Phil Burch is halfway through the eight pints of beer he says he needs to enjoy modern Britain?s most popular cuisine. When British pubs shut their doors just after 11 p.m. Burch, and thousands like him, will complete a typical night out by staggering up the road to wash down all that beer with a hybrid Anglo-Indian mix of foods that most Britons call ?curry?.

?There is only one place to head to after the pubs have shut and that?s for a curry,? said Burch. ?The most important thing is to have eight pints before you go, then the hotter the curry the better. It?s an English tradition.? Britain has come a long way since its first Indian restaurant, the Hindustani Coffee House, opened in 1809 and now a former chief executive of a famous fish and chip shop chain and a famed Bollywood songstress believe it is time to take the next step in the Indian food evolution.

Eating a ?curry? or what most often passes for Indian-style food in Britain is about as far as one can get from the stereotypical image of a nation with a steady diet of greasy fish and chips, overcooked beef and watery vegetables. It would probably come as a surprise to the proprietor of that first Indian food hotspot that dishes like chicken tikka masala have gone on to become more ubiquitous on the streets of London than the traditional English fare so often panned by connoisseurs from food-mad countries like France and Italy.

Such a longstanding fondness for Indian food has convinced Indian singer Asha Bhosle and restauranteur Russell Scott to create the first British chain of upmarket Indian restaurants. Most curry houses in Britain are independently owned, the majority of them by Bangladeshi immigrants. Many of these family owned shops rely on recipes for such dishes as rogan josh and biryani that have been adapted for British tastes.

Scott and Bhosle aim to shatter the ingrained perceptions about Indian food by serving authentic Mumbai (Bombay) cuisine in stylish surroundings at a host of outlets across the country. ?There are a lot of pasta chains out there but we don?t have an Indian restaurant chain,? Scott said, ?The UK market is ready to move on from the traditional fare.? Scott is searching for their first venue and hopes to launch a number of restaurants over five years.

He and Bhosle aim to teach consumers that Indian restaurants are not just late night liquor licenses with food and that curry doesn?t have to be eaten alongside flagons of beer in a shopfront restaurant decorated with vividly embossed wallpaper.

Bhosle, who already has restaurants in Kuwait and Dubai, will provide her name, the decor, music and a rich menu of authentic northwest Indian cuisine to tempt patrons away from the Bengali-inspired dishes that dominate British curry houses. The two entrepreneurs are also hoping the popularity of the 71-year-old singer, who was the muse for the 1997 hit pop song ?Brimful of Asha? will be a lure for emigre Indians. ?Indian food has many different tastes and the spices need to be experienced at leisure,? Bhosle said, adding that particular attention would be paid to vegetarian dishes.

Marie-Louise GUMUCHIAN