At the weekend I went to the Cinnamon Tree which is an award winning Indian restaurant based in Mortimer, a small village just seven miles South west of Reading.
We’d organized a table for 7 on Saturday to go as a family, spend some quality time together.
One of the team members greeted us with a smile as we navigated our way through the takeaway customers waiting on their orders, a good sign.
The restaurant offered a relaxed interior and lovely ambiance with flowers on the tables and liquid wax candles. Soft music playing over the speakers offering a nice back drop.
We were taken to our table and given the drinks and food menus. The restaurant has recently reintroduced serving alcohol and so I ordered a shandy while my husband ordered a pint of beer and the girls decided to stick with a soft drink each.
After eating a couple of poppadoms each with the chutneys our starters arrived. We’d decided to share a couple of starters so we could all have a little taste. I ordered Jhinga Projapati – Whole King prawn delicately spiced and seasoned, coated in egg yolk and bread crumbs and deep fried £6.95, my husband fancied the Hash Tikka – barbequed duck £6.25, and then we went for the traditional Onion Bhaji £4.95 and some of the Shashlik Chicken – diced chicken barbequed with tomatoes, onions and green peppers £5.75.
The onion bhaji’s were the size of golf balls and luckily came as a portion of four, these were lovely, seasoned perfectly and not at all oily. The Hash Tikka also was served with four pieces of meat, Shashlik was served with plenty of meat and vegetables and went down well. The Jhinga Projapati was really tasty, a nice surprise, accompanied with a small mint sauce, I really enjoyed this dish, it wasn’t overly seasoned and a really nice way to start my meal.
Whenever I go for an Indian meal I normally always choose the same dish but was intrigued by one of the Bangladishi specials on the menu and knew I needed to try it, a dish called Mango Murgh, mildly spiced succulent Chicken cooked with mango and mild spices, it has a creamy sauce and the mango was really prominent with a taste of coconut, a sweet delicious dish. £10.50. Mark had the Lamb Passanda – mild tender pieces of Lamb fillets marinated with a selection of spices and fresh cream and cooked in a exotic gravy £10.95, a very generous portion.
Tia had the Butter Murgh – mild barbequed Chicken tossed in butter with cultured yogurt, fresh cream and served with an exotic sauce £10.50 and Grace wanted to eat some fish and so opted for the Chingri Bhuna – Medium spiced prawn with a thick sauce £9.95. Grace would have liked bigger prawns she said and they offer another Bhuna dish with King Prawns and so next time I think that’s what she’d go for.
We ordered some rice, mushrooms and pilau and a side of Sag Panir to share with a Peshwari nan and Cheese naan.
Does anyone else order food in a curry house and then realise you’ve ordered way too much?
We do it every time, but we had such a lovely meal, and even after all filling our bellies were left with lots of food and so asked for the left overs to be boxed up so we could take them home for the next day.
I noticed that they offer a Sunday buffet and a special deal on a Wednesday, whereby you can choose a starter, main, vegetable side and either rice of naan with poppadom’s, chutneys and either a coffee or tea for £17.95 per person, excellent value for all that food (King Prawn or Duck extra £4.00).
I finished my meal off with a coffee, we’d been at the restaurant for three hours, that time had flown by, and I realized when we left, we were the last ones there.
Mortimer is a beautiful area to visit and I’d recommend going to the Cinnamon Tree to try the Mango Murgh.
