Queens Head, Reading

Went in on a quiet Saturday afternoon (no sport here), one table of diners, one young couple, all tables marked as reserved except for two small ones. Good menu but very expensive, as are the ale prices - £3.80 or so. It needed a refurb but now has no character, could be any other food pub in Reading.

In short then, a Gastropub and a not very inviting one at that, right next to a large campus university; great thinking by the pubco Business Diminishment Managers.

11 Mar 2014 14:29

The Back of Beyond, Reading

True story about this pub. It happened about 11.45 yesterday, just after last orders. The bar had a considerable amount of water and spilt drinks on it, as JDW don't tend to use mats to soak up spillages. This chap, I guess about 30, walked the entire length of the bar and, using a window cleaning squeegee wiper, he wiped all the liquid from the bar onto the tiled floor in front of the bar.

As he walked past me I reprimanded him that this was a safety hazard which people could slip and fall over on, whilst moving around or leaving. He responded by saying nothing, simply going away and returning with a warning notice reading "Floor cleaning in progress", placed at one end of the bar.

Good to see that Tim Martin's training program is working so efficiently ! I think the only time JDW staff are trained properly is when they open a new pub. I once pulled up a JDW manager about chemical tasting beer whenever new ales were put on, and he eventually admitted that the plastic beer lines were perished and contaminated with cleaning fluid.

Warning - treat JDW pubs with great caution !

4 Nov 2013 15:41