It is little wonder Jasmin has a list of awards as long as its menu.

A darling of Adelaide’s business class, mainly because of the covert subterranean location and impressive wine list, Jasmin has steadily built a reputation for fine Indian cuisine over three decades.

Eating in at an Indian restaurant can sometimes be a risky business – Jasmin makes it a pleasure from start to finish.

Service is sharp, plentiful and knowledgeable. The wine list is something to behold: extensive and catering to all needs it ranges from $32 bottles of chenin blanc to several vintages of Grange (at only $750) and everything in between.

Documenting all this is a horde of menus delivered to our small table on a very busy early week night.

For a restaurant which probably has one of the smallest and most nondescript shopfronts in Adelaide, it is quite a feat and a symbol of its achievements that bookings are required to guarantee a seat on any given day.

The setting is antiquated yet nice. Large paintings hang on the walls, wooden tables and comfy chairs are spaced evenly, and carpeted floors dim dinner conversations, helping to maintain a decent level of discretion.

Jasmin is also one of the last Indian restaurants dedicated enough to maintain and utilise a proper charcoal tandoor. The chef is in four to five hours pre-service to fire up the tandoor, which infuses everything – naan to tikka – with the unmistakeable smoky aroma.

There are three food menus for Jasmin: the a la carte, specials and the “feed me” menu which is offered in two tiers – hungry ($48pp) and starving ($57).

Considering a main serve of curry is priced from $25 upwards, and being fans of letting the kitchen decide what is for dinner, we decide we are in the “hungry” category.

It begins with five starters. Pakoras each of prawns and vegetable, chicken tikka, tandoori mushroom and samosas. All are excellent. The vegetable pakoras, traditionally an oily mixture of deep-fried vegetables, carry the perfect hint of curry powder behind the delicious crunch. The chicken tikka, bright orange and served with a mint-yoghurt sauce, is smoky, mild and tender. The mushroom is phenomenal: moist and smoky from the tandoor, it would delight heavy meat eaters as well as vegetarians.

For a menu costed at $47, it is an awful lot of very good food. Then the mains arrive.

Two types of naan (a cheese and a plain), papadams, raita and chutney. Beef vindaloo, butter chicken, prawn sambal, and a vegetarian mix of spinach potatoes and onions, along with plates of rice.

It is all superb. While the vindaloo is thick, rich and perfectly spicy, the butter chicken is mild, nearing sweet, with large chunks of tender chicken in the traditional bright-orange gravy. The only place that does a better butter chicken is London’s Brick Lane.

The sambal is a delicate tomato-based sauce with sumptuous fresh prawns, and the naan is fluffy and smoky; cooked on the charcoal tandoor, it’s the perfect mop for the many gravies.

Suffice to say, it is a big ask to consume all the food included in the price. The waitress informs the table that very few customers finish the hungry version of the menu. Lucky we weren’t starving.

Indian fine dining is not a term one would use often, but in the case of the Jasmin, it suits like chicken and tikka.

Four out of five.

Jasmin Indian Restaurant

31 Hindmarsh Sq Adelaide,

08 8223 7837

Lunch – Thursday and Friday from 12pm

Dinner – Tuesday to Saturday from 5.30pm

Cuisine: Indian