please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
New colour scheme since the last visit. I checked on Google Maps!
8 real ales on in a bar with me and two others. Makes you wonder about the turnover.
TT Golden Best was in fine condition.
Sure its great when busy.
|
Reopened after major refurbishment on 4 Dec 2014. The central entry divide between the two bars has gone to create a through and through pub although the choice of furnishings and floorings creates variety from the carpeted lounge area on the right to the high tables and bare flooring on the left.
The important stuff: eight handpumps serving six Wadworth Beers and two ciders. The beers we tried were all in great nick and there's also a daytime menu of light meals and snacks. Landlord and family are from South Africa, friendly and helpful and deserve success.
Recommended - this looks like a traditional pub on th eup.
|
A group of us went in after winning a bottle of wine at another pub. After we had bought a round of drinks, a member of staff told my friend that he would have to confiscate the bottle even though we had told him that we had won it in another pub and it was still sealed. He took the bottle and placed it behind the bar and then disappeared. I asked the man behind the bar if i had been shopping and had a bottle of wine in my bag would he confiscate that, too? - he said that he would because it is illegal for me to have alcohol on my person that I didn't purchase on the premises.
We won't be going back.
|
New licensees, friendly young couple, seem to be settling in well. Beer range is Wadworths with IPA, Discovery, 6X and Swordfish as regulars and seasonals promised, kicking off with Old Timer during the winter.
There's hearty home made food at lunchtimes and early evenings, a new juke box that mercifully is kept to a moderate volume, and for those that care for it a pool table in the public bar.
Recent refurb means the walls are now painted a rather stark white (could do with some signs or mirrors to break it up) and the lower woodwork is painted pale green.
It's not exactly the Eldon as it used to be but the beers are well kept and it's still worth checking out as one of the ever decreasing number of traditional boozers left in Reading.
|
This friendly pub has good music eves and a pleasant outdoor area. The service is good and the locals are nice people! Recommended!
|
Annie and Brian, Reading's longest serving licensees, retire at the end of October. After 39 years! Get along and visit this traditional back street pub before they leave. Wadworths say they want to keep the style as is, but whoever they get to take over will have a hard act to follow.
|
Great pub - pity the lovely couple who run it are retiring. Visit it and have one of their great traditional pub lunches - while you can!
|
Backstreet Wadworth pub with another landlady who seemed surprise to see us before 12pm. She also seemed a bit disappointed that we had other pubs to get to and were only having halves! It's a 2 room pub with a little character. Although we found the pub empty and left it empty. So it could have done with a bit more atmosphere. Beers on were Bishop's Tipple, 6X & Henry's IPA. Cider was Westons Traditional Scrumpy. Reasonably priced and worth a try.
|
Like stepping back in time, and not in a bad way. This is a traditional two room backstreet local that reminds me of how pubs used to be in the 1970s and 80s. Beers are from Wadworth (it's a tied house) and there's often live music on a Saturday night in the main bar, but if it's not to your taste there is always the lounge to escape to. A gem.
|
Great local pub. Wadsworth beer well kept. Live music at weekends always good standard. Support your local pubs switch the telly off and go up the Eldon - how pubs use to be,
|
..in fact SO quiet on an early Saturday evenig that it was closed.
anonymous - 26 Feb 2012 22:40 |
A Cracking back street pub. Beers are kept well and although quiet in the early evening it warms up up latter.
|
Could be busier in early evening. Beer kept well - most of the time.
|
Not a bad pub but could do with a slightly more interesting guest beer rather than the standard Wadwoth selection (unless this was a bad day)?
|
Excellent two-bar pub a 100 yards off the Kings Road (A4) in Reading. The Pint Size Mild is excellent, but not always on.
|
Everything a good local should be and more. Combine it with the Retreat around the corner and you won't be disappointed.
|
A friend of mine showed me this great real pub , great pint of ale & nice friendly local's , This is how british pubs should be , took me back a few years .
|
Your nan would like it. I'm sure they do a sweet sherry.
|
Excellent friendly local. Always have lunch here when in Reading. Food is no-nonsense good value pies etc. Beer is Wadworth of which I am not normally a fan, but they do the Half Pint Mild which is an excellent lunch time beer. Well worth seeking out and the equally excellent Retreat is just roun the corner.
|
Good old-fashioned local, with well-kept beer often including Wadworth's Mild. Well worth a visit.
|
Close to The Retreat, on which I've just posted is the Eldon Arms, an old-fashioned two bar Wadworths pub - probably one of their most easterly houses.
The public bar on the left has a tiled floor, dartboard and a rather rustic feel. The lounge bar on the right is smaller, cosier and more salubrious feeling. In front of you as you go in is what I presume used to be an off sales hatch, presumably no longer in use. Note also the rather wonky, sloping pub sign outside.
Rather disappointingly, the pub management feel obliged to remind us, through a proliferation of notices throughout, that we are on CCTV. It's hard to imagine the Friday / Saturday night vomit and violence brigade coming here.
This pub has been a GBG regular in recent years. On my recent lunchtime visit, in addition to the Wadworths range, there was a guest beer on, which, owing to a sad lapse of duty, I forgot to make a note of. My pint of 6X wasn't particularly brilliant, I have to say, but I'll presume that's a one off.
This pub is well worth seeking out, but note that it closes in the afternoon, even at weekends according to the latest GBG
|
It may be a clich� to say �unspoilt back street local� but that just about sums up the Eldon. Two bars pleasantly decorated with lots of unostentatious old wood and etched windows, although the public bar shows signs of a Guinness fetishist being about. A substantial range of Wadworths cask beers, plus standard kegs from Carlsberg, Stella, Heineken and Fosters (isn't that the full set?) with Guinness (of course), Blackthorn and Strongbow. Big TV at one end and piped music from the local radio station but then it was a quiet Monday night with only Morris Dancing to look forward to when I dropped in.
|
Great traditional back street boozer. A bit quiet maybe, but the welcome was inviting and the beer, Wadworth's 6x was good as well.
|
A really nice, old fashioned local. The beers are kept well and it is a friendly place. Very traditional, with long-serving landlord and lady. Long may it continue.
|
Not a bad traditional pub, but had a pint of Mild that was 'on the turn', Good Beer Guide have to do better than that!
|
Very traditional back-street local. Be aware if you have driven to it before that the street it sits on has recently become one-way and is only approachable now from the King's Road - don't turn off Eldon Road!
We only ever come here as part of the annual Ale Trail, but always find the beer in top condition. As we always normally go into the public bar,we went into the small lounge side for the first time, very pleased to see the full beer selection available from that side as well...all too often these days, the pumps are all on one side only and the other side feels somewhat lifeless. The old off licence hatch is still in situ opposie the entrance door as well, so a very traditional feel to the place.
|
nb. closes pm (3-6?) even on Saturday, but we were kindly alerted to this at the Retreat & arrived in plenty of time to a nice welcome and strong line-up of Wadworth beers - 6X, Henry's IPA, JcB, Bishops Tipple, Horizon, & Mild. The Horizon pump was not visible from where we stood and I was rather pleased that the landlady took friendly umbrage when I tentatively asked whether it was a k.e... beer, haha, it wasn't, phew! Just our group (now 5) at 14:30.
|
Nice little backstreet local with quiz nights and occasional live music.
The downside is that all the beer is Wadworths, but . it's always in perfect condition, so it goes to show that even Wadworths can taste OK if it's well kept.
|
Excellent 2-room backstreet boozer in the posh bit of town (well the bit that looks like Bath anyway). Good range of Wadworth beers on, kept well. Active darts team and a nice atmosphere on my visits.
Not sure where all the comments about expensive pints is coming from - I don't think I've had an ale in there that's more than �2.70. If you want Lidl-style prices, go hang out with the pikeys in Wetherspoons!
|
A friendly backstreet local. Good ale, friendly landlord and landlady who know the area back to front. Cheap pub grub lunchtimes.
anonymous - 12 Jun 2007 13:47 |
It's a friendly pub but they don't do a Christmas menu, I can see them losing a lot of business that way. Pity, otherwise, a good pub.
|
Nice pub, with a friendly landlady. 5 real ales (including a Mild!) all well kept. However my only problem is that is is rather expensive for what is effectively a little backstreet local.
anonymous - 30 Nov 2006 17:21 |
Good little boozer, tradional 2 room pub, ideal for a quite pint. Landlord and lady could not be more welcoming, and are very much the heart and soul of the establishment. The beer is well kept but is Wadsworth.
Friendly, warm atmosphere no noncence old fashion local pub, a tad early doors, which is good in my book.
|
I use this Pub regularly and can only say that the beer is always in great condition, allowing for the occassional bottom of the barrel pint. It is a Wadworths house so the range of beers is limited to the brewer. However they have Bishops Tipple (careful how much you consume), 6X, Mild, Henry's IPA (a good session Beer)Old Timer and Summersault (the latter two when in season) Guinness is excellent and lagers (Ugh!) and ciders also available. Good non-fancy pub food is available at lunch times.
It is a local edge of town establishment and could be viewed as a bit clique to the casual visitor, particularly if it is quite, However landlord/lady, the longest serving tenants in Reading, are only to pleased to help if asked.
The Eldon maybe small by some standards but it is a cosy little gem.
Oh! They have a variety of good live music and the "Christmas Bash" has the walls jumping - not to be missed.
|
I was scoping out this pub whilst looking at houses in the area, it's a bit like the housing stock aroudn here, very expensive for what you get. A tiney wee lounge and a seemingly ok public bar, ruined by poor beer and awful bar staff. Try getting served when one of their regulars is behind you in the queue.
|
If you know where you are going, you can slip in here for a pint if you are a patient at the nearby Royal Berks Hospital ! I did while I was waiting for my baby to pop out. Kept me sane as no beer supplied in hospital. V Good beer.
|
Used to be a great pub with a very varied selection of well kept beers but lately has slipped a bit and sometimes the beer is pretty rank. Very cliquey as well.
Ed - 17 May 2004 21:21 |
A proper back street pub. Great beer ..
Monty - 12 May 2004 12:02 |
Very nice landlord and landlady, good beer, cosy and the most generous quiz machine I have ever seen. And the smallest garden.
justin b - 21 Apr 2004 22:41 |
Nice little pub, run by Irish couple. Beer's excellent and well-kept. Cosy lounge bar. The place for a quiet pint
Jonny - 4 Apr 2004 13:46 |
