The Corn Stores was, surprisingly enough, originally a storage building. For corn. You might think that is obvious, but it wasn’t to someone I met there, so I thought I’d mention it. Some time after being a warehouse (for corn) it became a Fullers pub, then an Italian restaurant, then it sadly closed in 2015.… Read More »
I’m confused, because I’m sure The Turks used to be called The Turks Head. And I have a sneaking suspicion that they changed their name simply because they thought that people would just google “The Turks” and so it was better for the name to match what people search for. If that’s true, it sets… Read More »
I’d heard a lot of great things about the Red Cow in Amersham Road. A bunch of people had suggested I go there – apparently it did great food and great beer. It gets a 4.5 star rating on Google reviews, and 5 on trip adviser (admittedly that’s only from 3 reviews). However, the Nags… Read More »
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 »
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.
