I've always been scared of going to Nirvana, it looks like a dungeon from the outside and not very inviting. I've been visualising giant ogres behind those big grey doors waiting to bash you over the head with a big wooden club upon entry. Or perhaps a tribe of evil fairies hell bent on sucking the life out of you. Well there's only one way to find out and I wined and dined my mine lady there on full moon Friday night.

We went early and were the first to arrive, no ogres were behind the doors, just a crew of friendly wait staff getting ready for the night. We were led to our seats in one of the 4 or so dining areas, the place being a lot larger than it appears from the outside.

The areas are walled off from each other allowing for a more private dining experience than if everything were in the same room. There's also a small live music area by the entrance where there was some dude was singing and playing acoustic guitar, doing a pretty good job too.

We got a romantic booth for two, ordered our drinks which came out about 5 seconds after we told the waiter what we wanted and watched as more diners slowly filled the venue. Service throughout the night was very good I must say, although it helps if you're sitting in front of the kitchen door. At Nirvana you'll find a mixture of Thai, Malay and Indian food with the usual suspects on the menu. Hardly original, but that's business for you. It also posses one of the biggest drinks menu I've ever seen anywhere, complete with an absinthe fountain. Epic.

For entrees we had marinated pork wrapped in crispy bean curd pastry and spicy salted quail for $9.90 each. The quail was so-so, needing more seasoning. The pork dish was really nice – the bean curd pastry crumbling in your mouth, revealing some really nicely flavoured pork. The beef massaman($18.90) was mooing out to me and the fire breathing chicken vindaloo ($18.90) had my partners name written all over it.

There was evidently a lot of thought put into the massaman, with big tender chunks of beef, potatoes, nuts and a rich sauce to top it all off. I drifted off to Phuket for the briefest of moments inbetween melt-in-your-mouth bites of beef. The vindaloo was a bit disappointing however. After the initial hit of chili, there's not much else going on in the sauce. There certainly isn't the richness one would expect from an Indian curry and I've had much better vindaloos around town.

As our first visit to Nirvana, my partner and I were both very impressed. The food was mostly good and the setting was very nice, despite the identity crisis. It looks more like a western saloon bar than a South East Asian restaurant, which is probably intentional - Asian food in a western setting. Yippee ki-yay!