Miah’s in the press

Alec Kingham - Reading Chronicle

The first time I visited an Indian restaurant was as a child in Malaysia, where the diners ate with their right hands from banana leaf ‘plates’. Beyond that, I’ve not experienced authentic Indian cuisine in its country of origin.

Friends of mine who have travelled extensively in India and enjoyed its diverse gastronomy, speak very highly on Miah’s Garden of Gulab restaurant in Reading. They cite it as the best Indian restaurant they have dined in, superior even to those they visited while trekking around the Indian continent, so when they recommended it I took them seriously.

The premises on the Wokingham road were originally known as Garden of Gulab when owner Jamshed Miah took over in 1997. And although the menu was upgraded and the interior redesigned, he decided to retain the name.

Unlike many restaurant owners, Jamshed has direct involvement with his customers, taking their orders and personally overseeing service of the meal; similarly, his brother manages another restaurant in the family-run business, Pangbourne Tandoori.

The interior is bright and welcoming with a bar and waiting area - my friends reveal that despite the refurbishment in 2005, Jamshed maintained the same family-friendly prices.

The menu consists of traditional and contemporary Indian cuisine. The contemporary menu is a collection of dishes unique to Miah’s, combining traditional flavours from India with herbs and spices from around the world.

An extra dish we hadn’t ordered arrived by mistake - Kashmiri vegetables - but the management insisted we have it as complimentary. My friends hadn’t tried this one before, vegetables in a mild korma-like sauce with sliced banana, but we all agreed it was excellent.

Beyond that, we ordered: the flavoursome king prawn shaslick (tandoori cooked king prawn with fresh tomatoes and onions); a smoky vegetable korai (mixed vegetables with grilled potatoes that exude a slight barbecue flavour - interesting); dorbara-subzee bahar (assorted stir-fried vegetables coated in cheese, with two separate sauces); and a tasty vegetable rogan (immersed in a tomato-based sauce with peppers, garlic and ginger); - all accompanied by rice and naan breads.

The food certainly lived up to my friends’ description; we had a thoroughly enjoyable meal. I should add that they have requested Miah’s cater for their wedding.

Kim Francis - Reading Alive:

You’ve probably heard of Miah’s. With three restaurants on the outskirts of Reading it’s likely that you’ve driven past one of them at some point. You might even have stopped for a bite and if you have you’ll know that the good reputation of these Indian restaurants is certainly deserved.

Darren and I visited Miah’s garden of Gulab for a low-key pre-valentine’s day meal. A little bamboozled by the menu which consists of traditional and contemporary options, we happily left it to the restaurant owner Jamshed to pick us a selection of starters to span both categories, while we decided on main courses and scoffed the complimentary poppadoms and the astonishing six different dips from the pickle tray.

I was immediately drawn to the contemporary options . There were so many dishes that you would never expect to see on the menu of an Indian restaurant and yet from the evidence presented before us, all dishes were unmistakable Indian in origin.

Jamshed picked three starters for us to sample; two from the traditional menu - King Prawn Jingha Bahar, beautifully cooked prawns with sweet brown onions, coriander and green peppers and Eadul Gustawa, shredded lamb in a buttery coriander sauce barbecued with spices and served with tawa-heated rice flower leavened bread and one from the contemporary menu - a vegetarian dish of Goat’s cheese, spinach and channa daal that was sweet and complimented by a sticky sauce.

Darren went for an unusual choice of Chicken Tikka Chilli Massala for mains, while I opted for Dariya Ka Raja, pink salmon simmered in a fenugreek and mustard gravy.

Darren’s dish was a wealth of flavours and it tasted like nothing he had tried before. My salmon was also distinctive with the strong salmon flavour very much in evidence against the full flavour of the spicy sauce. Potatoes in the dish added variety and bulk, while the crisp salmon skin added texture.

An interesting rice dish caught our eye - Kesar Pulao, Basmati rice cooked in milk then perfumed with saffron and cardamom. My favourite dish of the evening was the vegetable side that Darren ordered - Sag Chana Aloo Cutlet which was salty and incredibly more-ish and consisted of chick peas, cheese, spinach and potato.

Instead of the usual naan bread, we selected Lacchedar Ajwaini Roti, an exotic multi-layered bread baked in the tandoor oven. I didn’t expect this to be as sweet as it was; it was drizzled with an orange-coloured syrupy sauce that made it sweet enough for the dessert menu.

The remarkable bread had given me a taste for dessert and we had been so well looked after that we just had to stay for pudding. I went for lychees which were served simply in a bowl of cream, while Darren went for the Orange Bombe, orange ice cream with a chocolate sauce centre coated in Belgian chocolate.

We finished with a liqueur and glanced at our watched to find that three hours had whizzed by unnoticed. It might have something to do with the good food and atmosphere.