The Royal Tandoori is a modern little affair sited within the County Hotel in Reading City centre. The décor is fairly spartan and the degree of illumination a little on the bright side although the overall effect is make the contemporary punter think they will probably get a memorable meal.  If that is the intention of the proprietors then they have done well as we both found the meal ‘memorable’ but not in the way we had hoped.

In short, we like a bit of spice in a curry but what turned up was way off the reasonable heat scale for a lamb rogan or a chicken biriani. Did the chef sneeze as he was pouring in the curry paste? If he did, then I suggest he has an allergy problem as he obviously sneezed on both pots. The bhaji’s weren’t bad, if lacking in any onion flavour, and the tandoori chicken served in a novelty manner on a sizzler – I know that isnt particularly novel, it’s just that was it, tandoori chicken (and onions) on a sizzler. For a ‘signature dish’ (this is the Royal Tandoori after all) we would’ve hoped for better, and at least a bit of taste-free limp salad with lemon that’s been on and off 5 previous plates. Cobra was on draught which never gets my vote, probably because you only get a pint rather than the 660 ml.

Very nice toilets though. Only a shame we couldn’t make more use of them as this was a definite ‘bog-roll on ice’ meal. Probably not somewhere we’d hurry back to unless they offer to make amends.

Randdy Dogoe gave this restaurant 50

Bret Myri scored this establishment 54