The Turks isn't exactly the kind of establishment that you would go to dressed in finery on an…read moreevening of wine and dining, but if you are after raucuous noise, live band entertainment, a fantastically live amtmosphere than The Turks is the place to go. Pretty much a cross between an old man's bar and a student bar the Turks serves very cheap beer, alongside very cheap (but satisfying) pub grub. The tables are battered bruised and the wooden floor scuffed to pieces but once the live bands start on the weekend - does anyone really care? There's a pool table if you want to play, and an outdoor area for summer drinking.

Busy pub close to the University of Reading. Decent prices.read more

I have to say that this was a pretty awesome pub, especially with all the beers that they had on…read moretap. Mind you, being an Outlander, I can't actually say whether I know if the beers are craft or not, but the selection was pretty awesome, especially since this was a suburban type of pub, well, close to it because it was sort of on the edge of the centre of Reading. Yeah, I liked it.

Authentic English pub with the wides range of beers from across Europe that I have seen . Very niceread more

Sweet Jesus, Mary mother of God. This isn't a pub. It's…read moresomeone's house. You may just have stepped back fifty years in time. I'm pretty sure that it breaks every H&S rule known to mankind, but it's incredible and boy is it cheap! Superb real ale. Beards galore. Scabby. Horrible. Sticky carpets. Live music. TWO EiGHTY A PINT. Bar games. Dead rats in the toilet OK that was an exaggeration. Just go there. Now.

Situated somewhere between Royal Berks Hospital & Kings Rd, therefore a brisk walk from the town…read morecentre. This pub has a mission - to serve very fine beer which it does extremely well! Very much a camra pub, slightly tatty which bothers me not a jot & slightly eccentric - in the nicest possible way! Worth a visit if beer is your sin. probably not the best pub in Reading if you want to pick up girlies!

As paul_c below me says, yeah this is another fake Irish-wannabe chain. That's fine though. If you…read morewant proper Irish craic, go to Ireland. I don't go to pubs to be transported to another land, and so recognising the pub's gimmick doesn't distress me particularly. I like this pub, or at least I like it as much as anyone can like a fairly soulless pub that looks like every other within the chain. The flatpack pub look brings a familiarity to the place which you can either see as a good or a bad thing. I wouldn't take someone here to prove the charm of England (or indeed Ireland) but if I'm looking for somewhere to have a jolly drink with my lovely friends then O'Neills wouldn't grasp me as a bad suggestion. The drinks aren't cheap but not overly expensive either. There are often live bands on the stage, one of whom I think are very good and keep meaning to find out their name, and if you're looking for somewhere different to watch the football or other sporting event then this place is an option. This pub isn't something you'll ever rave about, but I don't find it particularly offensive either. A night out is generally about who you're with so if you've got a good group of people around you, or perhaps a rather hot date, then the plastic Guinness signs on the walls become irrelevant.

Reflex is the kind of place best viewed through beer goggles. It's an 80s cheese club, playing…read moreeverything from the Baywatch theme tune to a spot of Wham! Essentially, it's a place to buy cheapish cocktails, dance like a loon and avoid the slightly desperate older men. Hen night heaven perhaps (and is particularly popular for those jumping on the marriage wagon second time around...) The also offer giant sunglasses, blow up guitars and plastic microphones, which is always handy for a night out.

We came in to a practically empty place- asked the bartender if we should just seat ourselves. We…read moreinformed her we were there for lunch and drinks. We sat there for 20 mins and no one came over to even bring a menu. The music was screaming in our ears and we finally ended up leaving because the staff would rather talk amongst themselves than serve the guests. I do not recommend coming here. Spend your money elsewhere.

We had a group of us come here to eat dinner. They offer salads, burgers and a variety of other…read morecomfort foods as well as drinks. I got the Thai curry and personally would've have liked it to be a bit spicier. The burgers and salads looked amazing, so I'd definitely recommend that if you happen to stop by here. The ambience is nice and the servers are great too.

I'd give this place 3.5 stars, but since Yelp only likes whole numbers, The Botanist gets 3 stars…read more There was great décor, a hip atmosphere, and great cocktails, but the food and service left a lot to be desired. There were 4 of us there and when we got there we were told we couldn't get a table until 7:45pm (it was about 6:50pm), so we opted to hang out in the bar while waiting for our table. We enjoyed mulled wine and live music (the girl playing the guitar on Dec 7th was amazing) in the bar. At 7:45pm we asked about our table and were told it would just be another 5-10 minutes. Well we didn't actually get seated until 8:30pm. When we finally got seated, our server came over and took our drink orders but then disappeared for 15 minutes. We literally flagged down another server to ask questions about the menu and tried to ask him to take our order because we were starving, but she finally arrived back. We all got the 3-course menu and started off with the curry cauliflower soup and it was great, but it literally took 20 minutes to arrive. It's just soup, so we had no idea why it took so long. For my main I got the baked cod and it was mediocre at best.....dry, no flavor, just not good. For dessert I got the Bakewell tart at the recommendation of our server and it was dry and not great. I'd go back to the bar for a cocktail, but the food and service aren't worth the wait at all.

My 3 friends and I waited over an hour for a table around 7pm on a Tuesday evening. We figured it…read morewould be worth the long wait, after witnessing how business was booming at The Botanist. Unfortunately, after getting seated, it took another 30 minutes for the waitress to take our order, and another 45 minutes for our first course to arrive. Needless to say, we were disappointed by the slow dinner service. Famished, we rapidly inhaled our main course (my salmon kebab was delightful- I'd give the flavor and quantity 4 stars) & eagerly waited for the desserts to arrive. Again, disappointment set in when we took our first bite of stale, dry chocolate cake and an overly sweet tart. It didn't take us the full 3 hours into dinner service to realize that we wouldn't be coming back here again. Step up the service and dessert, and maybe we'll consider The Botanist the next time we're in town!

The Abbot Cook is a large Mitchel and Butler pub in an Art's and Craft style building at Cemetery…read morejunction. It's had an interesting and checkered history having previously been called "The Upin Arms" (a student style pub), "Jack of both sides" (reputedly a drug dealers pub and seedy dive). Now it's a gastro-pub where the food isn't quite Gastro quality, more good home cooking masquerading as something more. Prices are around £8 - £12 for a main meal. The Sunday dinners are good and the pub is always full on a Sunday with live jazz playing across lunch hour. I've taken my 80 year old parents in, My 40 year old friends, and see lots of young professionals and even some students. Everyone seems happy. It has large outdoor spaces and those heating things that blow heat into the outside air under large canvas umbrellas. It's my local pub and I love it because the staff are always friendly and chatty and clearly trying to do a good job, there are different events most nights - Monday is Quiz night, Thursday is open Mic night. It also has a reasonable range of real ales - at least 4 guest ales at any time.

Do not eat here…read more They must have been bought out recently as I have never been so disappointed by somewhere I have had a fairly decent experience with in the past. Came here on Monday evening for Dinner at around 8pm with my Mother who came to visit and my Fiance. I have been here before a few times for the Sunday lunch and their burgers are usually good. However, the food was terrible, the service slow and unhelpful and it was expensive. I ordered Code and Chips with Mushy pea's and, the Mother ordered Sausage and Mash and onion gravy and the fiance ordered Flat Iron steak and chips she ordered Rare. My code was so over cooked it was going grey and dried out. My chips tasted scarily similar to McCain oven chips (those frozen cook in the oven crap) and the Pea's where funky smelling. The mash was lumpy and under cooked with no seasoning, the crazy was basically Bisto gravy, and the sausages tasted terrible. Now, the fiance's steak, she ordered it Rare i.e. FUCKING Pink, it came out like old leather. Dry, chewy and clearly not fit for human consumption. The chips where also the same as mine. We sent it back, and they told us they would cook a new one. Well 5 minutes later they said the chef was cooking another one right now, but will need 5 minutes (what steak costs 5 minutes to cook???) When the idiot of a waitress returned she proudly said "here you go, sorry about that, we have made this as pink as we could" #alarmbells. Now, I do not expect top class food from a pub, but yet again it was not fucking pink. I complained again, and asked to speak with the chef, they refused. They clearly do not understand how to cook a piece of meat. Just cook it for less bloody time. They then refused to refund us as only she had not eaten anything. needless to say, we promptly left and will not be going back. Also, the food took 48 minutes to come in the fist place and was terrible and cost us £52 bloody quid.

Jazz, Salsa and Soca sounds good too :-) G a r y…read moreSteelasophical

I loved it here. We had fish and chips with curry sauce. Great food, great service. I can't wait…read moreto come back!

Less of a neighborhood pub and more like a bar, Three Guineas used to be the Reading rail station…read morebut is now simply attached to the rail building. I think it's probably a big place to stop-off on the way home for the business people coming back from Londontown. But I certainly wouldn't know anything about that at all. Really. I'm sure. Um, moving along... Full bar service with several beers on tap as well as a reasonable food service. I have seen a couple people eating here, but it just doesn't have an eating "vibe." The music is a bit loud and when there is a big game, they have a big screen television outside for the smokers.