Clay’s Kitchen & Bar in Caversham, Reading

By the time we finally made it to Clay’s Kitchen & Bar, the new location for what was previously Clay’s Hyderabadi Kitchen, a lot more people were aware of this absolute gem of a restaurant than ever before, thanks to national coverage in The Guardian, in the form of a review from critic Grace Dent.

We already knew how superb the food was thanks to Clay’s nationwide delivery service launched during the pandemic, which we discovered back in 2020 and we had a superb meal in the original Clay’s restaurant in central Reading back in 2021.

But we hadn’t managed to visit them since they reopened in their beautiful new spot in the heart of Caversham, a residential suburb of Reading.

We enthusiastically backed their crowd-funding campaign to create the new space (and are so proud to have our names on their wall of backers near the back entrance of the restaurant) but life kept getting in the way of visiting in person. Of course, we always keep a stock of Clay’s At Home in our freezer so we can enjoy their delicious food at any time.

Finally, early one Friday evening on one of the hottest weekends of June, we popped in for dinner on our way from Abergavenny to London. A more perfect pit-stop we couldn’t have hoped for!

Light, bright and airy, it’s a beautiful space! And it’s big, with many more covers than their previous, much smaller space.

Vivid splashes of yellow and orange accent wooden furniture, parquet flooring and rattan room dividers. The terracotta cooking pots (that were once used to serve their signature claypot lamb) provide decor around the skylight, as well as the paint colour for pillars and some panels of the wall.

Plenty of light floods the room via floor-to-ceiling windows along the wide front entrance, with the skylight adding more towards the back of the space.

Guests can sit at regular tables or at the higher tables and chairs in the more casual bar area. There are even some padded bench seats along one wall.

For drinks I can’t resist the Mango Lassi, though of course it’s one of the more filling drink options. They also have a range of non-alcoholic beers which is very handy for Pete, who’s driving.

We decide to order mainly from Clay’s new Small Plates menu, with a diversion to the main menu as well.

Khara Bun appears on both the Main menu under Nibbles (£5) and on the Small Plates menu (£6.50). The prices reflect differences in portion size, shown here is the smaller Nibbles portion.

The bread is described as Bangalore city’s famous lyengar bakery-style spiced soft bread, served with curry leaf butter. Our also came with sun-dried tomato pachadi (a type of pickle). The soft texture of the bread is pure comfort, the bread’s own flavour is subtle but delicious, and then with the two condiments in turn, it’s a beautiful start to our meal.

Melon Seed Chicken Pakora (£9.5) is a dish of crunchy bites of chicken coated in a besan (flour made from chana daal) and melon seed batter, fried till crisp and served with a generous sprinkle of Nandana’s special spice mix, originally developed for a dish called Kodi Chips.

The chicken inside is tasty and moist, perfect against the crisp and fiery exterior.

Vankaya Bhaji (£8.5) is essentially a deconstructed version of a classic aubergine vegetable dish. Clay’s fry the aubergine pakora-style and then dress it with key ingredients of the vegetable dish including peanuts, and a lemon gunpowder sauce.

The sauce on this one is also fiery hot but the peanuts and onions help to counter it–a little! I glug a lot of my lassi while eating this one!

I am intrigued by the menu item South Indian Uttapam meets Japan’s Okonomyaki (£9). As a huge fan of Japanese cuisine, I must try it! In this clever fusion dish, Clay’s serves a fat round uttupam (a pancake made from fermented rice and lentils) topped with cabbage, peanut chutney, tomato chutney and bonito flakes that dance like ghosts in the heat rising from below them.

The fusion works very well indeed, though be warned that this is a properly filling dish. One of these would be enough for a light lunch on its own!

The Shikampuri Kebab Slider (£7.5) is one of my favourite of all the small plates. The ground wild boar kebab is smooth like peanut butter, its flavour boosted by Philadelphia cheese, mint and coriander chutney, and tamarind sauce.

Grilled Lamb Skewers (£10.5) are another favourite. Tender boneless lamb cooked in a special spice rub, served with a yoghurt coriander chutney that is vibrant in both colour and flavour, these are packed with flavour and I could eat ten dishes of them!

I love chaat dishes, the collective name for a series of Indian snacks that have one thing in common – the lip-smacking condiments they are dressed with. The name comes from chaatni (the etymology of chutney), which describes a sauce-like condiment with a tanginess that makes you lick your lips. Most commonly, chaat dishes are dressed with tamarind chutney, coriander and mint chutney, and natural yoghurt.

Clay’s Crispy Chickpea Bhel (£8) is a perfect chaat dish in which besan-coated chickpeas are fried until crisp and served with diced Indian pink onion, cucumber, tomato and those magical sauces. The dish is a tangy, spicy, sweet and crunchy delight!

After this expansive selection of Small Plates we switch over to the Main Menu Biryani section to order Clay’s Lamb Yakhni Pulao (£20.50), a relatively new signature dish. It’s described as an Awadh-inspired pulao with rice and lamb cooked in lamb bone and marrow broth.

It calls on the skills of both Sharat (who is the rice guru of the duo) and Nandana, who creates the flavour-packed lamb that sits on top. As promised, there is a pleasing delicate spicing to the perfectly cooked rice, boosted by full-on flavour of those succulent pieces of lamb. It’s a masterpiece and the perfect dish to have at the centre of a Clay’s spread shared with friends.

Of course, it was no surprise to us as long-time fans of Sharat and Nandana, that their new restaurant would so successfully build upon their first, taking both the food, as well as the space and service offered, to the next level.

The barriers and challenges the couple have faced in bringing the new restaurant into being have been considerable–and would have broken many–so it’s a testament to their resilience, determination and work ethic that the restaurant is open at all, let alone so damn excellent!

To those of you who live locally, I’m hugely jealous. To those who don’t, this is cooking worth making a journey for, so do plan a visit when you can!