Usually when I go to an Indian restaurant I know what to expect, in fact I usually walk in knowing what I am going to have.

When I sat down and perused the menu in Sagar last night, South Indian vegetarian restaurant in Harrow, I was almost completely lost.

After careful examination of every single thing, I probably knew what five were out of an extensive and varied offering – excluding rice and plain chowpati.

When our waiter came over to take our order we had to admit to our ignorance and ask for some recommendations. Without a hesitation, he talked us through a few items on each section, checking we liked the ingredients and heat levels, making it very easy.

To start we went for a safe option of samosas (£3.75), and then his recommendation of medu vada (£3) - fried lentil doughnuts, and potato bonda (£3) - seasoned potatoes and mild spice fried in a gram flour batter.

I have had samosas many times but these certainly stood out, the donuts were delicious, with chopped green chillies giving a surprise kick here and there. The potato bonda stood out for me, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside and smothered in a yogurt sauce that gave a rest bite from the spice of the donuts.

For our mains we were kindly offer a few small bowls of various curries (priced around £5 for full serving). We had channa masala – chick peas simmered in a tomato curry with fresh spices – this was the stand out favourite for my partner.

We had brinjal bhajee - fresh aubergine cooked in fresh tomato and capsicum with home blended south indian spices. As a lover of aubergine I really enjoyed this and the vegetable was soft, flawlessly cooked.

We also had fried dal - yellow pulses with light chilly, tomato and lemon seasoning, this was delicate with a tingle of spice, and saag paneer - lightly spiced fresh spinach cooked with fresh homemade cottage cheese. This stood out for me, the spinach and paneer cheese succulently melted in the mouth and both ingredients are favourites of mine.

We had these with garlic rice (£2.95) and batura (£3.25) - large fluffy fried bread – the perfect accompaniments.

Keen to try as much as we could we also ordered one of their Bombay chowpati specials (£3), stuffed with potatoes and served with yoghurt. It was light in flavour and so worked well with our curry selection.

At this point we were undoubtedly overdoing it and struggled to finish anything but, with it all being so enjoyably rich in flavour and yet delicate on the tongue, we certainly tried.

After our mains we paused a while to drink our bottle of Monte Verde Sauvignon Blanc, from Chile, with subtle flavours leaving your taste buds to focus on the food, before ordering simple desserts of ras malai (£2.25) - a small sponge milk pudding, and mango kulfi (£2.45) – Indian ice cream, which came shaped like a fruit. Both were very sweet, as I had expected, but not too heavy on our already bulging bellies.

Their attention to detail was prevalent throughout the meal. A great deal of care was taken in the positioning of each dish, making sure we had everything we wanted and need and the writing on the plates even matched details on the walls.

It was, without a doubt, the best Indian food I have had and a restaurant that stands above the rest.

This is my first five star review, for anything, ever.

Sagar Vegetarian, 57 Station Road, North Harrow, HA2 7SR (with restaurants also in Covent Garden, Hammersmith and the West End). Details: sagarveg.co.uk