You may have seen the hoo-hah over the weekend – yes just 3 of my reviews have kindly been published by Get Reading so far, and they have already had a complaint to the editor. Hopefully they don’t have a Putin-esque outlook, and my roast reviews will continue to reach a wider audience.
Nothing here changes. I’m from Yorkshire - if a roast potato is crap, then I’ll tell you it’s crap. This blog continues until one of the following conditions is met:
1. There are no more roast dinners to review.
2. Every venue makes perfect roast potatoes and thick gravy.
3. I move away from Reading.
4. I give a bad review to a mafia-run establishment and am gunned down.
I think the complainant is warming to me now. I can see us being good friends soon. I think she is married so a date is out of the question.
Gosh, what a great idea that is. Roast Dinner Dating. Maybe The Shoulder Of Mutton would host a Roast Dinner Dating event?
How do I trademark this? I could probably build my own dating website – every other person seems to run a dating website nowadays.
I am really going off course here, thankfully I don’t have many followers.
The plan this week was to go to a chain – however my friend could not make it so out came the random number generator and it chose The Shoulder Of Mutton. Touché, random number generator. So I removed the ones that I’d already visited and it gave me The Bird In Hand, in Sandhurst.
Somebody had recommended it to me, I cannot remember if it was a reader or someone from work. I’ve never been to Sandhurst before – it seems quite well-off, plenty of good-sized housing – though not on the posh side.
The pub itself was split into a restaurant which was fully-booked but did look upmarket, and a pub half showing the darts with a pool table. We sat outside and awaited our roasts.
The choices were beef, pork and turkey – I was very tempted by the turkey but I went for pork. The out-of-date website suggested that it was £9.99 though I think I was charged £11.00. They didn’t charge my friend for his dinner.
We had a 10-15 minute wait whilst we discussed our expectations and neither of us came to a conclusion – the signals were mixed but I did suspect another unspectacular but decent roast was ahead.
There were lots of carrots – sliced into rings and halved again, with a little black pepper on top. I really don’t know what else to say – I’m obviously not that good at reviewing.
The swede came in a unceremonious lump – it had a rather buttery taste.
We were granted some tenderstem broccoli which is a rarity on a roast and was a nice treat.
However the cauliflower cheese was distinctly non-cheesy and had a slight alien-like neon-green glow in patches. Acceptable and edible but I cannot profess any admiration, despite it being a particular favourite of mine.
We were predictably granted three roast potatoes – each of them very large. However they seemed distinctly deep-fat-fried in texture, colour and especially taste. There was still something bizarrely charming about them – not bazaar like my personal profile apparently is.
The Yorkshire pudding was fairly large which is pleasing – I never understand just giving someone one small yorkie – on the now-rare occasion I make a roast, I ensure there are at least 2 though often 4 of the little beasts (probably why I am losing weight). Then again, I’m just a pratt who cannot cook beans on toast (I actually don’t know how to cook beans – toast I can manage).
Apart from the size being redeeming, the yorkie provided no further joy as I found it overcooked, dry and brittle. I hope that is enough adjectives.
Three fairly thin slices of pork loin were provided – it was tender enough though I thought that the portion size was on the small side. It did come with over-cooked crackling – though once the crackling was doused in gravy, it did become edible without causing me any dentist fees.
And the gravy. It was either Bisto, or a very good copy of Bisto. And very watery too. Which is acceptable. Much preferable to a dodgy red wine jus – I’m looking at you Cunning Man.
Overall I am going to give it a 6.4. Nothing stood out as a taste sensation, it was another decent roast with areas of improvement - especially the yorkie.
Next weekend the random number generator has picked a pub in a very nice location – but one that seemingly has as many excellent reviews as poor. Although I reserve the right to be dishonest and unprofessional, and go somewhere else.
Yours pompously.
Roast Dinners Around Reading
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