Lukewarm is the best way to describe my response to the new Aziz Pandesia in Oxford, which is a shame because I had heard great things about this recent addition to the Aziz empire.

The location of the latest Aziz on Folly Bridge means parking is nigh on impossible, so on top of the babysitter, we booked taxis each way as well. This is irrelevant, except to emphasise the fact that we made a big effort to get there - and, having heard so many good reports, thought it merited the extra cost and organisation. Sadly it didn't.

I don't ask much from a restaurant. I can forgive them eccentric menus, strange settings or odd decor. But good food, decent service and friendly staff are a must.

In the summer months, no other restaurant in Oxford can boast such an idyllic setting. The decking outside hosts several tables, beautifully dressed in white linen, where many diners were eating when we arrived. But the city council has recently decreed that the public can only eat outside until 9.30pm and, because our table was booked for 8.30pm, we were seated inside.

In a desperate bid to savour at least a taste of such a wonderful riverside setting, complete with swans gathering around the pontoon, we asked to enjoy the view over a drink and were reluctantly shown to a table. Only then were we told that we needed to go back inside to order our drinks.

This I found amazing. There were several waiters wandering about with nothing to do who could have easily taken our drinks order.

Nevertheless, we got our own drinks and sat down. When we wanted a refill and asked a waiter we were again told to go and get our own. Making customers feel welcome from the start must be the first rule in any waiter's handbook, but this had obviously been cut out of the edition being used by the Aziz staff - replaced with a chapter entitled 'how to make your guests feel unwelcome from the minute they step in the door'.

By nine o'clock it was too cold to stay outside, so we were ushered inside. Even though we had been there for half an hour, booked and there were very few people inside, we had to wait for our table to be laid before being seated in the virtually empty, and rather stark, interior.

Having been presented with our menus by a very surly waiter, we were surprised to find that half the dishes were Thai and half Indian.

Personally, I don't like this strange hybrid. The dishes may all orginate from Asia but are hugely different. While Thai is delicate, subtle and fragrant, Indian cuisine is the opposite.

But I assumed the Aziz knew what it was doing and expected the Thai to be as brilliant as the Aziz's Indian selection.

The first mouthful of Tom Kha soup told me everything I wanted to know. It was nice enough, but in terms of Thai it was too salty and lacked the smooth creaminess and delicate flavours you find in, say, Bangkok House or Chiang Mai Kitchen up the road. If the Aziz is going to do Thai, it has to do it brilliantly, or not at all.

Our red and green Thai curries afterwards were the same, nice enough but not as good as the opposition. Our guests, regulars at the Cowley Road Aziz, felt their Indian selections weren't as deliciously different as the sister restaurant's, but we had a pleasant enough meal. It was what followed that left a sour taste in our mouths.

Having popped off to the loo while the others went for a smoke, we said we would like coffee and dessert and were astonished on our return to find the dirty linen piled high in the centre of the room adjacent to our table.

We looked at our watches. It was 10.15pm. OK, we were the only people in there but we hadn't finished. Being made to feel unwelcome in a restaurant of this calibre was just not good enough.

As our taxi driver remarked on the way home, as the only customers, our £120 bill would have made a lot of difference to the day's takings and we should have been treated with more deference as a result, not less.

So we ignored the hot towels and chocolates on our table, a less than subtle hint for us to pay up and leave, and in defiance we sat back down and asked for the dessert menus.

The three desserts we ordered were all off, so instead we opted for the kir, their version of rice pudding. Our waiter, Abdul, who has to receive credit for being the only cheery face on the premises apart from the South African Nathan, explained how all the waiters personalise the dish themselves and he had learned in London how to add banana and spices. When the kir arrived it was absolutely delicious and by far the best dish of the evening.

But by then we were rather dispirited and as the waiters were all washing the cutlery, we knew it was time to go.

Having ordered a taxi, we were asked to move to the bar so the waiters could clear the restaurant and, like a bunch of dejected schoolchildren, eventually emerged feeling rather shortchanged.

I know I haven't written much about the food, but to be honest it was almost irrelevent by this stage. The staff acted like they were doing us a favour by allowing us in - and no, I won't be going back.

In direct contrast, my local curry delivery from Sugar and Spice is friendly, efficient and costs £20 for all our favourite dishes which are cooked faultlessly.

Now that winter is approaching, rendering the pontoon unusable by diners, if the Aziz Pandesia has to rely on entertaining its regulars inside, it needs to stop resting on its laurels, teach its staff some manners - and remember to put the customer first.

Aziz Pandesia Restaurant and Bar, Indian, Bangladeshi and Thai, 1 Folly Bridge, Oxford. 01865 247775