Katherine MacAlister accompanies an unromantic husband to preview a Lovers Weekend special package

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”

Virginia Woolf advised quite rightly, words to bear in mind this weekend as the Valentine’s mist descends.

If you hadn’t planned on going out for dinner, or don’t have anyone to take, then beg, borrow or steal a stand-in beau, and enjoy the outstanding Lovers Weekend package launched at The Ovisher in Kidlington.

Running from Friday until Sunday you can gorge yourself silly for £16.50 a person, which includes any starter, main, side, nan or rice and a bottle of wine to take home afterwards.

Considering a starter alone is usually £3.50 to £5.95 and mains range from £6.95 to £10.95, it’s a no-brainer. £16.50 is the price of a bottle of wine alone in most restaurants.

But a bargain is only a bargain if it’s any good. Dragging a rather reluctant and seriously unromantic Mr Greedy along for the dark, foggy, cold ride, he protested all the way there that a takeaway would be just as good.

However, he thawed immediately on arriving at the recently revamped Ovisher, marvelling at the new menu and decor.

Even the staff seem to be younger and the music definitely funkier – I’m sure we listened to an Indian dance version of Pretty Woman......

But it was the section entitled Old Traditional Indian Dishes which confirmed that life in The Ovisher had moved swiftly on from the 1970s to the 21st century.

Don’t worry, the new offerings are just updates of the classics, but a sign at least that the curry house is moving with the times.

Even the dips had been given a makeover, arriving with a new accompaniment – a bright red tamarind, chili and garlic relish that had me up at 4am drinking mouthwash, but was worth the halitosis for the zingy taste, perfect with popodoms.

“Popodum right down there” Mr Greedy said, cracking his usual curry house joke, and I grinned like a patient wife rather than hooting like an enthusiastic new lover, before moving on to our starters – a salmon tikka and some samosas. The samosas were rather ordinaire, but the salmon was soft and flaky and cooked in a delicious sauce, a great new find.

The Sizzling Sizzler, the Ovisher’s most current popular dish, was indeed ‘sizzling’ – we’d have been disappointed if it wasn’t – and served in a lovely thick, tomatoey, sweet sauce. The chilli paneer was again a masterpiece. I could eat it every week, and the tarka dal a good honest dish where the yellow split peas were evident, rather than the mush you sometimes experience. The pea rice pilau and the saag aloo were both beautifully flavoured and I ate the remnants with a spoon, the dishes all complementing each other perfectly.

The pershwari nan was my only criticism, because although light and oily it was too sweet, more like a dessert than the usually more reserved sugary bread.

And then, as with any good curry, we hit a wall, where even one more wafer-thin mint would have burst the banks, and we had to stop.

But romance or no romance, we were mightily impressed not just by the price, but by the food at The Ovisher. It’s almost worth being romantic for.

The Lovers Weekend runs from Feb 13-15 at The Ovisher, 11 Oxford Road, Kidlington.
Call 01865 372827

  • Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed.