Enjoy a little indulgence with a visit to Caprice
Caprice Restaurant Holiday Inn Wharfedale Road, Winnersh Triangle RG41 5TS 0118 944 0444 www.holidayinn.com/ winnersh Peter Pan wins top pantomime award
SPENDING time with your friends is precious and with such busy lives, catching up should definitely include a little indulgence – my afternoon with my friend Maria certainly did.
We had decided to enjoy a meal in the Caprice restaurant, based inside the Holiday Inn, Winnersh.
The restaurant is very light with a wall of glass and it was a glorious day.
We were seated at our table, and given the menus. They offer four: a set menu, an a la carte, an artisan cheese menu and an Indian set menu, so there is something to suit all budgets, appetites and tastes.
Sometimes the decisions are made more difficult by having so much choice however on this occasion it was easy, reading through the A la Carte menu I was sold… I love scallops!
Maria decided to go with the Crab, also on the A la Carte menu.
A bread basket was brought to the table with selection of different breads and oils to dip. I was planning on having a dessert as well and so was trying to good and not fill up so I could enjoy my main, one dip is never quite enough though.
Our starters arrived and they were good. The scallops were served with a chicken crisp, leek and dill, this was gluten free (£10) the scallops were perfectly cooked and seasoned, the chicken crisp the best I’ve tasted.
Maria’s soft shell crab with lemongrass and coriander (£9) a mini battered crab, the batter was lovely and light and did not shield the wonderful flavours of its content.
The service was great, we felt very well looked after and our drinks were constantly being refilled for us, we were being very good and sticking to water although there is a great selection of wines to choose from.
For a main meal I choose beef fillet, ossobuco, pommes dauphine, shallot and parsley (£29). I wanted a selection of mixed vegetables with this (£3.50) and Maria stuck with the fish and choose the Turbot, langoustine bisque, courgette, samphire, butternut, Anna potato (gluten free £27) with a side order of house salad (£3.50).
I like eating beef when out, no matter how often I have tried I cannot cook it like in restaurants. It was perfect! Melt in the mouth, and huge. I struggled to finish it all but it tasted so good. The side dishes were plentiful as well plenty of vegetables for me, and salad for Maria.
I was hoping for a little taste of her Turbot but before I realised it, was all gone. She said it was extremely tasty though.
For dessert, we had a recommendation of the Chocolate Fondant. I was a little stuffed but my love for a good pub won out.
The Fondant comes with sesame tuile, toffee, vanilla Ice Cream (£7.75) Maria had the Mango passionfruit cheesecake, honey crumble (£7.50).
I have to admit to having food envy when the plates arrived and I think I made the wrong choice, lucky for me we are very good friends and Maria let me share so I totally over indulged. The chocolate fondant was really lovely but possibly a little to rich after the meal I had eaten whereas the cheesecake was fresh and light and was my favourite although I think if my husband had been with me he would have disagreed.
Caprice at The Holiday Inn is really great venue: light, spacious with great service and relaxed.
It’s not the sort of place that you immediately think of going because it’s a little off the beaten track but I will definitely be going back, especially for the puddings. READING’S pantomimes have been wowing audiences successfully for years and now they have received official recognition.
Last month, Peter Pan – last year’s show – scooped the Best Ensemble honour at the Great British Pantomime Awards.
The Awards, now in their second year, was held at the New Wimbledon Theatre in London and was attended by a huge number of stars from the world of pantomime.
There to accept the Best Ensemble Award were senior ensemble members Charise Renouf, Bex Allingham, Elliott
Sturt, Dan Westwood and Tom McDonald along with Laura Taylor and Louise Redmond from Imagine Theatre, which produces the pantomimes for The Hexagon.
Laura Taylor’s acceptance speech paid tribute to the hard work put in by all the cast and crew who worked on the show, including the Junior Chorus and choreographer Adrian Edmeades, as well as the teams at The Hexagon and Imagine Theatre.
Speaking after the event Laura said: “Although this award is for Best Ensemble it reflects the hard work and dedication put in by everyone who worked on the show and we are really thrilled with this recognition of the high quality of the musical numbers on our pantomimes. We are now busy working on Aladdin which I am sure is going to be another fantastic show.”
Work has already begun on this year’s pantomime, Aladdin. It will star CBeebies’ superstar Justin Fletcher as Wishee Washee and Paul Morse as Widow Twankey.
The show runs from Saturday 8 December 2018 to Sunday 6 January 2019 and tickets are already on sale.
For full details call the box office on 0118 960 6060 or log on to www.readingarts.com