Adlington has been blessed with quality Indian restaurants over the years. Sharju began the trend in the early 1980s when it opened in an old church. Since then, the Shapla take-away has opened on Chorley Road.

This has been making consistently excellent Indian food for around a decade now and its owners have decided to take their brand of food into a different setting.

Jalale has taken Shapla into a restaurant environment. It also offers the diner a choice of meals from the buffet. Basically, the motto for Jalale is 'eat as much as you like'. The price for endless indulgence is £12.95.

The restaurant is located on the A6, next to the Clayton Arms pub, in what was for many years a newsagents.

There is plenty of car parking to be found in the area, either on the A6, next to the Clayton Arms or beside the Guiseppe Italian restaurant.

The inside of the building has been totally transformed. It was much more spacious than I imagined it would be.

The layout was impressive with a large dining area segregated by glass borders from the reception and buffet area.

We visited the restaurant on a Friday night and there was a warm family atmosphere.

We had booked a table for 8.30pm and as soon as we arrived we were shown to our seats, asked how many poppadoms we wanted and we ordered a bottle of red wine.

The starters were served with the usual trays of chutneys and sauces and they soon disappeared from our plates.

We were then invited to take our pick from a choice of starters.

Jalale operates by offering different food on the buffet every two days. These menus also change in four week cycles.

On our particular visit, we could choose from vegetable samosa, Tandoori wings and chicken tikka samosa. There were also naan breads and salad.

The tandoori wings deserve a special mention, because they were sensational. The meat tasted lean, fresh and succulent and was coated in a delicious sauce.

The samosas were also very good.

Next, it was time for the main meals. On offer that day were the people's favourite, chicken tikka massala, chicken tikka dansak, chicken tikka shashlik, lamb tikka shahee, mixed dupiaza, prawn dupiaza, vegetable methi and vegetable balti.

The great appeal of buffet restaurants is that they allow you to have a taste of dishes you always secretly fancied, but were too afraid to order.

Like many people, a visit to an Indian restaurant usually means sticking religiously to my favourite dish -- Chicken Tikka Rogan Josh with mushroom pilau.

With this meal not on offer, I had to dive into the unknown.

The vegetable methi was one of my favourites. I usually go for a meat dish when I eat out as vegetarian meals can be disappointing. But this was a fantastic mish-mash of vegetables and fenugreek leaves in a hottish sauce.

The lamb tikka shahee was also delicious.

To accompany the main meals were a series a side dishes. Mushroom bhaji and aloog gobi were excellent and meals in their own right. We had too much curry in our stomachs, but felt we had to attempt to eat the dessert to get our money's worth.

The fruit salad with ice cream was very nice and a suitable end to our meal. My partner and I had to skip the coffee and mints to avoid serious indigestion and heartburn.

The food at Jalale was very good, among the best Indian food you will eat.

The service is very good and wheelchair access is easy. A take-away menu, which allows you to order individual meals, is also available.

My only criticism is that £12.95 is slightly expensive. Indian restaurants are usually very good value for money and a couple could usually get a main meal for two with a couple of drinks for around £15.

Our bill came to £29.40, the bottle of wine was half price as part of a special offer, which is still very reasonable for the high standard of the food.

However, the restaurant was not very busy when we dined and a drop in the price, at least during the week, could get more people coming through the door.

Jalale is a quality restaurant and it will hopefully remain in the village for many years.

HOW TO GET THERE

Take St George's Road and then Chorley Old Road out of Bolton town centre towards Horwich.

Pass Horwich with Millstone Hotel on your right.

At the traffic lights in Adlington turn left down Railway Road.

At the bottom, turn left. Jalale is on your right, across form the White Bear pub.

STAR RATING

Quality of food ****

Menu ****

Service ****

Value for money ***

Atmosphere ****

Overall rating ****