Feeling grill: Oracle gets new restaurants
The Oracle’s Santa Fe is to reopen as Ha! Ha! Ha ha, I think not. I liked Santa Fe. I liked its bar and Mexican beers such as Negro Modelo. I liked its zingy food. I liked the dramatic backdrop in the Gents of a solitary desert road stretching far into the distance. I liked the decor.
Above all, I liked Santa Fe as it felt a little bit different (there were, in fact, only 6 in the country). There are 26 Ha! Ha!s across the country, including another in Reading. Ha ha!
The Evening Post reported on this news with the headline Town’s eateries are going global. I don’t see what’s so global about a restaurant pledging to offer dishes that
celebrate the provenance of our country, such as Scottish smoked haddock, Welsh rack of lamb, and prime cut, 21 day aged British beef including rib eye on the bone.
Anyway, good luck to them.
Good luck also to Bella Italia, the “slice of Italian cuisine [that has] also arrived in The Oracle”, joining the slice next door that is Pizza Express, the slices that are Cafe Italia and Caffe Nero several units away and the slice that is Strada, also on the Riverside. That’s a lot of slices.
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:02 pm
You are right about Santa Fe being good and it’s replacement by another Ha!Ha! being a step back for Reading and the variety of restaurants.
January 28th, 2008 at 8:46 am
Just pretend it offers more choice, boast about it to people in other towns, then go elsewhere in Reading for a nice (non-chain, not every-town) meal.
March 10th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Ha Ha closed in Reading ages ago (it’s now the Abbey Bar & Grill or something?), and I for one really miss it so will be glad of a new one. The food is great, I promise! I just hope it doesn’t get rammed full of drinkers and overloud music like the old one did [old phart icon]
March 17th, 2008 at 2:28 am
Really? I didn’t know about the Ha! Ha! name change. I should get out more (no, really, I should).
I will have to check it out some time, though I’m not a fan of ‘vertical drinking’ and overloud music (another tactic used to get customers to buy more drinks).