`Oodles of Noodles', as the promotion is being called, has six to seven varieties of noodles from Japan, Thailand, Korea and India: rice noodles from China, which are translucent when cooked; Japanese Soba noodles made from buckwheat flour and brown or green in colour; Udon noodles, which are thick, ribbon-like wheat noodles; egg noodles made from refined flour, egg and water; and wheat noodles that have a heavy texture. All come in thin, flat and thick varieties.

And they can be cooked in a variety of ways, too, not just stir-fried with the usual medley of sauces. Chef Vivek Huria, at his inventive best, has dipped the noodles into Thai curry sauces, coconut milk, traditional Indian curry gravy, and added dashes of roasted peanuts and palm sugar dressing.

Forappetisers, Huria has two noodle soups. The vegetarian soup (Rs 190) has wheat noodles with vegetables cooked in a Japanese style, flavoured with Saki, which usually has fish instead of the veggies. The chicken soup (Rs 250) has glass noodles and chicken balls, is mildly flavoured and has a few sprouts thrown in--it tastes a bit like Tom Yum Soup.

For starters, there are three excellent salads--the best was the spicy Australian tenderloin salad (I am always partial to spicy food as I like that fire-alarm flavour in it, though many a gourmet may turn up their noses in disgust). It had tiny bits of beef steak tossed with cooked noodles with a liberal dose of chilli-garlic sauce (Rs 290). The glass noodles with crisp-to-bite celery, onions and coriander salad, dressed with palm sugar syrup, was good with just a teeny bit of sweetness (Rs 190). And the other salad has rice noodles with a Malaysian touch of pineapple and peanuts (Rs 190).

The main course has six combinations of noodles with two of them beingvegetarian. For once, the chef has been partial to vegetarians as the crispy egg noodles with shiitake mushrooms, beancurd and pak choi (a kind of Oriental greens), topped with yellow curry, was the best. The crispy noodles are far from being the yucky deep-fried `chopsuey' stuff most places dish out. These were instead stir-fried on the Teppaniyaki grill with dollops of butter.

I also liked the wheat noodles with tiger prawns, red snapper and Norwegian salmon tossed with coconut milk and Thai spices (Rs 590). And I have it from a fellow foodie and fish-eater that the Soba noodles with lobster, crab meat and roe (Rs 590) was excellent. Though, if you don't like a fishy flavour to your food, avoid it. There were some fellow diners who asked for some of the egg noodles with apna tandoori chicken (Rs 490) in it to wash out the fishy taste in their mouths. Though all the dishes have a specified variety of noodles in them, the chef is more than willing to make the same dish in anothercombination for true-blue noodle gourmets.

If all these noodle dishes have stir-fried your appetite to a roaring hunger, don't let that worry you. All these noodle varieties are also available at the INA Market in South Delhi--even TK's gets most of them from there.