Festival Street Kitchen

Festival Place, Basingstoke

Festivalstreetkitchen.com

DESPITE having walked past this enticing premises on many an occasion, I hadn’t previously had an opportunity to sample its wares until I happened to be in town, alone, and in need of a quick lunch.

Festival Street Kitchen has been operating since 2013 and in that time, it has become an incredibly popular town centre culinary destination, presenting seasonal, often local fare to passing trade.

It has garnered many positive reviews on a certain online site – no mean feat – and I was about to discover just what everyone loves about it.

I joined a queue behind an assortment of diners, young and old, and scanned the menu blackboard to see what I’d sample. Every day, the Street Kitchen offers three or four options to its diners.

Basingstoke Gazette:

Despite being tempted by the pulled pork or an Aberdeen Angus burger, I thought I’d opt for the main dish of the day, which was being cooked up in a huge paella pan in the fresh air - it was this fantastic smell which had already tickled my tastebuds.

Said main dish was Moroccan chicken with a couscous salad and Moroccan flat bread, plus a minted yoghurt dressing and it was being swirled around enticingly by Whitchurch’s Jeff Williams, who runs the business.

He and two very friendly young women were trading genuine pleasantries with everyone who was waiting, and there was a fantastically cosmopolitan atmosphere in general.

Those who’d already received their food ate companionably at the selection of tables around the main cooking area.

When it came to my turn, Jeff was just as pleasant, boxing up my lunch in a polystyrene container, and placing an incredibly generous portion of the chicken on top of the flatbread.

I retired to the small indoor seating area and realised I had forgotten to collect cutlery. When I popped my head around to ask where it was, Jeff actually went and got it for me.

I opened it up and tucked in, amazed at what £5 had bought me. The sauce was full of chickpeas and apricots and chunky peppers, and surrounded the plentiful chicken. The latter was clearly thigh meat cut from the bone, and so the meat was moist and full of flavour.

I tore off the flatbread and dipped it into the sauce, savouring what was not only a delicious, but a healthy lunch option too. The minted yoghurt was perfectly complementary and not at all overpowering.

If I’d wanted, I could have added any of the range of teas and coffees, or a chocolate brownie to my meal, but I found that I was completely full up.

Thanks to the good food and fantastic service, I’ll certainly be returning to Jeff’s Street Kitchen to sample what he has in store over the coming months. 

The featured restaurant had no knowledge of The Gazette’s visit.