Media types west of London flock to Malik’s, but is it really so great, or just a local curry house, much like yours?
High Street, Cookham, Berkshire (01628 520085). Meal for two, including drinks: £70-90
It was when they started pumping out the Vaughan Williams at us, a waft of the English pastoral over the poppadoms, that it got really odd. Then again, why not? Malik’s is in Cookham, a buffed and polished town with a BTEC in Englishness. It makes sense that here even the Indian restaurants should cleave to a mythologised version of nationhood. After all, Malik’s sits within a hunk of glorious oldness, all arthritic black beams and white walls, set off beautifully by the glittering icicle lights dangling from them at this time of year. We cracked off some more poppadom and dredged it through the bog-standard mango sauce and the above-average lime pickle.
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