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.

Aziz

Mention curry in Oxford and it's not long before Aziz crops up in conversation. Something of an institution, this Cowley Road restaurant divides opinion: from raves to rubbishing, I've heard it all. Maybe the wildly varying accounts are what kept me away until now. After all, Oxford has no shortage of decent Indian restaurants.

But in preparation for my 25 May radio show on the topic of Indian restaurants, I decided to branch out from my curry houses of choice and try out Aziz. Turning up with two friends at 6.30 on a Tuesday, I was surprised to be asked whether I'd booked. I know it's a popular spot, but given that only a handful of tables were full at that point, it seemed a little unnecessary. More surprises were in store, as we were seated by an ageing waiter in a full suit, complete with dickie bow and the rather modern accessory of a bluetooth headpiece. Not exactly something you see every day. The menu was much more familiar territory: a manageable selection of starters (priced from £4.15–6.75) followed by a range of special meat, poultry, fish and vegetarian dishes, plus the usual curry classics. There's nothing radically different about the menu, but it covers all bases and caters to all palates. Some of the specials sounded interesting, such as kodu gosht (lamb with pumpkin, £9.75) and eitcha bagaun (medium-spiced prawn with aubergine curry, £9.75). Dishes are priced from £7.75 for a vegetarian main to £12.95 for some king prawn dishes: although prices don't climb too high, I would expect to see some cheaper vegetarian options.

Trichy Dosa

 UPDATE: As of July 2012, Trichy Dosa is now Sherpa Nepalese.

Poppadoms, curry, rice, naan bread: standard Indian fare. Dosa and idly? If you live in the UK, probably not so much. Since the opening of Trichy Dosa in late 2011, these staples of South Indian food can now be found on the Cowley Road, so there's no excuse to limit your repertoire.

I first encountered a dosa in Malaysia. The large, thin savoury pancake didn't say 'Indian food' to me so much as it said 'smear me with nutella and devour me like Lent starts tomorrow'. (Well, to be honest, it didn't say anything - it was a pancake). Devour it I did though, dipped in the sauces it came with. And it was love at first bite: for the rest of my stay, a dosa a day was an essential requirement. Served solo or filled with vegetables, cheese or meat, these pancakes made of rice batter and black lentils are simple yet delicious if done well. Needless to say, I was pretty excited at the prospect of a visit to Trichy Dosa.

The restaurant itself is unremarkable; a plain Jane making no mark on the design scale. The leather-backed chairs are decent, but the lack of tablecloths cheapened their look somewhat. The neutral effect inspired by the bland decor was cancelled out by another type of decoration, though: decorations of the Christmas variety. Yes, at the beginning of February, tinsel still adorned Trichy Dosa's walls. Epiphany rules may not apply here, but for me it suggested a lack of care and lent an oddly unseasonal air.

The waiter's warm greeting appeased me a little, but once we got stuck into the menu we were lost. Rather than ordering a thali plate of mini-portions of different dishes (from £8), our group of 3 wanted to test out a range of dosa and idly (steamed 'savoury cakes', according to Wikipedia). Given the low prices of the dosa (from £3 for a plain pancake to £5 for a chef's special), we weren't sure whether they were meant to be ordered alone or as accompaniments. Most didn't seem to have fillings, so we assumed the latter. In addition to thali and dosa, there were also vegetarian and meat curries, idly, rice and breads on offer, as well as a range of starters. As South Indian food isn't common to the UK, an overview and some ordering guidelines on the menu would probably help: we overheard other groups musing similar thoughts. With some help from our waiter, we opted for 3 different dosas (onion, paneer and lamb), 2 curries (chef's special vegetable and chicken chettinadu) and some idly (jasmine, out of curiosity). Fortunately the wine list proved more familiar territory: a bottle of decent house white set us back just £10.95.

After a reasonable wait, our dishes arrived. For a moment I thought I'd stepped back in time and found myself in my school dining hall circa 2000. Served on huge white plastic trays reminiscent of school dinner trays, the presentation of the dosa isn't going to win any prizes. Although inelegant and cumbersome, the trays are fairly practical, with different compartments for dipping sauces. Eating did provide some logistical problems though - did we eat our curry with the dosa? Did we decant it from the dish onto the tray? When it comes to South Indian food, we were all clearly novices. So we did what any novice should do and got stuck in.

The paneer dosa (£3.50, unfortunately not photographed) most closely resembled the lightly crispy slices of heaven I'd polished off in Kuala Lumpur. Filled with Indian cheese, it was light and tasty. The other two dosa were made from coarser semolina batter, and were much 'flatter' and heavier. Our unanimous preference was for the paneer dosa: the onion and lamb dropped out of their respective dosa too easily, making eating them a bit of a messy experience (although our technique was no doubt partly responsible). N pointed out that it wasn't exactly 'date food'. The chicken curry (£6) was well-received by N and S; its creamy sauce well-spiced. I was less enamoured of my vegetarian option (£6), which was more sauce than vegetable content, although the addition of some paneer did help to win me round. The portions were also a little on the small side. Despite this, we still struggled to finish: the dosa were huge, and the idly (4 for £4.50) were also sizeable. These puffy, glutinous cakes are difficult to describe but I'd recommend trying them: the texture was a delight, even if the jasmine flavour wasn't really discernible.

Like our selection of dishes, my thoughts on Trichy Dosa are mixed. I think our experience would have been enhanced by knowing what to order: if any of your friends know their South Indian food, it might be as well to consult them before visiting. Although for the purposes of a review I wanted to sample a variety of dishes, I can't help but wonder whether a thali plate would have been a safer bet for a first visit. Our food was cheap and filling, but it failed to rekindle my daily desire for dosa. Which, wallet and waistline considered, is probably a good thing. I think it's great that Oxford has a South Indian restaurant though (Dosa Park on Park End Street falls into the fast food category). For this reason, Trichy Dosa's a welcome addition to Oxford's dining scene, and if you've never tried South Indian food, I'd recommend a visit. Just be sure to seek some ordering advice.

Verdict: 6

Trichy Dosa is at 209 Cowley Road, OX4 1XF. Tel: 01865 241493. Take away also available (delivery or collection)

Malikas

Although Cowley Road is far from lacking in Indian restaurants, Malikas was the first to tempt me through its doors. Formerly Jaipur, the revamped restaurant opened in August. As far as I can tell, the management team is the same: the name may have changed and the interior and menu been overhauled, but Jaipur fans needn't fear too much change.

On arrival, L and I were struck by both the smart appearance (modern leather chairs, linen tablecloths and tasteful low-lighting) and the polite friendliness of the waiters. On a pre-Christmas Monday night, Malikas was half-full yet calm: not so quiet we felt the need to whisper awkwardly, as sometimes happens on the first night of the working week, but pleasantly relaxed. Put simply, the ambience was spot on.

The menu at Malikas is extensive without being overwhelming, with vegetarians well catered-for. Starters range from £3 to £5, with classics including a lamb sheek kebab and a range of samosas, and more interesting options such as dahi wada (lentil cakes with spicy yoghurt and tamarind sauce). The chef's special section starts at £6.50 and offers meat and fish dishes including murgh nawabi, a whole chicken breast stuffed with medium-spiced mincemeat). The rest of the menu reads much as you'd expect it to: a selection of biryanis, kormas, bhunas and more, plus fish and vegetarian sections and side dishes.

Everest Nepalese

Residential Howard Street isn't exactly somewhere you'd usually consider when deciding where to eat out in Oxford. Just a few years ago, Cowley Road was as good as it got in the OX4 postcode, but with tempting new additions such as the Rusty Bicycle, the Magdalen Arms and the Indian Room popping up on the map, excellent dining options are definitely spreading east. This residential street has been put on the map by Nepalese restaurant Everest, which occupies half of the converted Donnington Arms pub.

The dining area isn't the biggest of spaces, with around twelve tables of varying sizes. It's a testament to Everest's popularity that by 7.30 on a Tuesday evening, almost half of them were occupied. The decor is smart but simple, with comfortable leather chairs and a touch of tasteful artwork. The focus is definitely on the food, though: the smart menu features mainly Nepalese dishes (as you'd expect), with a few Indian numbers thrown in no doubt to please the palates of the curry-conditioned population. Similar to Indian cuisine in its extensive uses of spices, Nepalese food is similarly varied, with dishes as diverse as dumplings, noodle dishes and bean and potato masala on Everest's menu.

The  menu begins with a page of starters, priced between £2.95 and £5.95, including the dumplings in question (momos), which I've heard excellent things about. There's a page of vegetarian dishes, tandoori options, chef's specialities (including the interesting-sounding manu farsi; lamb and red pumpkin cooked with ginger, red pepper and garlic), as well as a number of classic Indian dishes and biryanis. I skipped straight to the vegetarian specialities: mostly Nepalese, many  can be ordered either as a main course (£6.95) or as a side (£3.95).

Annapurna vegetables and kadai chicken

I opted for annapurna vegetables (potatoes, okra, cauliflower, mushrooms, courgettes, aubergine, broccoli and green beans, £6.95), with plain rice and a garlic naan. The vegetables were perfectly cooked, with just the right amount of bite, and the depth of flavour was impressive. They were light-tasting and moreish: portion sizes are generous but not over-facing, justifying the price tag for the vegetarian dishes at least. My dinner companion S opted for a kadai chicken (with onion, capiscum, green chillies and gren peppers, £7.95) from the Indian classics section, which was flavoursome but rather too greasy for her liking: once she'd transferred it over to her plate, the serving dish was left with an unappetising reservoir of oil at the bottom. That said, the taste prevailed and she ate the lot. The naan was generously smothered in garlic and fortunately escaped the grease trap of the kadai chicken.

With a wide variety of tempting-sounding dishes on offer, Everest is a good value introduction to Nepalese cooking. If you're looking for something a bit different than the usual options of pub/Italian/Indian/Chinese, give Everest a go: with such a range of dishes on offer, you're sure to discover something new. Given the greasiness of the Indian dish compared to the Nepalese, it's probably best to stick to what Everest is all about.

Verdict: 8 for the Nepalese, 6 for the Indian

Everest Nepalese is at 147-151 Howard Street, Oxford OX4 3AZ. Booking recommended at weekends. Take away available (collection or free delivery for orders over £15 in a 5 mile radius). Tel: 01865 251555.

Chutneys

A queue on a Sunday night in Oxford? That's got to be a good sign. Wait a minute: there are no tablecloths and the salt cellar is almost empty. According to my dining companion D, this shows a lack of attention to detail. Ah, but here's the friendly waiter with the menu. They do dosa? Chutneys is looking promising.

Although I've lived in Oxford for years and love Indian food, it had never occurred to me to eat at Chutneys until I received a Twitter recommendation last week. There's just something about it that doesn't look particularly inviting from the outside. Inside, the decor's on the no-frills side of minimalist, but it's bright and clean - and busy (they had 165 covers on Saturday night, according to the waiter).

The menu is much more extensive than at most Indian restaurants: there's a page and a half of starters to plough through before you even hit the main courses. As soon as I spotted the dosa on page 2, the rest of the dishes didn't even stand a chance: I had a holiday romance with this South Indian rice pancake in Malaysia last year, so I was more than a little excited to see a number of vegetarian variations on the menu (£7.95 each). Herbivores have plenty of choice at Chutneys, with almost two pages of meat-free options ranging from the classic (vegetable bhuna) to more exotic specialities such as sarso baigon, aubergines fried with mustard seeds in a medium-spiced curry sauce (£6.50 each). Chefs' specialities feature heavily on the rest of the menu too, and D bypassed the tandoori, seafood and 'Unabashedly Indian' sections in favour of kalimirch chicken (chicken tikka cooked in a medium-spiced sauce with black pepper, onions and garlic, £8.65).

Sobzi dosa

After 40 minutes and deep regret at not ordering any poppadoms, our mains turned up accompanied by a side of saag paneer (£4.50) and a cheese naan (£3.10). My sobzi dosa was stuffed with lightly spiced mixed vegetables and served with both a curry sauce and a mint yoghurt dip. My Malaysian memories weren't rose-tinted, nor did Chutneys didn't let me down: my holiday love was just as tasty back in the UK. D's dish was deceptively large, with plenty of delicately-spiced chicken - no fobbing you off with a couple of chunks drowning in a sea of sauce here. I can't say I was overly impressed with the saag paneer: the flavours didn't seem to blend well, with the onion overpowering the slightly soggy spinach. Sag paneer conoisseur D disagreed with me entirely though, declaring the spinach good quality and the taste just right.

Chutneys may not be much to look at, but let the dosa not the decor do the talking: if you're after a tasty Indian meal with some slightly different choices on the menu, it's definitely worth a try.

Verdict: 7.5/10

Chutneys is at 36 St Michael's Street, Oxford OX1 2EB. Tel: 01865 724241. Booking is recommended at weekends.