This is a follow-on from an evening that started with the Hope Tap, moved on to the German Doner Kebab restaurant, and then ended up in the Hop Leaf in Katesgrove. A trio of reviews that in my mind is like the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy (The Hope Tap = Shaun of the Dead, for… Read More »
Generally I plan in advance to do a review – I’ll persuade someone to come with me and make a special visit. However, on this occasion I ended up doing a review simply by accident of bus timetables. I was meeting someone for dinner, and the bus times meant I had a choice between being… Read More »
This is a post that was destined to never happen. Clearly not very destined to not happen, because it’s happening. But still, slightly destined not to happen. It was actually one of the first pubs I visited on duty as a reviewer, back when the blog started in March 2018. At the time Big Gary… Read More »
Those of you who know me, will know I am a big geek, and proud of it. Generally I geek out at work and at home, but recently I discovered that Reading has a Geek Night once a month when you can meet fellow geeks and hear talks about a huge variety of things, like… Read More »
Update: The Retreat changed management (with the same landlord) in August 2019. This review was done at the time of the old management. In many ways this review began with my good friend Austin brewing some amazing beer which, for reasons that are now lost to me, became named “Dirty Diana”. I can’t remember if… Read More »
Great Expectations is a pub that has lasted so much longer than it should have by any reasonable judgement. As I dragged Mrs. Quaff there after a curry in town, she asked with genuine curiosity “Why would anyone go there?”. We used to go there because it was on the way home, and we were… Read More »
I met a bunch of other twitterers (tweeters? twitterati?) at the Blue Collar Meat Fest in the abbey ruins a few weeks ago (hi guys), and amongst other things it was an excellent opportunity to get some feedback on my work so far. The overwhelming feedback was that I was favouring the good pubs, and… Read More »
I’ve lived in South Reading and North Reading, and worked in East Reading. I know them pretty well, and like to think I’ve been in the majority of the better pubs in all of them (and of course many of the not so good ones as well). But even after two decades in Reading, west… Read More »
Epic pub crawl part 2. After not really feeling the love in the Alehouse, Grobber and I moved on to the Allied Arms. I have a particular soft spot for the Allied Arms. The first time I went there was the night before I got married. I worried that mentioning that fact might allow someone… Read More »
When the secret society that is actually in charge of Reading* was deciding who should write reviews about the town, I definitely won. Restaurant reviewers can only realistically review one restaurant a night, and event reviewers need to wait for someone to organise an event. I however, as one of the officially appointed pub reviewers,… Read More »
German life expectancy at birth overtook UK life expectancy recently as growth in UK life expectancy growth has stalled. Germans born in 2020 are expected to live to 81.41, while British people are expected to live to 81.39.
