Dosa Park

It's 7pm, you've got £5 in your pocket and an empty stomach. Looks like a sandwich is the most likely option, unless you want to go down the greasy burger/chips route. Or you could take that fiver to a kebab shop. Not just any kebab shop: Dosa Park. Because as I discovered, not all kebab joints are created equal. In fact, some aren't really kebab shops at all.

You've probably passed by Dosa Park on your way to and from Oxford train station and not spared it a second glance. Unless you found yourself in the aforementioned famished in possession of a fiver situation. Then you might have wandered in and realised they serve far more than just various combinations of meat + chips: they also serve South Indian food. The clue's in the name, really – a dosa is a savoury rice pancake popular in the south of India, as well as in South East Asian countries such as Malaysia and Singapore. In the UK, we're much more familiar with curries from the north of India, Bangladesh or Pakistan, so dosa can be hard to come by. Oxford now has three purveyors of this light, crispy stomach filler: Chutneys, Trichy Dosa and Dosa Park. The latter may look like any other greasy kebab shop, but its cheap cooking gives much pricier Indian restaurants a run for their money.

Gee's

A lounge suit, a scholar's gown or even black tie is a common sight on the streets of Oxford. Even on a Tuesday evening. With the staff and students of the city's ancient university accounting for a significant percentage of Oxford's population, you soon get used to its quirks – smart dress mid-week being one of them. After all, this traditional institution has plenty of balls, formal dinners and graduation ceremonies in its calendar. The latter are particularly proud occasions, when beaming families dressed in their finest flock to the Sheldonian Theatre in support of a be-gowned graduand. Ceremony over, it's time to celebrate. But where in Oxford is worthy of such an occasion?

A Victorian conservatory nestled discreetly among university buildings and chic shopfronts on Banbury Road, that's where. Part of the Mogford group of restaurants, Gee's is many Oxford residents' go-to address when it comes to occasion dining. There are regulars too, of course, but I'd wager that a high proportion of diners only visit erm, occasionally. It's a favourite for families celebrating their offspring's intelligence post-graduation, and a popular option for Sunday lunch when well-heeled parents swing by Oxford for a term-time visit. But what does Gee's have to offer those without an event to toast?