For my big, scary quarter of a century birthday Will took me to a fairly new restaurant in Reading: Coconut Bar & Kitchen
Before coming to eat I had been here for cocktails for a friend’s birthday a couple of weeks before. This restaurant has a great atmosphere with good background music, and even for a busy Friday night I was served quickly and soon found myself sipping on a ‘Passionate Peach’ – with vodka, peach liqueur, passion fruit purée, pineapple, fresh lime and vanilla, you can see why it’s their best seller!
When I came back for my birthday dins it was a lot quieter, being a Tuesday evening, however the relaxed yet fun atmosphere remained and the food was fresh, well presented and delicious.
With a range of Yakitori starters and South Eastern Asian main dishes it was a hard choice! But after some amazing Yakitori dumplings, for our mains I went for an Indonesian satay pork chop stir fry, and Will went for beef steak doldot bibimbap.
Yakitori Starters!
My stir fry, including red peppers, red onions and pineapple along with the tender pork, was in a sea of deliciously thick satay sauce. As a big fan of stay sauce, this was one of the best I have tasted! Unlike shop bought or what you are sometimes given in other restaurants, this was 100% home made and I enjoyed every bite!
Will’s Bibimbap was something I have never seen before, arriving in a hot stone pot he had a bowl of coconut rice, steak and sautéed vegetables topped with an egg. The combination of everything together in the bowl was really good, especially as it continued to sizzle and develop amazing crunchy bits throughout our meal. To top it all off this dish was served with Kimchi sauce (I had never heard of this before but Will LOVES it!) which was the perfect partner to the meal.
As well as good service and fresh tasty food, it is also very reasonably priced. I would highly recommend you pay a visit if you fancy some South Eastern Asian food, I will definitely be back!
24/7 noms 