I'd start to explain my extravagant claims for Dancing Ganesha by describing the menu, a parchment scroll covered by Indian motifs and mouth-watering prose, but it's far from the first sign that business is not as usual here. The wooden door is carved with the image of Ganesha, whose likeness reappears through the interior-there's even a shrine to the pachyderm deity, with a vase of flowers and a wisp of burning incense.

Dancing Ganesha is a vision of India on the cusp of the whole world. The only thing you won't see are any signs of Britain's imperial legacy.

Sound, vision, smell, touch (if you count the pleasant feel of the menu scroll) and-of course-taste are all represented in Ganesha's sensory kaleidoscope.

Appetizers and entrées, while numbering many items familiar to other local Indian restaurants, are often prepared differently with one eye on the subcontinent's diversity (especially the Gujarti and Punjabi regions) and the other eye on nouvelle cuisine's insistence on meticulous preparation and imaginative presentation.

Dancing Ganesha doesn't boast the widest selection of Indian bread in town, but what it does offer is excellent, especially the buttery roti ($1.50), a thin whole-wheat bread cooked over an open fire and brushed with ghee, the liquid remaining when butter is melted, boiled and strained.

An extensive list of wine by the bottle or glass includes reds and whites from the U.S., Italy, France, New Zealand, Australia and Chile, along with a top-flight top-shelf boasting 20-year-old bourbon, 16-year-old Scotch and 10-year-old Irish whisky. The atmosphere at the bar and around the tables is hip and convivial.