Naan Better

EVERYONE has their favourite curry houses, where you can while away the small hours with a post-pub Madras.

But what about fine dining?

For those in the know, the answer lies in a perhaps surprising location. Not in the curry belt of Cowley Road or the trendy city centre eateries but beyond the ring road in... Kidlington.

Yep, England’s largest village has another claim to fame – probably the county’s best Bangladeshi restaurant.

And, at risk of upsetting all those aficionados who would prefer to keep the secret to themselves, I am going to let the Bengal tiger out of the takeaway bag: it’s called Ovisher, it’s name means ‘Meeting of the Lovers’ (in Sanskrit), and you’ll struggle to find better South Asian fodder this side of the Himalayas.

It’s chefs have won all sorts of awards. And, once you tuck in, it’s easy to see why.

Part of the charm of Ovisher is its incongruity. It sits on the village’s main drag over the road from a car dealership.

Yet it’s food is world-class, eclipsing restaurants in the smartest parts of the capital and at a fraction of the cost. Which is why, when faced with the task of organising a birthday bash for one of our closest – and most discerning – friends, we ended up boarding the number two bus up Banbury Road.

First a warning though. This is not a joint for a rowdy night. As much as the Curry Brothers enjoy a game of popadom frisbee, this is not the place. Think refined, calm and civilized but not stuffy.

Owner Abdul Bari and his team are friendly and they know how to have fun – not least his super-hip, beaming sidekick ‘Johnny’ Islam Mohammad.

After announcing to the table that we would choose for them the finest, tastiest and most adventurous food they had ever tasted, we whispered to the proprietor to bring us what he does best.

And we weren’t disappointed.

Starting with a couple of stacks of hot crispy poppadoms and lurid pickles, Mr Bari and his boys filled the table with the kind of treats which earned those accolades.

Starters included Bengal chat patti – chick peas and spud cubes cooked with garam massala; prawn puree (sweet and sour prawns on fried bread; sounds bonkers, but it works), a butterfly prawn as big as a tropical leopard moth, and chicken and lamb tikka, which was so tender it fell apart on the fork.

This was followed by a banquet of Moghul proportions.

Best was the king prawn special – a garlic and ginger seafood fantasy, which as an Ovisher speciality had ‘Happy Birthday’ written all over it.

The highlight though was the Royal Lamb, a tender knuckle cooked in herbs and a warming sauce. After the first ‘mmm!’ from our birthday boy, it evaporated in a sea of flying cardomom pods.

For our veggie socialite friend, Abdul came up with a selection of succulent spinach and chick pea specialties and a proper South Indian thali (mixed dish), brimming with fresh vegetables and a mix of mild and fiery sauces.

It was a riot of spinach, cauliflower, mushroom and lovely chana (chickpea) massala. And it was, she said, the best she’d had.

But, as with so much in life, it’s the details that count and here Ovisher hit the jackpot. For despite only mentioning my friend’s birthday in passing while phoning through our reservation, they went to the effort of serving a chocolately cake with a flatteringly modest number of candles.

My friend thought we’d organised it and came out beaming, as did the rest of our friends.

Quite frankly, Mr Bari had made us look good. Not only had we (cough!) ‘chosen’ the best Indian food any of them had eaten for a very long time, but we’d sorted the cake as well.

We don’t like to wallow in our own puree, but truth is, we were as they say, the daddies. Let’s just hope our friends aren’t reading this...

* Ovisher is at 11-13 Oxford Road, Kidlington. Call 01865 372827