As noted below, having never been sent to Harrow, since going there of my own volition to try Masa, I have been sent there twice. On one of those occasions, having finished early and seeking lunch I walked past Masa. I was happy to see the same waitress still there, but having not tipped at all last time, I was slightly embarrassed and decided against going back in so soon after. [A note to my surprising number of American readers, we have a minimum wage here so there really is no obligation to tip at all for actively bad service, I'm sure I was in the right, but will admit I was still embarrassed].

There are a whole host of places in Wembley I've been meaning to try and as its only a couple of stops on the central line I decided to head in that direction. Arriving in Wembley is a whole lot cheerier than arriving in Harrow, obviously at lunch it was daytime which I take into account, but nonetheless the place had a real vibrancy, with the arch of the new stadium visible and a whole host of interesting shops and restaurants on the road to Dadima.

Dadima is a bit of a walk from Wembley central, I think there is a nearer tube – Alperton, but if your there in the daytime the walk is worth it. There are loads of Indian and Sri Lankan restaurants on the way, most of which have escaped the attention of the guidebooks. Nonetheless, a lot of them were full of happy looking diners and if I was in the area more often I imagine they'd be well worth a go. I especially fancy the Sri Lankan efforts, having enjoyed Sekara and needing something to compare it to. Quite a lot of the Indian restaurants advertise both Indian and Chinese food, a common thing on the subcontinent, and if their true to the form shown there, the Chinese will be less than great but the Indian pretty good.

Dadima's itself has been recommended in several publications, or of course I wouldn't have heard of it, and on this occasion I walked past the other restaurants and aimed for my original destination. The cuisine is Kenyan/Gujurati, but in any event it is very good. I ordered the special Thali which at £5.99 represents probably the best value food in London. For that tiny sum, I had a samosa (recorded as a farsan on the menu, which I think just means snack), 3 vegetable curries, a dahl, chappatis, rice, raita, a poppadom, a gulab jamun and a salt lassi. None of the food was poor, and some was properly great.

I should probably mention the décor, but I don't think there was any. This is a large unadorned room with cafeteria chairs and tables, and that authentic feel coupled with the local ethnic makeup and the host of nearby vegetable and indian cookery shops (about which, more later) meant that when my friendly waiter brought (unasked) a glass of water, my brain took half a second to compute that the water would be safe to drink!

Shortly afterwards my lassi arrived, and it was deliciously refreshing, with a small amount of cardomon on top that lifted it, and otherwise nothing fancy and just salty enough. At the same time my poppadom arrived, this was warm which was nice but it had been bought in and was one of the spicy type. This was probably the least good item of the meal, but it was still perfectly fine.

Shortly afterwards the thali arrived. The samosa was very good, the pastry was not quite as crisp as it might have been but it was grease free. The filling was different from the norm with a multi layered flavour, but I'm afraid I couldn't tell you exactly what was in there. Alongside a real savoury quality it finished with a decent chilli hit and was overall very impressive, though not quite the best I've had. [As a side note, the best samosas I've had in Britain have been from the Amaya Indian sweet shop on Drummond street- very crispy, served warm, packed with flavour and at 60p each, the best lunch option near Euston, not withstanding the all you can eat buffets on the same street!]

One of the three curries was very watery, in fact it was entirely liquid and appeared quite unpromising. Appearances can be deceptive though, and in fact this was possibly the best dish. It wasn't at all oily, and the tomato sauce was spiked with a strong but not excessive hit of liquorice and star anise. When some rice was stirred in to add substance and this curry was eaten with the decent warm chappatis, the overall effect was delicious.

The second curry was a potatoe based dish and this was overall a bit of a disappointment. Leaving aside the question of whether more carbs were called for in a meal that already contained rice and chappatis, the curry was just a little too oily. That said the spicing was clear and you probably wouldn't complain if your local curry house was at this standard. Things improved again with the third curry, a dense, liquid free mix of green beans and green peppers and chillis. The heat was not as fierce as you might expect but it certainly had a kick, but the flavours of pepper came through cleanly and it was an excellent dish.

The dahl was also noteworthy, it wasn't different in style from a everyday dahl (unlike say Sekara). However, it was in the thick style of dahl, and a little unusually had been made with black eyed beans. It made an interesting change and had a strong nutty flavour. It was an excellent accompaniment to the other dishes, as well as providing some much needed protein.

The sweet was gulab jamun. I've said previously that I'm not a big fan of Indian desserts and this was not going to convert me. However, it was fine of its type, not inedibly sweet and the centre of the sweet wasn't dry as it can be.

The service had been excellent, unobtrusive but thorough and happy throughout. Perhaps because I still felt a little guilty about Masa and perhaps because the meal was so cheap, I left what in percentage terms was a decent tip. I still only spent £10 on what was a superb lunch. Obviously I had the advantage of being in the area, but I would say if you like authenticity and incredible value then it is worth the trip out.

As I walked back to the tube, I went into several wholesale/retail suppliers of rice and vegetables and can say this would be a great place to shop if you like cooking Indian food (though I couldn't partake, it wouldn't have looked great going back into work). I then went into some great cookware shops, which had everything from authentically rusty karahi dishes (they'll be fine after proving) to £400 robo-coupes, suggesting that at least some of the kitchens are equipping on a pretty high level.

I resisted the temptation to buy a 50” karahi and an outside gas burner to put it on, though given the authentic surroundings I was happy to note it had a CE safety approval label on. I also resisted the option to buy swastika bedecked incense burners, reasoning it might be misunderstood! I had seen these in India but was surprised to see them in London, but glad too, it felt thoroughly authentic and why shouldn't Hindus reclaim their symbol outside of the subcontinent. I am pretty sure I'll be going back to Wembley, even if work doesn't oblige.