ER at 10: Reading’s 50 Best Dishes (50-41)

I decided at the start of the year that it would be a fun idea to close off my tenth birthday celebrations by counting down Reading’s 50 best dishes. I may have a moan about them from time to time, but like everyone else I love a list. I love getting to December, firing up Pitchfork, looking at its top 50 albums of the year and, naturally, never having heard of most of them. Half the enjoyment of lists like these is feeling your tastes have been validated when they align with those of the person compiling the list, the other half is thinking that they’re numbskulls when they don’t. Well, maybe it’s more 30-70, but you get my meaning.

Well, it was a fun idea – in theory. In practice putting it together has been far more difficult than I imagined and has involved ranking, re-ranking, shuffling the pack when restaurants have closed since I made my long list and then remembering dishes, or whole restaurants, that I had completely forgotten. One recent discovery forced me to kick a very enjoyable dish out of my list just to make room.

And of course the mind plays tricks, so in a month where I haven’t written reviews I have been out and about trying and re-trying dishes on my long list to check if they were as good as I remembered. Many were, a couple have come off the list. In at least one case I went to check out a dish, found it had lost its lustre but found, on the same menu, a game-changing replacement.

I should lay down a couple of ground rules for this list. First of all, I decided it should be dishes you can only – or mostly – get in Reading. That has ruled out chains, in most cases, although I’ve been more understanding where a restaurant has a very small number of branches. I can’t pretend there’s rigid logic to that but it does, for instance, mean that you don’t have anything on here from Honest or Pho. In one or two cases, I may have relaxed that ever so slightly. Normally I would say “sorry, I don’t make the rules up” but, well, in this case I have. If you don’t like them, you’ll just have to read another of the many lists of Reading’s 50 best dishes wafting around online.

Second of all, it has to be a dish you can get in Reading right now. There are few things more annoying, in my book, than pieces that ignore this rule. Whether it’s reviews of plays you can’t go to or products you can’t buy, they always have that smug whiff of “here’s what you missed out on”. So if a dish isn’t available right now it missed the cut. This has especially, I’m afraid, penalised restaurants that change their menu frequently and that, in particular, has counted against one of my favourite places, the Lyndhurst. So their karaage chicken, their gorgeous curried monkfish, their Korean wings are all incredible but as they’re not on the menu right now they fall into the category of what might have been.

Now we’re done with the caveats, here are the disclaimers. I make no pretence to have tried every dish in Reading, and that means that this list is my best, most informed selection but of course, it can’t claim to be definitive. There are probably gems on every menu that I haven’t yet discovered, and there are certainly great restaurants across Reading not represented here. In some cases that’s because I haven’t got to them yet, and in others it’s because sadly I haven’t made it back to them in time – Vegivores, in particular, springs to mind.

I’ve never really had any time for imposter syndrome. Writers can be an egotistical bunch, and in my experience the more a writer claims to be paralysed by imposter syndrome the more likely it is that they’re more taken with the sound of their prose voice than you could ever be. I’ve been doing this for ten years, and I’m quite happy that I’ve earned my place doing so. But even I have to admit that putting this list together introduced an uncharacteristic level of doubt. What right did I have to pronounce on this? I might, after a decade of reviewing Reading restaurants, be as well qualified as anyone, but was I any better qualified than anybody?

Two things reassured me. One was a comment I got on Twitter from my recent dining companion Emma. “You’ve eaten way more than 50 dishes in Reading over the last 10 years” she said, and put that way she has a fair point. But the other was a lovely comment I received on my blog’s Facebook page when I announced that I was going to publish this list. It was from regular reader John, and with his permission I’ve reproduced it here in its entirety. “I’m trying to think about ones which might not feature on your list” he said, and then he wrote this:

Kungfu Kitchen’s salt and pepper snow white mushrooms, and their stir fried five spiced firm tofu with chilli should make the cut. Clay’s baghare baigan (which I think you can now only order from home, tragically). Papa Gee’s melanzana pizza, and their salsiccia e friarelli pizza, eaten rolled up and slowly. Coconut’s pork satay. Honest Burger’s local Reading market burger.

House of Flavours’ incomparable lamb chops, and their pistachio chicken curry. Memory of Sichuan’s cauliflower in hot spicy pot (and their leftover egg fried rice, eaten with a serving of Ottolenghi’s chicken Marbella). Kobeda Palace’s aubergine curry, and their okra curry, and their hummus eaten with one of those naan breads which could clothe a six year-old.

Osaka’s grilled cheese gyoza because they’re so wrong they’re actually right (but still wrong, even so), and their kimchi seafood tofu stew, which should only ever be eaten on the coldest day of the year. One of Workhouse’s sausage rolls, eaten in the Forbury in the sunshine, and one of CUP’s bougatsas, eaten outside in the shade of that massive linden tree, where every crisp crack of pastry coats the table downwind in a dusting of cinnamon and icing sugar. A piece of Picnic’s plum and marzipan cake, for self-explanatory reasons.

And a murgh makhani from Miah’s Garden of Gulab, for old times’ sake – and to remind us what the best Indian dish in Reading was twelve years ago, and how far we’ve come since.

John’s list is notable for two reasons. One is that it’s just a beautiful roll call of excellent food, and I challenge you to read it without wanting to check out at least one thing on it. But it’s also notable because, without exception, absolutely nothing on John’s list matches with the fifty dishes I’ll be talking about in the next five days. And that, really, is kind of the point. To paraphrase the great Spencer Tracy in one of my favourite films of all time, Inherit The Wind: my list is a just a list. It’s a good list, but it is not the only list.

So I hope you enjoy reading it. I hope you enjoy it when, like a game of Battleships, my selection happens to be the same as yours and I hope you enjoy calling me every name under the sun because your own favourites are missing. But most of all, I hope it makes you check out something I’ve chosen, or simply go back to your favourite place and order your favourite. Or even make your own list, every bit as good and valid as mine, as John has done. I can’t think of a better way of ending a month celebrating ten years of my blog than by reflecting that I could have compiled this list four times over, each time completely different, and still not exhausted what Reading has to offer.

50. Dosa chips, Madras Flavours

Many fine meals start with a snack, and my list does too. When I visited Madras Flavours earlier in the year I found a lot to like. but this dish – the result of someone having the ingenious idea of frying little curls of dosa and liberally dusting them with a potent spice powder – was the thing that has stayed with me.

49. Mutton chops, Adda Hut

From chips to chops, although chop is misleading in this context. Because what Woodley’s Adda Hut describes as mutton chops are in fact hulking great spheres of breaded minced mutton – somewhere between a croquette and an eggless Scotch egg, with a note of spice almost reminiscent of haggis. Woodley features in my top 50 twice – the other entry might be less of a surprise, but I was thoroughly charmed by the quiet loveliness of this dish.

48. Gaeng massaman, Thai Table

Thai Table, just the other side of Caversham Bridge, is one of those under-the-radar places that just unceremoniously gets on with doing its stuff without any social media or, seemingly, any comms at all. Their massaman beef curry, all gloriously tender beef in an intensely soothing sauce with a little heat and a warm coconut hug, is a positive balm for the soul from one of Reading’s most modest restaurants.

47. Banana bun, Filter Coffee House

I’m bending my own rules a little here, as Filter Coffee House, on Castle Street just before the alms houses, is a Reading newcomer, having only been open three weeks or so. But their banana bun is a little miracle and richly deserves a place on this list. It’s quite hard to describe, being almost glazed on the outside and beautifully dense yet spongy inside. The banana comes through loud and clear but what makes it, and makes it complex and interesting, is the rich speckling of cumin seeds inside. I had mine sitting up at the window, watching the to and fro of Castle Street, and mentally I was already planning when I would return.

46. Smashed avo, The Switch

The Switch, out on Tilehurst Triangle, is the sort of accomplished brunch spot anywhere in Reading would be happy to have on its doorstep. And its smashed avo on toast is in danger of giving that dish – the bane of moronic, anti-wokerati Daily Mail articles the world over – a very good name. Skilfully executed, laced with lime and given an extra dimension with chimichurri and Parmesan crisps, it’s one of Reading’s best and most grown-up brunches. I had mine with bacon on top, but that isn’t compulsory.

45. Pizza Sofia Loren, Papa Gee

Arguably Papa Gee’s most famous pizza, the Sofia Loren has been putting a smile on the faces of Reading residents for over a decade. A simple but effective affair, with pepperoni, red onion and nuggets of fennel-rich, crumbly Italian sausage, it has been around since all the new pretenders to Reading’s pizza throne arrived in town. And you wouldn’t bet against it still being around when they’ve all given up, either (perhaps I see it as a kindred spirit, come to think of it).

Zoë likes to pimp hers with blue cheese to create what she describes as the “Sofia Loren +”. I can imagine Gaetano rolling his eyes as he prepares that, in the kitchen, but then Zoë thinks everything tastes better with blue cheese.

44. French toast with bacon and maple syrup, The Collective

For a dish like this to make my list, it has to be its absolute best self, with every ingredient at the top of its game. The Collective understands that particular assignment, and what comes out of their kitchen is this dish as good as it possibly gets – phenomenal, rich, spongy French toast made with brioche, bang-on crispy streaky bacon (from the nearby Caversham Butcher, last time I checked), the whole thing bathed in maple syrup, with a generous hand in charge of pouring. With so few components and ingredients there’s no hiding place if it isn’t perfect. But The Collective doesn’t need to worry about that.

43. Tuna Turner, Shed

We finish this section of the list with a trio of sandwiches, all three illustrating some of Reading’s best lunch venues. First up, we have the godfather of Reading sandwiches, and one that probably justifies popping up a blue plaque on the outside of Merchants Place.

The Tuna Turner has acquired an iconic status most Reading dishes can only dream of. Sure, it’s a tuna melt, but there’s something about it and its genius combination of red onion, sundried tomato and jalapeños that has captivated Reading’s lunch crowd for a very long time, with good reason. Its predecessor had capers in it, which I thought I would miss, but this is even better.

42. The O’Muffin, Fidget & Bob

Speaking of missing things, I miss the days when Fidget & Bob did a full English with outrageously good scrambled eggs. But that was a lot of work, and their menu now has a streamlined set of breakfast dishes. Happily for us, they took the star of their breakfast – square slabs of sausagemeat not unlike a Lorne sausage – and repurposed it in the O’Muffin, their brilliant attempt to beat McDonalds at their own game. Add hash browns for extra decadence, and if you are going to eat one do it proudly and without apology or shame. It’s the most inportant meal of the day, you know.

41. The Blue, The Grumpy Goat

The Grumpy Goat added another contender to Reading’s pantheon of sandwiches when it started serving food from its new site on Smelly Alley. They have access to good bread, and the cheese is a given, so you’d expect it to be good but even so, it really is a huge treat. There’s something to be said for all their toasties but for me the Blue has the edge. It’s cleverly balanced between salty Colston Bassett Stilton, crunchy batons of apple, walnuts and just a smidge of honey. Sweet and salt in perfect gooey, oozing harmony: lunchtime accompanying beer entirely optional.

This piece is part of Edible Reading at 10. See also: