Monday 13 April 2015
Special Offer Time. The Forbury which has for a while probably been the best restaurant in Reading emailed my wife with a special offer. The six course tasting menu for £99 for two – normally £68 each. So we book and off we go – one of the few restaurants we can reach by train; so I can have a drink. Hooray!
As she always does my wife goes to the online menu to see what we are going to eat. This can lead to a great disappointment when a “promised” delicacy which she is looking forward to eat has vanished in favour of something which she cannot eat. At the time of writing the promised menu can be found at this link but of course there is no guarantee that this will bear any relation to what we ate nor what might actually be on the menu if you are going today! Certainly our meal bore no resemblance at all to the online menu!
We opened proceedings with a glass of white wine for me and prosecco for the wife in the small bar area whilst having a chance to review the actual menu. This had goat’s cheese as a major content for one course and we asked for this to be replaced; it was agreed they would substitute some cheeses for this course. We had decided to go with the paired wines but are not keen on Muscat and again a substitution was agreed. They offered to replace the Viognier as that is also at the sweeter end of the spectrum but we agreed to stick with it.
Amuse bouche – a cup of very tasty leek and potato soup starts us off.
Moving along next up is the first real course together with a glass of wine. The latter is a Picpoul de Pinet 2013 which accompanies the asparagus which has been wrapped with prosciutto and then a rather good hollandaise sauce has been poured over it. It is April and this is the best asparagus of the year so far.
The Viognier – Baron de Baussac 2013 – accompanied this attractively laid out and very light course of smoked eel with apple and fennel salad. As I might have predicted my good lady wife was not overly keen on the eel so I had an extra half portion – but it is quite small. And yes the Viognier is at the sweeter end of the spectrum but I always quite like it (probably because I am not supposed to eat or drink things which are sweet). Wine measures are 100ml for each glass, so 2/3 of a bottle each for the evening for £26.
Here is the main course – a very substantial portion of Loin of Looe Bay Monkfish resting on top of braised oxtail with star anise jus. The menu said cauliflower but in the photo and when I tasted it I am sure it was potato! This course was stand out. The wife had never previously consumed oxtail always recalling the oxtail soup from childhood and I was anticipating getting some extra meat – however on tasting it she liked it and I missed out on extras. The matching of fish and meat in a single course is something which The Forbury seems to specialise in doing and it needs to have confidence in its suppliers to ensure it works. And this pairing did work. In those wine glasses is a merlot – Two Ridge Trail from South Eastern Australia. Earlier in the evening we had heard other diners specifically asking for this wine and when it arrived we were rather glad – it is a good merlot.
The original menu was a Goat’s Cheese Pithviers but the wife is not keen on goat’s cheese – so we agreed on a cheese course instead – one piece of said goat’s cheese for me plus brie de meaux, comte and local Barkham Blue for each of us. Plus some more of the good bread which I failed to mention much earlier on. The wine was unchanged from the menu – a 2012 Shiraz from the Cape of Good Hope. All of the cheeses were in excellent condition – tasty and not chilled.
The dessert was an absolutely enormous portion of Chocolate Mousse with a salted caramel ice cream which was probably far too much after an already large meal. I felt very full.
This time the wine was changed from the menu and the Forbury are working with the importers of “Stone Gorge” wines from the Minervois – the red is called “The Droxford” and are pretty new in this country I believe. All of the wine pairings worked well with the food; this was perhaps not the most successful – most diners would have a Muscat de Beaumes de Venise 2007, we were happy enough.
Coffee and Macaroon to complete the dining – well apart from the inevitable bill. As I said earlier on the menu was a special £99 for two and does not seem to be mentioned on their website. The wine pairings are £26 each. We had a pre-dinner drink each and the total bill including the tip was approximately £180.
Berkshire is home to many good restaurants and consequently the Good Food Guide may feel that adding another one would mean too much space was allocated to one county, so for this or other reasons The Forbury does not appear. In my view the quality of ingredients and the skill in assembling the food together with the cooking is all excellent. I rate it highly and the service was faultless in being helpful and assisting with menu changes to suit our palates and need to avoid sugar. Highly recommended.