In need of a green curry fix without the ceremony, Katherine MacAlister finds the perfect venue

If you love Asian food as much as I do, news of two new Thai restaurants opening in Oxford will be like manna from the Gods.

The city has gone from famine to feast in one fell swoop, with Thaikhun, the most recent offering, opening on George Street at the end of the month, a Thai street food style scenario on the former site of Cleaver, which looks set to be a great success.

The second I stumbled across in the Covered Market, a discovery that filled me with glee, because I’d been dying for a good Thai meal, without wanting the ceremony, or having the time, for a full sit-down meal.

Sasi fills a massive gap in the market because while there are some fantastic Thai restaurants in Oxford they are proper, sit-down establishments, apart from the lovely Oli’s off Cowley Road, which is now so popular it’s almost impossible to get a seat.

But with Sasi’s you can pop in during your lunch hour, eat a really good Thai curry on the spot, and be back out on the pavement half an hour later only £6 worse off.

Which is exactly what we did. But don’t expect anything fancy. This is a basic and pared back restaurant, opening on to both sides of the Covered Market’s streets. Grab a table if you can find one and then order at the counter.

There are daily specials and standard lunchtime offerings, but my need for a good green curry was so overwhelming that the waitress looked almost alarmed as I approached. She shouted the order upstairs in Thai and beckoned for me to return to my table, adding that my meal would arrive in a few minutes. I added a bowl of cashew chicken, and a papaya salad to our order, some coconut milk and some green tea and wedged myself back in at the brown formica tables.

The service was pretty snappy both in time and temperament, but we weren’t here to be waited on.

The food arrived promptly, rice included. The cashew chicken was fresh and tasty and the portions generous, the zingy, piquant salad very refreshing and the Thai green curry exactly what the doctor ordered. It wasn’t as silky as I hoped for, and lacked some of the finer ingredients such as snow peas, as well as being hot enough to make my nose run, but I was happy, happy as Hugh Hefner in a hot tub.

Because it was all delicious; really delicious, healthy and such good value. With drinks the bill came to £20 for two, but with one dish each would have cost under £8 per head.

So let the Thai invasion begin. I’m ready.

Sasi Thai, Covered Market, Oxford 01865 247434 
Mon-Sat 8am-5.30pm 
Sun 10am- 4pm