally eat all day.

The Indian restaurant known as Khan's strides well into its 23rd successful year. It is large, its gregarious, with a list of regular customers as long as a June evening. Khan's is the culinary equivalent of Ryanair, the hugely successful no frills airline. Its back to basics without any unnecessary flock wallpaper or gilt elephants. To repeat my self, without apology, Khan's will ever be to me the Bombay station restaurant of my Indian childhood of the 1930s. Loud, high and unlavish, with paper tablecloths and table sets in army mess hall fashion. Your taste bud demands instant attention and that is what the kitchen is geared to giving you. The air sizzles with ghee, fenugreek and cardamom and the complete A TO Z of Indian herbs and spices that assault the senses in the most wonderful way.

Indian eating, or NorthWest Frontier cuisine, which is what this really is, is not a romantic French style tete a tet table for two. Neither is it an English gentlemans club where food is merely an irritating adjunct to claret and port, or a Greek plate-smashing knees-up. It is for instant inner man gratification. General Manager, Mustabir asked me if I would like to order or leave it to him? Not a question that needed my consideration for more than a nanosecond. Within five minutes my waiter delivered a sizzling black kharahi piled with Sheek Kebab and Chicken Tikka, cooked in tandoor oven with spices, onions and herbs the sort of food I could eat all day. What you drink with it here is ice cold pétillant Perrier water, as only non-alcoholic drinks are served at Khan's.

A good Indian restaurant does not ask if you would like to wait for your main dish but serves it almost seamlessly after your first course. Mustabir had picked out the Balti Chicken (4.35). One of the Chefs Specials on this interesting and comprehensive card. It is highly aromatic with a sensuous mixture of fresh herbs and lovely roundels of chicken breast covered in a spiced sauce. With it came Sag Paneer (£2.95), Spinach cooked with homemade cheese and a large Nan bread. They were an ideal combination, but beware Nan is an appetite thief and I became most indignant with myself when I could not finish the Paneer.

Study this menus footnotes. A heart against an item indicates low fat, V equals vegetarian and all chicken and meat dishes are served off the bone unless otherwise indicated.

Take a good look around this menu, Its great. There are 13 specials, eight Tandoori breads, the full gamut of chicken and meat curries, all priced £3.70, from the mild and meaty, creamed coconut Shahi, to the very hot Madras and Vindaloo. There are the Biriyanis, seafood (prawns) and nine mouth-watering Chefs Recommendations from Butter Chicken dressed with almonds (£5.25) and the very hot Jalfrezi cooked with chilies and herbs (£4.65), to creamy, curried, spicy, and yoghurt with chilies Bourji (£4.35) and Methi Gosht (£4.35), which is meat with fresh fenugreek. Vegetarians, particularly, love eating at Khan's because it caters so well for them, with no less than 16 individual dishes from which to chose. The Mushroom Bajis, which are cooked in special sauce (£3.05) and the Chana Masalader (£2.95), Chickpeas spiced in garlic, ginger, chili paste, lime juice and onions, are among the most popular.

I finished with Kulfi (Indian ice cream, pastachio-flavoured), and gazed up contentedly at the Basilica type ceiling of the huge main room, with its flowering palms in a blue surround picked out with porthole lights, a full and happy man.

When I arrived I was met by Joy, Khan's Marketing Manager, who took me to their new corporate entertaining room downstairs which is quietly up-market without being ostentatious. There is a bar and banquette seating along the walls, starched tablecloths and more comfortable seating, It has been receiving increasing attention from businessmen who want to lunch and dine in a smaller more conspiratorial atmosphere which is their natural theatre