Another week, another mountain range. Last Thursday, Alpine flavours figured prominently in my review of the Duke of Monmouth, in Abingdon Road, whose Swiss owners offer a menu based on their national cuisine. Today we move to the Himalayas as I discuss the Nepalese food being served at the Everest Restaurant and Bar, which occupies half of the Donnington Arms, in Howard Street.

The other half remains the traditional British boozer it was. It made an interesting contrast in cultures for us, at the end of a delicious dinner heady with the aroma of eastern spices, to move into the other part of the building to find gossiping gaffers at the bar, a game of darts in progress and Fuller’s London Pride at the handpump.

Waiting to pour for us was Prakash Sharma who, as managing director, heads an all-Nepalese team here (save for one Portuguese waiter). A former employee of BT, he took over the Donnington’s lease in 2008 and opened the stylishly appointed restaurant (and takeaway) last summer. It has proved a big hit with locals (hardly surprising since the food is so good, and excellent value) and has already become a treasured part of life in the easy-going East Oxford community.

My first visit, last Thursday, was prompted by recommendations from a number of readers. Our dinner was much enjoyed, not least for the courtesy we were shown in its service. Mr Sharma’s insistence on the best and freshest ingredients was reflected in what was placed before us. My one criticism was over the quantity of salt in some of the dishes. Better by far to go easy, and let customers add it to suit their taste.

A shared bottle of Nepal Ice lager, which I ordered as we sat down, cleared the palate and set the tone for what was to follow. Hungrier than Rosemarie after a brisk walk earlier in the evening, I began with a couple of crisp poppadoms, with a range of the usual dips – mango chutney, mint and yoghurt, and the like. Most were passed over in favour of an excellent hot pickle with chilli, mango and carrots.

The majority of the items on the menu will be familiar to anyone accustomed to eating in what are usually styled ‘Indian’ restaurants, though most of course are Bangladeshi. These include starters like prawn puri, samosas and tandoor-cooked chops, and such classic main course dishes as chicken jalfreizi, lamb korma and prawn dhansak. In consultation with our waiter, we opted for food that was more specifically Nepalese.

My starter was chicken choyla (unsure which, if any, of these names require upper case letters, I have decided to lower-case the lot). This was a most attractively presented dish of beautifully tender chunks of chicken, in a spicy lemony sauce, with lots of fresh chopped coriander and a side salad of sliced onions, carrot and iceberg lettuce.

Rosemarie had lamb momo, classic Himalayan steamed dumplings. The dish consisted of four little parcels of flour and oil dough containing tasty minced lamb, served with a pot of chutney in which the flavour of sesame seeds was very prominent.

Main courses are divided into tandoor dishes, vegetable specialities (eight of them, including green jack fruit with cumin seeds, and cottage cheese with baby spinach and tomato), noodle dishes, fish specialities (including monk fish with sesame seeds), classic Indian dishes and chef’s specialities.

We both went for the latter category. My Himalayan lamb was a medium hot dish of tender lamb pieces, cooked with thinly sliced discs of courgette, garlic, ginger and gram masala. That it was freshly prepared was evident from the fact that the courgettes stood aloof from the sauce, with a delicious identity of their own. Rosemarie, too, praised the special separateness of the flavours of her chicken kali mirch in which diced chicken was combined with onion and tomato sauce and finished with coconut cream and crushed peppers. Our accompanying spinach and potatoes were the most seriously salty of the dishes.

With pudding came the one black mark of the service. In short, we were not offered any, and when we asked we were presented with one of those laminated sheets listing what are obviously a range of straight-from- the-freezer desserts. Rosemarie wanted the banana fritters she had already seen on the main menu. After some discussion between the waiter and the kitchen, it was agreed she could have some. Rather than being deep fried in batter, as expected, the banana here had been shallow-fried in a coating of flour. They still made a decent ending to what we both judged to have been a first-class meal.

We’ll be back.