Whilst out in West London I had time for lunch and had it narrowed down to two options on King Street in Hammersmith, either the above restaurant, heavily recommended by Timeout and Campion, or Agni on the same street which gets a decent write up from Campion but also has a bib gourmand from the tyre people. I was meant to be saving money but I have a bit more faith in Bib on Indian than others seem to so my preference would have been the latter. In the event it seems that Agni aren't open for lunch so my indecision was cured, and I'm glad it was.

Sagar specialises in the food of Karnataka, though in truth you won't spot many differences between this and the other South Indian specialists in London. The restaurant doesn't look much from the outside, and indeed the whole of King Street is a surprising place to have a choice of top-rated Indian options. Inside however, the restaurant is clean and modern, with lots of light wood. In the wood walls there are alcoves with models of Hindu gods subtly lit. There were also roses on some tables, though not mine so I couldn't see whether they were real. Overall though the ambience was surprisingly civilised, this is not one of those places where you have to forego all aesthetics for an authentic tasting meal.

There was a lunch special which promised an unbelievable sounding quantity of food for £4.95 and as it pretty much toured the menu it didn't take me long to opt for that. The other reason was I was a little tight for time, and guessed (correctly) that the items on the special menu would be being knocked out at a decent rate. On a similar note, service was friendly, helpful and efficient throughout

To start came pappadam with chutneys, the pappadam was warm and perfectly fine but worthy of a mention were the unusual chutneys. There was a good mango chutney which packed a lot of flavour despite looking quite commercial, so far, so fairly ordinary, but the other two chutneys made a real change. There was a lemon chutney which was hot enough to give the desired adrenaline buzz but not so much as to be inedible. The sharpness of the lemons really worked, as did the texture of the lemon skins, this was so good I ate the lot, forgetting the volumes of food to come. Finally there was an apple chutney, sweet and delicious, a great contrast with the spicy chutney and an enjoyable change from Mango.

Next up according to my menu was a onion bhajia, though when it arrived it looked so little like what I'd expected that I thought there was a mistake. Looking nothing like your ordinary big red onion bhajis, these were discs of finely chopped onion coated in gram flour and coriander seeds. OK, I know that other than the seeds that is what all bhajis are, but these were discs so almost like onion cakes with the gram flour therefore smooth and even on the outside. This made the outside very crisp, but the interior still meltingly soft. The onion was also very sweet and came with some coconut sambar, and also another similar but more savoury, almost bready dip which I didn't get the name of. It was all delicious.

Then came the Thali which had a simple but delicious aubergine curry, not too oily and with the sweetness emphasised but with a good zip of heat. There was also rice which was well cooked, a simple combination with some peas, carrots and saffron, but the vegetables were not overcooked and the rice was at the point where it had bite and each grain was separate.

The piece de resistance was a masala dosa. The dosa rice pancake was perfectly crisp on the outside but remained soft on the inside and as a result was pliable and could be used to eat the potato and onion curry filling that had been served separately. Whilst a simple dish, the dosa here was noticeably a notch up on others I've had, and the onion and potato curry again had the combination of sweetness balanced with spice that seems to be the hallmark of the cooking here. More samba came as part of the thali, and its worth noting that it was not as excessively coconutty as those in some other dosa specialists, which for me was a good thing.

Finally came dessert, advertised as dessert of the day on the menu. Before the thali arrived I would have put good money on gulab jamun, which would have been ok, being on the more tolerable end of the Indian sweet spectrum. However, on the last section of the tray was a dense concoction that I had eyed with suspicion throughout the meal. Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised, the mixture was mainly a mix of semolina and banana, mashed together into a fairly smooth paste, but with the graininess of the semolina preventing it being just a mush. Stirred in were some cashews and raisins, and the combination of flavours was delicious. As the sweetness came from the banana it also avoided being too sweet or artificial and this was a really enjoyable dessert, even if in appearance it still has some way to go to beat French pastry.

Sagar has my wholehearted recommendation and as a bonus my meal with a diet coke came to £6.55 before the tip. This is even better value than Dadima, slightly better food overall and is more convenient for most. If you're even more cash strapped there is a lunch box special for £3.25 of two curries, raitha and fresh bread which is probably a very good option.

NB

I went to the Sagar on Percy Street near Tottenham Court Rd with friends when I learned there were other branches. The décor was identical as was the menu and the service again was excellent. I forewent the thali deciding to go my own way, and as ever this was a bit of a mistake, a friend had the large Udupi thali and seemed to enjoy it all, another friend had the dosa and was as happy as I had been in Hammersmith.

I started with a Special Upma, made with 'cream of wheat', this proved to be semolina, which I suppose is accurate. The texture was a bit gummy and mouthfilling, and I didn't enjoy it hugely, but suspect it was good of its kind. It came with cashew nuts which enhanced the expectation for it to be dessert when it wasn't, but this was countered with a fiery chutney to go on top. An interesting rather than great dish, but thats more down to my taste than the execution.

For my main course I had, Vegetable Khootu which was essentially vegetables in a coconut and yoghurt soup. The yoghurt gave the dish a real fresh tang, but the vegetables were a bit soggy and indistinguishable and the dish was sweet from the coconut but lacking a bit of kick to balance that. Again though it was interesting, and I had this with perfectly decent chappati. My friend didn't want her dessert with her thali, so I polished it off. It was another semolina based number, also with nuts, but this time it was sweet. It wasn't as good as the banana dessert I had had for lunch in Hammersmith but it was still enjoyable.

I can't compare like for like as I didn't eat the same items, and indeed, it will be apparent I wasn't paying quite the same attention on Percy St but for me Hammersmith edged it. The ingredients just seemed to sing more and the spicing to be more precise. Still, I enjoyed Percy Street, its a good and very reasonable central Indian, with a great meal plus beers and service coming in at less than £20. I believe they also have a venue in Twickenham which based on the other two, is probably worth a go.