"Everything I have put on the menu has a story behind it. There are endless dishes still waiting to go on the menu.”

When head chef and co-owner of Curry Leaf Cafe Kanthi Thamma teamed up with flatmate Euan Sey to open The Lanes’ first Indian cafe, the former Chilli Pickle chef returned to his mother’s own recipes, recreating the Southern Indian cuisine he grew up with.

“Northern Indian food is more based around cream, as it is locally available,” says Thamma, who was also a food champion at Jamie Oliver’s Recipease.

“In Southern India it’s about tamarind, coconut and curry leaves – all the stuff that are like weeds growing in the back garden. Northern food is very rich in wheat and dairy with lots of roti and naan breads. Southern Indian food is a lot lighter and easier on the stomach.”

That lightness also makes it perfect cafe food – a distinction both Thamma and Sey are keen to make.

“The cafe was the really important thing,” says Sey, who admits the pair came up with the concept last year while watching Masterchef in their flat.

“We felt there was a gap in the market between the bog-standard Indian restaurant and fine dining. There are some really good places in Brighton, but with the cafe people could drop in and have a coffee and snack. It takes the formality out of it. We provide warm and friendly service but in a relaxed atmosphere. No one offering Indian food provides a place where you can sit with a laptop and have a coffee.”

But it’s not just about coffee – Curry Leaf offers a range of 12 Indian teas and craft beers.

And the lunchtime menu offers a choice between cold and hot street food, salads, open naan wraps, dosai, and thalis as found in canteens and roadside stalls across Southern India.

The evening menu is slightly more formal – following the traditional starters, mains and desserts format – but there’s no sign of the tikka masala or balti beloved by Indian restaurants across the country.

Instead, customers can sample starters such as the vegetarian street snack batate ambade or the semolina-encrusted prawn dish from Goa karwari jhinga.

Among the mains for this spring menu are the mouth-watering spiced aubergines in a sweet and sour sauce kathirikai pulli kozhambu, the classic lentil stew kaikari sambar, or the sour and spicy fish stew nellore chapala pulusu.

And the desserts include specially created ice cream flavours from Boho Gelato.

Many of the dishes are gluten and dairy free, with an estimated 60% of the menu suitable for vegans.

“We’ve had a lot of excitement about the vegan options,” says Sey. “You can’t get this range of vegan food anywhere else. “In terms of catering for meat-eaters, all the chicken is free range and the meat is locally sourced, as are our fruit and vegetables. I think people in Brighton appreciate our attitude and the care we are taking.”

Thamma is keen to ensure the menu follows the seasons, offering more cold options during the summer, with plans to introduce picnic boxes ideal for the seaside.

He began working on the menu in July, long before the site had been found for the cafe in the former Pizza 7 restaurant in Ship Street.

“Alan [Sperring] from Chilli Pickle [now in Jubilee Square] made a breakthrough with Indian food in Brighton,” says Thamma. “He had things on his menu no one in Brighton had ever tasted before, and he showed me how to respect the country’s food. I learned so much from him, and the Jamie Oliver team. Every chef is influenced by other people.”

The approach has clearly been working, with customers returning in greater numbers over the past few weeks and Curry Leaf receiving a top ten placing on Tripadvisor.

And the Curry Leaf Cafe team has plenty of plans for the future too – including launching a brunch menu, creating spicy cocktails, starting a Curry Leaf Club promotion, spreading the brand further out of Brighton and taking part in pop-up events – the first of which happened last night at Craft Beer Company in Upper North Street.

But the aim is to ensure everything happens at the right time.

“We don’t want to fly before we can walk,” says Thamma. “The only thing that should fly is the food, out of the kitchen.”