Back Of Beyond - Reading

WE go about once a month after my husband has had his treatment, food usually good, hot, although portions have got smaller over the years. Our meal was not very good, my pizza did not have the rocket on it and it appeared much thinner than usual. My husbands chips were cold. The manager served us and did say, any problems let him know. I looked for him after we started our meal , could not see him, so thought oh well. I did go up to the bar after our meal, raised my disappointment, but because we had eaten our food,, except the cold chips , the bar lady said nothing she could do, thanked us for our feed back. So if not satisfied, motto to raise concerns, there and then. We will go back next month ...........

Had to clear our own table to get somewhere to sit very little table clearing done. Drinks ordered via the app took 15 minutes to arrive. Empty bottles were being hurled into the (recycling? bin so hard that they smashed, with the attendant noise. No element of charm about it would never return. It was also necessary to go to the bar to buy a pint of shandy, as shandy isn't available through the app (this is probably a Wetherspoons problem rather than being specific to the pub .

We only visited the bar once, but that was enough. I think the owners lack of social skills has been passed onto the bar staff too. Maybe it could be that I'm a northerner, but where I'm from, we greet each other with a friendly smile and manners, not a grunt from a face like a slapped bottom!

I went with my daughter for breakfast after dropping my grandson into nursery and my first Monday of my retirement. We both ordered avocado muffin with poached egg as extra, refillable tea/coffee included. While waiting for the order to arrive I was told there were no avocado, we changed to cheese and egg muffin which was cheaper and also had refillable tea/coffee included. I went to the till to get a refund and the guy took the price of the teas we were drinking off the total, I explained that as the teas will be included with the cheese and egg muffins I wanted the total refunded, which he did. I then paid and went to wait for our breakfast to arrive.....and then it did half toasted muffin, no butter (we asked but was told don't have butter), a slice of plastic cheese and egg on top...well you only have to look at the photo to see how awful it was. As we had no time to send it back or go somewhere else to eat as little Denis would need collecting from nursery we ate it but will not be back!!!!

Does what it says on the tin I suppose... Whilst I acknowledge what grateful diners on a tight budget have already said about it being good value for money ... I have to strongly disagree. Unless of course one happens to have a ponchon for microwaved beige food coupled with ice cold customer service. As I said above, it is a Spoons after all. That said, despite the welcome price of the drinks, the numbing noise of half-cut brain-dead and imbred locals struggling to string more than two syllable words together glued by a bland range of expletives makes the experience an interesting one to say the least. It 's not like it 's a bad place... The Hope Tap is far worse if truth be told. Yet one unifying factor is the extremely poor customer service: apart from the slightly more jovial rotunde bar manager, a mature woman with blond hair and the short chap sporting the glasses, most employees here are lacking in any kind of developed social skills: smiling and niceties seem alien to them. This is echoed by countless reviews above. In fact, it would be fair to say, that what could be an absolutely lovely boozer is diminished by the disdainful attitude of the bar staff employed here towards its patrons. In all honesty, one suspects the top man (bar manager) who has short hair, probably in his late 40s, surely studied for a BA (Hons) in hatred whilst at university. Indeed, on more than several occasions my friends and I have simply tried to ask him how he is doing and engage in polite chit-chat and we are consistently met with an unacceptable and rude response and a shrugg of the shoulders... honestly mate... if you don 't like working with customers get another job. Tip to most of your staff... we customers are not unreasonable and when some us exercise some sophisticated social etiquette, such as, saying how are you , or even thank you , it 's just common courtesy to acknowledge that and be polite. Manners cost nothing. Decent enough pints, food bland, but if you can stomach that...knock yourself out. Biggest issue is poor customer service. Peace out!