And so it is back to Reading’s equivalent to Brick Lane or Curry Mile for a catch up with fellow inReading correspondent Phil Creighton. This time we chose The Coconut Tree which took over the slot previously occupied by Zizzis on King’s Road a few years ago now. It is a favourite spot of Phil’s and I have been known to have a cocktail or three here in the past.

It's a large comfortable space with high chairs and some more traditional tables. The service is always friendly and excellent, even when busy, which it wasn’t on this Wednesday lunchtime.

The food is that of Sri Lanka, that lovely paradise island off the south coast of the Indian peninsula that I have longed to visit. Of course, it bears a close resemblance to the cuisine of other parts of the subcontinent, especially Tamil Nadu in south east India.

Indeed, much of the population is Tamil and ethnic conflicts with the native Singhalese resulted in a brutal civil war on the island that lasted from 1983 to 2009.

The Coconut Tree is part of a small chain of seven restaurants with branches from Bournemouth to Oxford and the theme is laid back food and drinks, with cocktails being a speciality.

But this was lunch on a working day, so we focused on the food.

There is a lunchtime menu for fifteen quid which is a hopper, rice or bread, a curry and a soft drink. It seemed to be too good to miss. Phil and I colluded on both the chicken curry and the black pork and eschewed the great vegan selection on offer. On previous visits I have done the Ceylonese version of tapas with these dishes. This is a good place to bring a group of friends, colleagues or relatives. We also had a rice and roti each.

Hoppers, or appa as they are known in Sinhala, are staple of Sri Lankan cuisine in the same way chapatti or roti is in Northern India cooking or dhosa or iddli in Southern Indian cooking. They’re thin, bowl-shaped pancakes with lacy, crispy edges and a soft, spongy center. Made from a fermented batter of rice flour and coconut milk, hoppers are lightly sweetened and usually leavened with yeast or palm toddy, a natural ferment from coconut palm.

At The Coconut Tree, hoppers are served plain or with an egg cracked in the middle with an accompaniment of sambals or chutneys (here they are hot, sweet and coconut). We both went for the eggy version. There are also other varieties such as milk hoppers, which feature a rich pool of coconut milk in the middle, or string hoppers (idiyappam), steamed nests of rice flour noodles typically served with curry and condiments.

I remember not being such a fan in the past, preferring their grown up dhosa cousins from across the Palk Strait found just up the road at Madras Flavours, but this time it went down a treat and got me thinking that now that Munchies has gone, perhaps a Sri Lankan breakfast of eggy hoppers might be my best local alternative (taking me back to the weeks I used to spend having mega hot chilli omelettes for breakfast at The Madras CC in Chennai)? Unfortunately, the restaurant doesn’t open until midday, so bang goes that idea.

With the set meal orders, I decided to go over the top. My favourite dish, their salmon curry, was off the menu, so for good I measure I ordered the fish curry on top of our set meals.

The dishes arrived efficiently and were a mixed bag.

The fish curry was a tilapia or basa type pearly white fish in a heavy green sauce which had a strong aftertaste of tamarind and little of the coconut flavour promised.

The blackened pork was, well, porky and smoky in near burnt dried spices with a real depth and chilli kick which I enjoyed, it was reminiscent of dishes I’d had down the Cathedral Road in Chennai.

The chicken curry, on the bone, was delicious, but reminiscent of curries you can reliably get from the Caribbean to Indonesia, in a rich oily sauce. The gravy was most welcome to soggify the rice and roti, which was needed - the staples were disappointing, the rice was dry and a bit overcooked and the roti were hard and inedible. I remember the food being better on previous visits, but that could have been the cocktail effect !

On a Wednesday lunchtime with bright sunshine outside and the food market going around the corner in Marketplace, we were the only ones apart from one other table.

Catering during these quiet sessions can be a real problem. Good food comes and goes quickly, and good food comes often from a heaving restaurant not an empty one thanks to the freshness the fast turnover dictates. For restauranteurs it’s a thin line between not opening at all at quiet times, or at the very least trying to cover overheads. It’s a challenge faced by many catering businesses in these trying times.

It's also telling, walking up and down King’s Road on an almost daily basis, how empty many places are whilst others are heaving. The Outback is telling of pub chain Green King’s woes whilst Weatherspoons’ Back Of Beyond is always heaving. Likewise, the House Of Flavours is full but The Coconut Tree is often half empty at the same time.

At a time when we are losing so many good places to go out, there are still many opening (see our related story this month), and it’s difficult to know how many are surviving by delivery rather than by offering somewhere to go out and eat or drink, but one thing is for certain, Reading has too many restaurants of the same kind and a real lack of choice in the mid to high end.

Personally, I like how The Coconut Tree offers a slightly different vibe. It is a party place. I can vouch for their cocktails and for the smile this place leaves on your face, but alcohol also masks some culinary sins and perhaps lunchtime isn't such a bad time to appraise their food.

Frankly, it wasn't great, but will I be back? Yes, probably within the month, but in the evening with a cocktail in my hand.