THE VILLAGE (it’s only a small mall)
READING TOWN CENTRE
So carrying on from the last place and our idea of more budget eating as yes interest rates rose again this week just to help everyone who’s normal out of a few quid more, so here we are soldering on with this place which we booked at short notice on a Saturday night. I have no idea why we did a Saturday night because usually it’s going to be the worst meal of the week as places are normally stacked so service and the kitchen literally goes to pot. The other unusual thing for us is going to Reading, ok it’s our nearest town but to be perfectly honest the best things about the place is the high speed rail link into London and the M4 motorway that avoids the place altogether as thirty years or so ago it was full of yokel carrot crunchers but has now become an overspill town for London and has turned into one of those generic places with no identity and has the same high street as the majority of towns in England so boring and as dull as dishwater. Just a short cab ride to the place which is situated in a sort of small mall which has been pretty much empty for the past god knows how many years and seems to be full of cheaper eateries with a dominating smell of grilled food emanating from what I would call a dodgy Korean place where you cook your own at a table and smell of grilled meat for the rest of the week and they charge you for this ?.
Anyway the Indian was upstairs and it’s a restaurant we didn’t actually see the inside of as we were given one of two tables at the entrance where the bar and a number of fridges were holding pre packed deserts and various beers, but to be honest I couldn’t have cared less as it was fine and the actual restaurant was behind a wall where the fridges were but at least it was quiet which was better than the noise of people and small kids coming from the other side. Service was good and the Kingfisher lager arrived promptly and well chilled while we looked over a fairly extensive menu which looked very different to the normal run of the mill rubies we get in the UK with a standard day glow sauce and everything tastes pretty much the same regardless of what you ordered. Must admit that there was quite a few dishes which were new to me so whatever they were I was having regardless and if you don’t try you’ll never know.
Must admit there wasn’t much to photograph seeing as where we were sat and it’s rare that I take a picture of the food unless it’s something different or total shite and anyway a curry in a skillet looks like a curry in a skillet however you look at it. As usual we were told we‘ve ordered too much but then again I want to try it so if I leave it that’s my problem as I’m paying regardless of what I leave but it was no problem as they could pack it for a take home if we wanted so I went to town. The pepper chicken sounded interesting and it was, a southern Indian dish and very tasty, plus all dishes could come mild medium or very spicy which was a nice touch I thought. We skipped the basic run of the mill masala, jalfrezi type dishes and had something called Góngora chicken a new one on me which is slow cooked in an hibiscus gravy another southern dish but a family special. Andhra Chapará Pulusu (are they making this up ?) a fish dish with ground cumin paste and chilli. Keeping up the pace we followed on with Lamb Kalimirch in chefs special sauce with again black pepper which was probably my favourite Kaddish Chicken made up of another mix of chefs spices all tossed in a Kadai pan whatever that is and I have no idea if it added to the flavour but it was also good. We only pumped for one rice which was mushroom and a couple of hand rolled nan breads which were great. We just had to wash this down with an Indian Shiraz which I did have doubts about and we had had an amazing Indian Cab Sauv when in Jaipur. The Shiraz turned out to be an excellent accomplishment to the food and for £26 odd quid was great so don’t ever knock an Indian wine.
Whoever did the graphics for the wine label I admit needs to go back and retrain for whatever they did but as they say don’t judge a wine by it’s label just because it has a picture on it but yes it’s beyond naff. All in all a very good Indian meal with each dish tasting completely different from the other which to me is a great result, it’s not something that I could eat weekly but we will return but not on a Saturday night as the wait was a bit ridiculous, but on top of that they did get a second bottle out of us and a bill for £100 plus and a wait of 90 mins before the main course but also as we were the only non Indian type patrons it’s got to tell you that the food is good.