getbracknell - Reading Evening Post

I quite liked it when it was an Indian restaurant, odd location under a car park, but the mood was always friendly and they usually had some ‘entertainment’ (a singer and microphone anyway).

My heart will always belong to the Koh-I-Noor in Priestwood, but I did occasionally venture elsewhere . Sadly though, Shikara’s lost all the customers and the last time I went to eat there, there were just a handful of customers on a Saturday night.

I felt quite embarrassed for the waiters to be honest.

But then it turned into a rather garish purple nightclub!

It didn’t have the greatest reputation, and the first time I went, the bouncer turned out to be from my brother’s year at school and two years younger than me (I still wasn’t arguing with him though.)

It certainly wasn’t the worst night I’ve ever had, I was drunk, but it was busy. It was before the smoking ban though and my over-riding memory of the place was that if I wanted to see further than a foot in front of me, I’d have to get down on my hands and knees as if I were in a burning building.

That image stayed with me for about a year, until I turned up again with my mate Dean. Now we’d had a few drinks at the Manor and suddenly it seemed like a good idea.

I’m pretty sure it was the same bouncer, but they’d run out of beer on tap! Nightmare! It was just the same, but without the smoke which was a right result, trouble was it meant you could see what the place looked like, and essentially it was an Indian restaurant with the lights turned off!

My third visit was in its most recent guise as Ole Tapas. New name, same kind of thing. Except where were the punters? I counted a handful.

Even more suprising, one buy one,  the beer ran out, which meant that handful of people were seriously knocking them back. The last drink I managed to get hold of was a bottle of slightly warm Strongbow.

Quite why Bracknell has only this car park basement venue as a night spot is beyond me. Why should we be forced to spend £30+ on taxis to Reading or Windsor?
I’ve never understood this. Somebody could make an absolute packet if they came in and set up a decent nightclub, get some decent bouncers on the door to make sure it ran smoothly and they’d be laughing all the way to the bank.

I’d heard Shikara’s was being turned into a Liquid, which whilst not perfect, would at least be a step in the right direction, however the Bracknell Forest Standard newshounds tell me this was nothing more than a rumour.

I’m sure a few years ago the old Post Office building was going to become a Yates’s  - apparently not, we got a Chinese buffet.

Indian restaurants and Chinese takeaways is certainly not something we are short of!

I’m not asking for much am I? Just somewhere for us young folk to hang out (did I just revoke my right to be a youth by using the word ‘folk’?). And don’t say Bar Original!

We’ll have to wait and see what this new licensing application is all about I guess.