30. Chicken Buhari, House Of Flavours

I expected something from House Of Flavours to make it onto my list, but I always thought it would be the chicken pistachio, the dish everybody talks about. And then I went back to House Of Flavours earlier this year and although I tried the chicken pistachio (and it was very nice, too) this dish is the one that really caught my attention. 

From the Indo-Chinese section of their menu, the Chicken Buhari – better known as Chicken 65 – isn’t lumps of meat bobbing in sauce but a richer, thicker, stickier affair, chicken coated in yoghurt and spices and fried into spiced, moreish wonder. I have a sneaking feeling it doesn’t really work as a main course, and it’s too big to eat as a starter, so your best bet is to persuade somebody to add it to your order and share. Although the downside to that, of course, is that you have to share it.

29. Chocolate mousse, The Lyndhurst

I am a huge fan of chocolate mousse, and although it turns up regularly on the continent  – I could have had it every night in Paris back in March – it seems to be harder to spot on menus here in the U.K. I’ve had lovely versions further afield, in Bristol or in Newbury, but until recently you had to go to Côte to get your fix here in Reading.

Gladly, the Lyndhurst must have somehow heard my unspoken prayer, because they recently added one to their dessert menu and now you don’t need to leave town in order to eat a superlative example. You get a phenomenal, generous dollop of the stuff and although the presentation varies – sometimes it’s with red fruits and coulis, sometimes it’s not – the thing that doesn’t change is that it comes sandwiched between two slabs of outrageously good peanut and sesame brittle, which is delicious and not so brittle that it endangered my composite fillings.

28. Jerk chicken, rice and peas, Sharian’s Jamaican Cuisine

If you go to Blue Collar on a Friday – the original market, not the permanent site, there’s only one time when you won’t see a massive queue outside Sharian’s Jamaican Cuisine, and that’s when they haven’t got round to serving yet. After that, you need to be prepared to wait a while. Some of that is due to the speed with which they do things, because nobody rushes those guys. But a lot of it, too, is down to demand. And it’s justified: people queue across Market Place for a reason.

The pick of their menu, for me, is the jerk chicken – a lot of it, hacked into chunks, tanned on the outside and tender underneath, smothered with hot sauce and served up on a bed of rice and peas, with coleslaw and iceberg lettuce so you can feel slightly more virtuous. It really is so, so good, and I miss the times when I was a gentleman of leisure because I used to eat it far more often. These days, when you can be waiting half an hour to get to the front of that line, not so much.

27. Chapli kebab, Kobeeda Palace

A bit like the incident at House Of Flavours that started this section of my list, Kobeda Palace’s appearance in my top 50 is a bit of a curveball. I’ve been enthusing about their karahi chicken ever since I first visited the place back in 2016 and I fully expected it to grace the higher echelons of this hit parade. So I went back to Kobeda Palace last month with Zoë, for research purposes you understand, ordered half a kilo of the stuff and… well, I liked it but I didn’t love it. Not to worry, because I had ample dishes on my longlist that could have squeaked into this rundown and it would have been none the poorer for it. 

But what I didn’t reckon on was how much I’d love the dish I ordered that night just to make up the numbers, Kobeda Palace’s chapli kebab. A flattened disc of lamb, shot through with fiery chillies, all crispy-edged and harbouring a glowering heat, it was just crying out to be wrapped in naan and dipped into one of the three chutneys they brought to the table. Smash burgers may be all the rage, but it turns out Kobeda Palace has well and truly been there, done that and got the t-shirt. If I hadn’t liked it so much, I might have had the presence of mind to take a photo.

26. Thalassery mutton curry, Pappadams

I enjoyed this dish so much I ordered it two times in quick succession, less than a fortnight apart. Pappadams’ mutton curry is a proper bear hug of a thing, with slow-cooked, rugged chunks of tender mutton in a thick, sticky sauce that is more warming comfort than aggressive heat for heat’s sake. This is one to bear in mind as we move into autumn and the air has that thinner, sharper feel to it, and eating a bowl of this would be a great way to cancel out the gloom of the shortening days.

25. The Regular, Smash N Grab

I love Smash N Grab. I love what they do, and I love the way they pluckily carry on from their little hut on Cemetery Junction, dealing with their belligerent neighbour and all the challenges their location brings. But they don’t get on my list because I find myself rooting for the underdog, having read through their social media. They get on my list because their burgers are the absolute business.

A lot of people complain about the modern trend of burgers to build up rather than out, a thick, Scooby Doo-style sandwich with more tiers than a wedding cake, impossible to eat. Smash N Grab has clearly thought about that because although their burgers are immense they are wide rather than tall, built around their excellent smashed burgers. Although they have many variations on the theme their original and best makes my list: The Regular, two of those patties, ribbons of sweet, caramelised onion, gooey American cheese and their own burger sauce. I personally like to add mushrooms to mine, your mileage may vary. It’s impossible to eat one tidily, but it’s also impossible to eat one without a smile on your face.

24. ThaiGrr!’s Roar, Thai Grr!

ThaiGrr!’s menu can be a bit of an intimidating one, once you step away from the red curry, green curry, pad Thai and massaman that make up the core of their menu. Beyond that the choice starts to get bewildering, especially when you factor in the number of different permutations of minced pork or minced chicken – as a salad, with aubergines, with fried egg, the list goes on. What you actually want, in my experience, is ThaiGrr!’s Roar, their eponymous dish. 

Most of their standard mains are all there ready and waiting to be dished up, as at somewhere like Kokoro, whereas their specials they cook for you there and then. And of them, ThaiGrr!’s roar is the finest I’ve had – a potent dish of minced pork, with lemongrass, shrimp paste and kaffir lime, Thai food with the stabilisers off. Despite the four chillies on the menu, I find it’s not as overpowering as I initially feared but you do get a huge spectrum of flavour and, as you approach the end, a lingering desire to do it all over again.

23. Chocolate roll, Geo Café

Geo Café used to bake everything – bread, baguettes, pastries, you name it. At some point they stopped doing bread, which I believe they buy in, but the baguettes and the pastries, fashioned by co-owner Zezva’s own fair hands, continued. And it’s just as well they did, or the residents of Caversham might have staged the most middle-class revolt you’ve ever seen.

Everyone has their favourite, and I’m sure some of you are reading this and saying You fool, what about the pistachio medialuna or how could you overlook their cardamom buns? I know, I know, pipe down, they’re all good. But my vote goes to the chocolate roll, a hulking great distant cousin of the pain au chocolat which is bigger, burlier and denser, beautifully lacquered and buttery, packed with deep, dark chocolate. It’s a brooding thing, in the image of its creator, but like its creator it’s also a bit of a sweetie.

22. Kothey chicken momo, Sapana Home

Happiness is still a plate of Sapana Home’s pan fried momo, all to yourself, with a mango lassi, listening to the music on the radio and watching people amble down Queen Victoria Street. You used to be able to get all that for a tenner, but although it costs more now it’s still very keen value. Other momo are available, and all their momo are available cooked several different ways, but the slightly caramelised crust of the pan-fried variant edges it for me. 

I’ve had this dish so many times – in good times and bad, with friends and alone – and in as far as a dish can keep you company, you couldn’t hope for better company than this. My favourite momo, of the ten, is number four: the headlong rush of the first three has passed, you’re properly appreciating them and you haven’t yet reached the terrible sadness of the final two. It’s a metaphor for something, but I don’t know what.

21. Mezze box, Fink

My pick of all the permanent fixtures at Blue Collar, Fink is consistently superb and its mezze box is the way to eat everything they do so well in one convenient package. So you get a couple of pert, vinegary stuffed vine leaves, couscous and olives, some foliage, three different sauces of varying heats – all of which are bloody marvellous – and the topping or toppings of your choice. 

I tend to go for their chicken shawarma, which is beautifully spiced and seasoned thigh meat, cooked bang on, and their falafel which are as good as anybody’s in town, with the possible exception of Purée. All that and you can almost convince yourself that this, because it’s sort of, almost a salad, is the healthy option. Since Gurt Wings left Blue Collar this is my order of choice every Friday. Back when Gurt was still trading in Reading, it was my order of choice every Wednesday.

• Click here for dishes 50-41
• Click here for dishes 40-31
• Click here for dishes 20-11
• Click here for dishes 10-1

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

• The 10 most significant restaurants of the last decade
• The 10 saddest closures of the last decade
• Edible Reading and me