Gin and Tea Bar

Gin and Tea Bar in One Paragraph:

Gin and Tea Bar is the ‘world’s first’ gin and tea/restaurant. We’ve yet to visit (so no score yet) – the word is that the food is OK, but the offer is maybe a little confused. And the tables too low to eat from. On the positive side, the venture is from the fine folk who brought us the East India Cafe, which is very reliable. So hopefully just a few teething issues.

The Longer Read:

Gin and Tea Bar occupies one of the half basements along the Prom block that includes the council offices.

‘Gin and Tea Bar’ looks like one of those restaurant concepts that gets randomly generated by a hipster name app. It seeks to cover a lot of bases – various gins, teas, including a seasonal collection, a Gin and Tea tasting menu , an Anglo-Indian tasting menu, street food (eh? Take that to mean ‘snacks’), meeting lunches and afternoon chai. Oh and Sunday roast.  It’s a bit fiddly and potentially unfocused?

Gins are a collection of 55 from around the world, plus some in-house brews.

The Gin and Tea Bar Tasting Menu

Tasting menus tend to sum up what a place is really all about. This one sounds good. Here’s the menu:

Welcome Drinks and Amuse Bouche French Earl Grey gin and tea with orange and clove.
Served with Papadum with chutney

Round One
Memsahib masala chai gin samosa and chutney

Tray Two
Spicy rooibos gin – smoked chicken sheekh kebab

Punch
White jasmine tea punch – butterfly prawn

The Main
Asian ginger gin – steak shashlik

With Sweet
Rhubarb and saffron – jilabi and apricot chaat

If you’re daunted (or attracted) by the quantity of gin on offer, it’s useful to know that gins are served in 25cl measures.

That’s the set dining menu.

Gin and Tea Bar à la carte:

Appetiser – £3.95
Papadum and chaat masala chips
Sweet potato fries, parmesan, lemon and juniper salt (GF) Olive, artichoke and piccalilli with spiced chutney

Samosas – £5.99 each

Prawn and Fish – £6.99
Cod
Oriental prawn butterfly
Indian koliwada prawn
Bengal prawn Salad

Kebab – £7.99 each (Chicken, lamb, chicken, steak).

House Special
Malai dal, paratha bread, salad – £9.99
Bowl of roast vegetable, roti, raita – £9.99
Roast chicken thighs with seasonal vegetable

£10.99 Roast beef, pepperoni and mustard kahti roll

£11.99 Chicken tikka burger £10.99

Sweet – £4.99 Jilabi and apricot Chocolate fudge cake, Coffee & walnut cake

Afternoon Chai

Gin and Tea bar also offers an unusual afternoon Chai at £19.95:

Welcome Drinks and Amuse Bouche

French Earl Grey gin and tea with orange and clove served with Papadum with chutney}

Chai
Masala chai, ginger and garam masala with milk and honey. Red rooibos, cinnamon, pink peppercorn, coconut sugar, dried milk powder

Savoury Snacks
Baby potato and vegetable singhara, Lamb and rosemary seekh kebab, Chicken tikka burger,
Cod 65

Sweets
Chocolate fudge cake
Jilabi, pears chaat, cinnamon butter

The menu highlights the achievements of various Indian women through the years. The copy has a slightly odd Sixth form project feel to it – references to ‘High Cast (sic) Women’, etc, but there are some interesting Cheltenham – India connections highlighted.

Look forward to trying it all.