Goan home cooking

It seems that every year sees a further expansion of this family-run business, but despite the stylish décor, despite the café-style chairs and tables, and the computer system to handle bills and orders, the overwhelming impression you are left with when you visit Ma Goa is of eating in somebody's home.

This place is as far as you can possibly get from the chuck-it-in-a-frying-pan-and-heat-it-through school of curry cookery.

The food is deceptively simple, slow-cooked and awesomely tasty.

The menu is fairly compact: half a dozen starters are followed by a dozen mains, while a blackboard adds a couple of dishes of the day.

Shrimp balchao is a starter made from shrimps cooked in pickling spices and curry leaves.

Sorpotel is made from lamb's liver, kidney and pork in a sauce rich with roast spices, lime and coriander.

The Ma Goa chorizo is rich, too, with palm vinegar, cinnamon and green chillies.

Main courses are amazing.

The spices are properly cooked out by slow cooking, which makes lifting the lids of the heavy clay serving pots a voyage of discovery.

Porco vindaloo, sharp with palm vinegar, is enriched with lumps of pork complete with rind.

Ma's fish caldin is a kind of fish stew with large chunks of fish in a coconut-based sauce.

Vegetarians are equally well served.

Bund gobi is stir-fried, shredded cabbage with carrots, ginger and cumin, while beringella is an aubergine dish made with pickling spices.

The rice here is excellent.

Ma Goa Restaurant
Upper Richmond Road, London, SW15 6TG