It does a solid job but the Daman Grill at the New Road Inn is better suited to football fanatics than curry connoisseurs, says Sian Brewis.

When the signs promising "great food" are dwarfed by the ones advertising Sky Sports and listing the rugby fixtures, you don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to know you're going into a sports bar. Although, as we'll come to later, a sign saying it doesn't take cards would be helpful.

The New Road Inn, in Welford Road, Leicester, does the sports thing very well – it's a good pub with a decent range of beers and ciders, reasonably priced and a nice atmosphere.

On the night we visited, Leicester were at home, and it was heaving with fans ready to brave the icy temperatures at the King Power Stadium. Students were playing winner stays on at pool and the inside seems covered with flat screen TVs all tuned to Sky Sports.

We were probably the only people in who not there for the footie but the curry.

Operating out of the back of the pub is an Indian restaurant called the Daman Grill which promises great value meal deals. Outside were A-boards offering specials through the week, including match-day specials and piri piri nights, and on a freezing Wednesday night the offer was a three-course menu for £8.95

The restaurant is at the back of the pub, so don't expect views of anything other than the bar or the pool table. And a large TV screen for Sky Sports.

We sat at a table with someone else's empty pint glass still on it and checked out the menu.

It was vast, as if someone had written down every single Indian dish they had ever heard of. The vegetarian range alone had 17 dishes, and there were 16 chef's specials.

Although there was the three-course deal, we thought we would test out the menu to see what it was like. Although they are separate businesses, you have to tell the barmaid that you're ready to order, and the waiter appears.

Nice bloke, and knew his way round the menu. The most popular curries here, we were told, were the chicken tikka masala and kormas.

Suzy opted for the chicken tikka masala (£6.50) and I had a chicken jalfrezi (£6) which, on being told it was not very hot, asked if I could have a spicier version.

To start with, we had poppadoms and pickles, and shared two starters, a chatpapta mogo (cassava cut into chunks) (£3.50) and Tandoori king prawns (£5.95).

As we started into our bottle of wine (Californian Merlot, £11, very quaffable) we noticed another table's order start to appear and yet again, realised we had probably ordered too much food. Hey ho.

The poppadoms came out quickly but not quick enough to escape a slight charring round the edges.

They were spicy – which was fine, although we hadn't been given the choice – but we'd been expecting the usual dip whirligig rather than a couple of pots of a tomatoe-y hot dip and a yoghurt. No lime pickle? For shame.

The chatpapta mogo came with a tango chilli and tomato sauce, which was so filling it felt like hard work eating it, but the prawns were sizzling hot and yummy, served up with fried onions.

There was a bit of a break while the mains arrived – about 20 minutes – but looking on the bright side it did give the pair of us, now feeling a bit stuffed, a fighting chance with the main courses.

Suzy was impressed with her chicken tikka masala, which had a thick and creamy sauce with a hint of coconut giving it a nice bite. My chicken jalfrezi wasn't as hot as I'd hoped but was a workmanlike effort.

Overall, if you were purely out for a curry, you'd probably go to a restaurant instead. There's no background music, only TV screens, no tablemats, no linen napkins and none of the hot towels brought out after the meal that you normally get.

But if you're watching the football and you fancy a curry without actually having to leave the pub, it's probably just the job.

It loses a point for not taking credit cards, offering only the alternative of using the cashpoint at the Dry Dock around the corner which charged last time I checked.

Info

Daman Grill at the New Road Inn, 201 Welford Road, Leicester, LE2 6BH. Phone: 0116 270 7512