If I had a penny for every time someone said “you’re so lucky eating out for a living”, I’d be . . . well I wouldn’t be working here any more, I can tell you. And while it is an enormous privilege, you all assume that eating out is a nice experience, worth the time and money.

But when it’s not, it’s hard to raise a wry smile while driving back at midnight after another lacklustre meal, and wondering where all the good restaurants have gone.

It’s National Curry Week from Saturday, by the way, perfect timing considering it’s getting colder and darker by the day — a gentle reminder that it’s time to lumber back into our caves and start eating spicy comfort food again. Hence my trip to The Spice Lounge, in Summertown, which I have passed a million times and always wanted to try, especially as it has numerous awards tucked under its contemporary Indian belt.

Manager Ali Aktar was delighted to see us and made a charming host, fabulously proud of his restaurant which has become a local landmark since opening six years ago. The interior is deceptively deep and the busy seating area right at the back pretty busy for a Monday night.

But would the food match up to the expectation? The menu certainly did, and Ali was delighted when we ordered the ‘Leave It To Us’ five-course meal specially designed for around £20 a head, presumably because he was relishing the chance to show us what his chefs were made of. And as a concept, the ‘surprise me’ option is enormous progress — a pick and mix of a restaurant’s best dishes, intended to impress. Dazzle us we implored, show us what you’re made of, take our taste buds to heaven and back. But, sadly, the cracks began to show fairly swiftly. Although the staff were really friendly, efficient they weren’t. We were presented with papadoms but then waited an eternity for someone to take our drinks order. There was an even longer wait between courses, when our dirty plates were left in front of us, made even more irritating by the fact that the waiters were laying up the tables around us rather than offering us dessert, coffee, the bill and the possibility of going home.

But back to the food. To give the chefs even greater scope to show off, we had ordered the Leave It To Us vegetarian and non-vegetarian versions. First up was the mixed starter — laid out on a platter and composed of your standard onion bhaji, a lamb samosa, and two cubes of meat, (chicken and lamb tikka). A dish of Chingri Aur Poori (sweet and sour king prawns, with thin fried bread) was served separately, and provided an element of glamour. But while it was all nice enough, it didn’t excite me and I was disappointed not to be trying something a little more original.

Then came a long wait, followed by a more inspiring variety of dishes. A Goan-style fish dish Maacli Tenga and some shredded spicy chicken Naga Torkari as mains, some Bhadda Gobi (fried cabbage), Khudo Saag (pumpkin with spinach, with onions, tomatoes) as sides, neither of which which I’d ever tried before, a delicious garlic naan, a chapatti, plus pilau rice, followed.

The fish was probably the most adventurous dish, arriving soaking in its delicately flavoured cooking juices, but the rest were indistinguishable from any other Indian meal I’ve ever had. And when you consider that three of the dishes were either naan or rice, it wasn’t the large selection we’d been hoping for.