Venue:- The Hideout
Telephone:- 01344 778686
Website:- thethaihouserestaurant.com
“If you go down to the woods today you’re sure of a big surprise ….” Drive along the Old Wokingham Road, turn into the road for Bracknell crematorium and then turn left and pass the Downshire golf club and then left again into the ‘The Hideout’ Thai restaurant and Bar. The final part of the journey is along an unmade road through the woods where you will always see rabbits playing and you may occasionally if you are lucky see the odd fox or two and even a deer. The road turns towards a clearing in front of a low building with a large expanse of lawn with tables and umbrellas set for summer (when that is nobody knows!). Park up and head inside … the bar area reminds of local clubs that I have visited in the past and has a community centre feel about it, except that this bar is more tastefully decorated with a large collection of ‘nick knacks’ all around the walls and placed on high – just look up!
There is always a real ale served straight from the barrel – Youngs when we visited at £2.50 a pint, can you get it cheaper? Cobra lager was on draught at £2.80, again can you find cheaper?
On to the restaurant, this is a large open dining area decorated in Thai style with lots of large fans adorning the walls and some large wall screens depicting Thai scenes. The tables are arranged as required for seating that evening, with comfortable chairs and wooden screening separating the groups of tables with more intimate tables for two in the corner.
The food … we chose the mixed starters (£9.90) for two which consisted of satay chicken, satay beef, money bag, prawn in filo, veggie spring roll, prawn toast and duck sticks – a good choice if you fancy a selection. Most of these items can be ordered separately as well as other starters such as Thai fish cakes. All starters have the requisite dips.
For mains we had Red chicken curry, fish with chilli and garlic, mushrooms with onions and beans, beef with ginger and vegetables and another noodle dish plus plain rice. They have Thai salads, Soups, sizzling dishes and vegetarian dishes – no main dish is more than £10.00.
The desserts are either ice cream or banana fritters – we declined these today.
The wine list is short but has a good variety and very reasonable prices with house wine coming in at £9.50 and even the most expensive bottle £25.00 (champagne is dearer).
All in all this is excellent place to dine, Maggie and her small team make you very welcome and will always adapt a meal to suit, the setting is wonderful for a summer lunch and the restaurant does excellent dishes just for lunch, we have often been and the place is often crowded on a sunny day – last time we had to sit on the lawn all the tables had gone.
As you may have guessed this is a regular of ours and the quality of food and service has been consistent over the years – long may it continue. I am sure I saw some bears picnicking as we drove out!
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