Our food reviewer Mark Heath and wife Liz tried the Get My Goat takeaway offering from popular Bury St Edmunds restaurant Pea Porridge. Here's what they made of it...
Food
Full disclosure, before we get seated and stuck in to the meat of this review. We love Pea Porridge. It's one of our favourite restaurants in Suffolk - an annual highlight of the Heath culinary calendar is a summer trip to Bury for their beautiful lobster offerings.
Of course, like everyone else, our culinary calendar has taken a bit of a battering this year. Indeed, we're currently isolating ahead of spending Christmas with my parents, hence we needed a takeaway review this month.
So when Get My Goat was suggested by my food editor - a lady of considerable good taste - we leapt at the chance.
First up, the ordering. We rang the restaurant on a Monday lunchtime to order for the Friday night, paid over the phone and arranged an early pick-up time of 6pm.
The takeaway comes with the goaty goodies all tucked away in a nice paper bag, along with an envelope explaining how to heat and serve all four courses, plus a couple of wine suggestions. Very civilised.
We duly fired up the oven upon return home, and prepared for the first course - sourdough flatbread and pea hummus.
Now, if you've ever been to Pea Porridge - a wonderfully warm, cosy and friendly place - you'll know that they produce some cracking bread, so we had high hopes for this.
Pleasingly, they were met. The bread, baked on a hot stone in a charcoal oven, was both soft and chewy, with some wonderful charring from the oven and moisture from the olive oil provided to brush on.
The hummus was a delicious accompaniment too - sweetness from the peas, with added hits of flavour from the garlic and cayenne pepper. I actually kept the leftovers to spread on some crackers over Christmas, but you probably don't need to know that...
Next up, the berber goat kofte, served with goat yoghurt labneh, pomegranate and mint.
Boy, what a dish, Minced goat meat, along with onions, raisins, pine nuts and more, all mixed together and pan-fried.
They were moist, sweet and lightly spiced, with the occasional pop of pomegranate exploding in the mouth adding a lovely touch. Among the best - if not the best - koftes we've ever had. Wonderful stuff.
The next course was the main event - Persian kid goat tagine with cous cous, pumpkin, chickpeas, apricot and coriander.
One word sums up our first impression of this dish - fragrant!
It tasted good too - mildly spiced, sweet and with a decent kick of ginger, while the yoghurt and flower petals added creaminess and floral notes.
The goat, which had been very slowly cooked, was tender and packed with flavour. The only drawback for me was that there were a few large chunks of fat hidden amongst the meat - an understandable side-effect of the cooking process, but unpleasant in the mouth nevertheless.
And so all too soon, we'd reached dessert. I'd seen the pictures of the Basque-style cheescake on Instagram, and it was fair to say I was eager to get stuck in!
An alternative to the classic New York-style cheescake, this came with a rose petal preserve which we generously dolloped atop it.
Having had reservations that it may be too sweet, the first mouthful allayed those fears. It was certainly sweet, but creamy too - a really indulgent, rich dessert. Absolutely delicious.
Overall, a cracking meal - a takeaway offering something very different and special.
Value
Get My Goat is £55 for two people.
For four courses of such quality, I'd say that's fair.
Availability
Because Pea Porridge is thankfully back open as a restaurant now - and long may that continue - there is limited availability of the takeaway.
Make sure you phone ahead in plenty of time to check that you can order yours.
Highlight
I think we'd both say those sensational koftes.
I could eat a whole bowlful on their own, with that labneh to dip them in!
Summary
Something different, exciting and special from a standout Suffolk restaurant.
Rating: 8.5/10
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