C.U.P. Speciality Coffee & Tea in Reading

Great coffee and nice service. However, even have-in drinks are served in plastic cups :( I only come here when I have my reusable cup

Five stars! Today was my first visit to Coffee Under Pressure, and I’ll definitely be back. I went there to study, and the environment was perfect—strong Wi-Fi, great coffee, and fresh pastries. What truly made my visit stand out was the amazing customer service. Patricia was so warm and welcoming, which made the experience even better. Just a small note for the management: I’d love it if plates and ceramic cups were provided for dine-in customers. It would add to the already great atmosphere!

The CUP is a favourite of mine. The Turkish coffee and cakes are excellent. The service is always very friendly and professional.

Delightful Cappuccino, scrumptious food, cheerful service – my idea of the perfect working café.

Best coffee in Reading, although there’s not much competition at all. Very pleasant cup, nothing special by third wave standards but I was very happy to have it when I spent a few days in Reading.

Small and welcoming. Ideal for those who appreciate good coffee. Outdoor tables on a sunny day are a nice touch.

Coffees were nice but unfortunately we saw them chuck MANY pastries into the bin instead of offering reductions on them, we found this to be very wasteful, if they offered any reduction on them we would've bought them but no they just instantly chucked them all into the bin 😬😬😬.

Small and welcoming coffee shop. Clean tables and benches. Coffee good. Sampled a flat white which was perfectly strong and smooth. Good temperature. Purchased a slice of spinach & feta cheese filo pastry slice. This was rich but not sickly. Great flavour and consistency. Perfectly firm and not overly greasy. A great example of an independent coffee shop competing well on product and service against the homogeneous chains. Do try them out.

This is a very good coffee. Good location, a bit bare and stark inside with wooden stools. There are plugs and it is quiet, functional over style. Great coffee and friendly staff who make great coffee, for a coffee place than gets you 5 stars.

Friendly staff, nice and clean in general. But, the coffee was pretty awful.

The coffee and spinach pie were tasty, but getting served in a paper bag and disposable cup, while dining in was a bit of a miss.

What a wonderful cup of Greek Coffee, excellent and kind service and lovely tart. Was lovely sitting watching the world go by.

Good things can be hard to come by in Reading if I'm brutally honest. This place, however, does really good coffee and with one of their custard slices (sorry, I'm too uncultured to know or spell the greek name) it makes for a lovely start to your Sunday.

2nd branch of this locally owned business. Fine tea and coffee. Good Staff. Wide range of tea. Tasty spinach and feta pie.

High quality coffee that's much better than a large chain

Best coffee in town, and friendly staff!

This place serves the most perfect mocha latte I have ever tasted..... I get the dark spice decaf mocha with oatmilk. Bliss

Gorgeous coffee, lovely atmosphere in small cosy café. Nice for working. Welcoming staff. Shame about the disposable cups.

Wandered past this place for ages without even noticing it and have popped in twice now for a slice of custard pie and a flat white, both really tasty!

Enjoyable macchiato. Would have preferred a real cup.

After hearing lots of hype about this coffee shop, I decided to give it a go. The coffee and the pain au chocolat were ok, nothing special, and staff friendly, but the fact that they come in a disposable cup and paper bag, even though I dined in, made me immediately regret my decision. I might’ve as well just got it at the train station. Also a small advice to the staff, when someone listens to loud videos on their phone, it’s annoying for everyone else, so you should ask them to stop. Not coming back for sure

Coffee was good, but they also offer some nice food as well. Unfortunately, we enjoyed it all so much I only have one picture before everything was devoured. The coffee was well brewed and prepared and tasted very nice, more chocolate flavours than fruity. The spinach pie was very nice but would have been better hot, we didn't get an option to have it heated. Finally the chocolate snack (not sure what it was) but think a kinder Bueno with sesame and you wouldn't go far wrong was excellent. I ate two of these and didn't regret it.

As a man that lives off coffee I cannot recommend this place enough, great coffee, friendly staff and a nice atmosphere 👌 also great prices for how nice the coffee is.

Nice and friendly staff and a great location situated just outside a church on a quiet lane. Ordered a latte and a flat white (oatly served) and sadly the coffee was a bit weak for both of us (for our liking).

Very disappointed. I came here especially because I saw they made the top 50 coffee shops in England. I came around 1pm. It was empty. No sight of any food menus in the place. I ordered a latte and it was very average - thin and opaque. Canvassing wasn’t good and the latte art was faint. It also came in a paper cup. I asked the barista if she had ceramic cups and she said the owner had decided to get rid of all ceramic cups. She seemed frustrated with the decision due to it obviously not being a good move for environmental reasons. The spinach and feta pastry also tasted a bit hard and stale. I really wanted to love this coffee shop and it just disappointed me on every level.

Very disappointed. I came here especially because I saw they made the top 50 coffee shops in England. I came around 1pm. It was empty. No sight of any food menus in the place. I ordered a latte and it was very average - thin and opaque. Canvassing wasn’t good and the latte art was faint. It also came in a paper cup. I asked the barista if she had ceramic cups and she said the owner had decided to get rid of all ceramic cups. She seemed frustrated with the decision due to it obviously not being a good move for environmental reasons. The spinach and feta pastry also tasted a bit hard and stale. I really wanted to love this coffee shop and it just disappointed me on every level. The barista was friendly - that was the only positive.

Best coffee in Reading by far! Definitely recommend to try almond latte for a change, you will be surprise with nice smooth taste👍😋 Spinach and feta slice a nice small lunch option, tastes delish! 👍😋

So certainly I didn't eat anything there but a server (or the manager, I don't know) helped me in a very stressful situation. Another huge thank you to him. So I imagine that this place is also welcoming to everyone.

There's nothing here, I dont know where all the lovely looking pictures of food from their Google maps page have come from but there's no menu in sight here, just coffee in disposable cups and a sad rage of pastries

Very pleasant coffee shop opposite Town Hall. If you go for the mocha you have the option of additional chocolate. Does give you a sugar rush. We also had Greek pastries. There is outside seating which we took advantage of. Coffee is served in eco friendly cups and pastries come in paper bags which you use as makeshift plates. Saves the washing up. Worth a visit as it's a great alternative to the many so so chains we have in the town..

Lovely coffee, friendly service, perfectly baked pastries. We lingered to read the paper, no pressure to order more although we did as one delicious croissant wasn't enough...

One of the best cafes in Reading without a doubt. The quality of the coffee is very good!! the people who work there are also very nice, polite, and friendly. Shout-out to my friend Patricia! She is the best:)

Used to be a really good place but I have visited it again after a couple of years and it's not what it used to be. I have been served bougatsa cold in a bag... and it wasn't even cut...one person to run the place so the poor girl was trying to get the orders and prepare them at the same time. So big queue and waiting time.....as I said not what it used to be....

Very good place, coffee and cakes are delicious, we will definitely visit more often) Thank you for the warm welcome, I liked everything

Ordered a decaf latte and it was one of the best coffees I’ve had in a long time. Nice place to sit in as well and watch the world go by.

What a quaint little coffee shop. Great service. Hot chocolate was amazing. My father didn't complain - so that's a massive win. Very reasonably priced. Nice little gen this one. Defo worth a visit.

Best hot chocolate in Reading center

Great independent - lovely staff and great coffee. Also the best hot chocolate in Reading by far.

Hot chocolate was nice but not overly hot and despite eating in, we were given disposable cups. We had 4 hot chocs between 2 of us, so it seemed a really waste of 4 cups, and the bin by the door was overflowing with them. I know it's harder for smaller business to always be green, but we also received lids even though we were sat next to the til and it just seems a waste

The best pot of tea in Reading Town Centre. Good for coffee too. A range of light snacks available. This branch is often quieter than the branch near St. Mary's Minster.

Haven't tried food but sure it's good. Selection on hot chocolate to be proud off. NO toilet on site

Here you get Reading’s best cup of coffee I’m told, and wasn’t disappointed. Also had a pain au chocolat and it was buttery soft. You can get coffee to go or sit inside or outside. The only drawback is they don’t have a toilet :(

I always avoid large chains, I try to support independent coffee shops when I go decide to have a sit down outside of the house. On this occasion I was in Reading as I am working away. I look through the window and see this place is empty, one table out of 10 - 15 are taken. I buy my coffee and sit-down to do some physical paperwork, I need my laptop to complete said paperwork. Barista says 'you can't sit there, you can sit at the bar'. The space at the bar is tiny so I explain I need to physically write things down. He says 'you can sit at the bar, not at the table'. I look around, every table is empty bar one. Absolutely rubbish customer service. If i was going to take up too much space and prevent them receiving custom I wouldn't have gone in anyway, I went in because it was empty. I left my coffee and went elsewhere.

Visited her after a poor experience at another CUP cafe to give it a shot. The barista was very rude and the coffee wasn't up to the standard I expected, really poor - will not visit again.

Such amazing coffee, had gone before I remembered to take a photo 🤩

I’m not really given to write negative reviews but this speciality coffee business really deserves one. We’ve been coming here regularly when in Reading and like chalk and cheese the flat white we had on Sunday was perfect. Today I got a cup choc a block full of insipid coffee, although I use that term advisedly. We told the ‘barista’ and he kindly made another cup, although not before telling me I must have been tasting the foam. That’s a laugh, there wasn’t any. The replacement came, marginally less pissy than the first one. I left it. Everything is about consistency and of the coffee can’t be perfect from one visit to the next then we will be finding somewhere else for our morning coffee.

I come all the from Dubai specially fro the best barista in this place

The best barista in reading hands down!

Coffee was ok - cold latte but the barista wasn’t very friendly

Great speciality cafe, lovely place, good vibes, barista on shift was very helpful (you must try Iced Dark Chocolate Mocha ) that was great recommendation, had a Greek spinach pastry as brunch, it was amazing! Definitely coming back soon

One of the best Coffee you can test. Try freddo espresso “ Double espresso , longe go mixed with ice.

Please save time and go to Costa. Would never normally suggest that but the coffee was poor and not dialled in at all.

Server could barely speak English. They have a card-only policy with NO SIGNS displayed. Avoid.

Lovely coffee, great taste, small but enough. Getting fed up with large brands big cups and not much flavour. This is coffee at its best.

Coffee was good, cake/pastry was ok. Only serving in takeaway cups even when you are not actually ordering takeaway is a massive deal breaker for me. Sorry, but unless you are starting to use actual mugs, plates and cutlery we won't be back 🤷🏼‍♀️

Good coffee. And not overly hipster

Over-hyped and pretentious. Latte and cappuccino both tasted like cups of warm milk. Staff were unfriendly, bordering on being rude. Trying to find some positives, the place was clean and prices comparable. We won't be back.

I wouldn't normally write a review for my daily cup of coffee, however my first experience at coffee under pressure was definitely worth it, great customer service the Tahini chocolates roll definitely worth trying my coffee was SO good these guys really put the care and passion into there work. 💯 better than the usual high street chains For sure my regular spot:)

No toilets, ok-ish coffee, cold pies served in paper bags

Just nice coffee and pastries. convenient location, too.

Today I was meeting friends for a coffee and decided to give CUP a try as I prefer to support local business. As a manager of a large independent cafe myself I'm always on the look out for new ideas. I arrived 10 mins before my friends and sat outside in the sun. Unfortunately because it was windy the barriers around the small outside area were flapping about like crazy, hitting me in the face and generally causing discomfort it was the same at every table ( they were missing the pole that goes through the bottom of the cloth that would prevent this happening) So I drew the offending section of cloth back and looped it round the poke to stop it flapping. Within 2 minutes a barrista came marching out and said 'madam you can't tie the sign up like that' he was rather aggressive and spoke to me like a child, he then proceeded to return the cloth part to its previous state of flapping about, all whilst I sat there getting hit again. I said why don't you put the pole in the bottom part. ' it's worse' he remarked. I got up and said ill go elsewhere then, he responded OK fine. I'm absolutely appalled that a member of your staff was firstly unable to see this was causing a problem for customers and secondly that he was petty enough to come out and return the barrier to its prior state thus causing the original problem to return. There was nobody sat outside at all when I left, which is hardly surprising given that nobody wants to get whacked in the face whilst drinking their coffee. I really think a better response would have been to say ' sorry this barrier is causing an issue, let me move it out the way for you' This guys customer service skills are non existsnt and he is losing you business. I met my three friends at Nero, where we sat for 2 hours and had lunch and several drinks, all without being treated like a child by rude staff.

A lovely cafe with really great coffee and friendly service. Recommended for those who are after top quality coffee.

Great Greek coffee and Greek mpougatsa. The atmosphere was nice and cozy and the staff very friendly. Highly recommend it.

Popped in for a takeaway latte which turned out to be the best idea I've had all week. Tastes like the memory of what you thought coffee should be when you were a kid.

The coffee and cake were tasty, and it was a relaxed atmosphere in the coffee shop with quiet covers of various hit songs in different styles. Let down by the fact that there are no toilet facilities despite having enough seating to require it to have them for customers. Coffee served in disposable paper cups even if drinking on site which is a bit disappointing. Might pop back for coffee to go, but will probably stick with workhouse or Lincoln in future.

Great coffee and great cakes. A nice quiet hidden gem. Would highly recommend.

Had a lovely latte - the milk was steamed perfectly, rather than the boiling hot thin milk you get in the chains. Also bought a bag of coffee - I'd have given 5 stars if the beans were a bit more freshly roasted, most were already a month or so old.

Not as good as the Broad Street Mall or St Mary's Butts branches. Our server seemed to know nothing about the coffee he was selling. We also had to ask for a glass of water, which is brought with the coffee at the other branches. I think that this branch is more for office staff in a hurry, rather than for those who love the whole coffee vibe experience!

Great coffee shop with a great pain au chocolat - recommend!

Maya Angelou “people will forget what you said, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” The baristas wasn’t very nice about social distancing and I felt humiliated so I left before buying anything.

Had a flat white and absolutely loved it! Good coffee and great relaxing vibe. One of the best artisan coffee places in Reading.

Great coffee shop!! Was served by the lovely Roisin who was super friendly ☺️ Would definitely recommend.

The best coffee in town I love coming here every morning to get my coffee & such a good service and atmosphere ❤️❤️Lovely staff !!!

Unwelcoming. Gang of what I assume are the owners mates always standing around blocking the door. Staff rude.

It’s the best coffee in the town!

Stopped off for a quick coffee and hot chocolate in between trains. Quick friendly service and very COVID safe. Can't really comment on the selection of pastries as we didn't have food but all looked delicious - especially the spinach and feta pie and sausage rolls. Support independent coffee shops :-)

Amazing allergy friendly, homemade cakes and bread! Tasty coffee with great milk alternatives and a really nice space to sit. Served by a lovely lady who made the cakes herself! Highly recommend this gorgeous little cafe ❤️

Coffee is nice but unfortunately they don't have a toilet

I can't recommend this little coffee shop enough! It's surrounded by big chains of coffee shops (like starbucks, cafe nero and Pret), and also big-chain food and drink places like Oneils and many other pubs. But the coffee and drinks taste far better than any of these. It's greek-owned and probably originally a greek idea, and the greeks know how to do good coffee and refreshments in general. There are always really friendly people serving, and you can sit indoors or outdoors looking across at Reading Town Hall, which is really nice architecture so isn't like looking at a high rise building! They always have lovely greek food to buy there too, which is pastries filled with spinach and feta etc. Whenever you get a drink with chocolate in it, you can choose from three different types, and there is always the option for dairy milk alternatives. The smoothies are gorgeous. Has a much more relaxed feel than any other shops in the area, probably because of the management!! Please go and support, but not for the sake of supporting, but because it really is much better than anything else in the area.

Great coffee and bougatsa. Hot coffee take outs would need a holder for the paper cup because it gets too hot to touch. Ok service, clean place.

Good coffee, great people. What else do you need? Plus very convenient locations

Love the espresso cappuccino, mochas and custard pies! Friendly staff and cool modern decor.

Great coffee and Greek pastries!

Beautiful Coffee and great service, such a lovely setting near the church a really lovely place for a sunny lazy afternoon coffee and snack. Lovely Lovely service the staff are always so cheerful and kind. Thank you, I always have a wonderful experience here!

I love this branch and the staff is so friendly .. one of the best coffee spots in Reading .

Had eggs on toast and coffee here for Sunday breakfast. To my surprise, the coffee was seriously superb. An Americano with milk, I think. It ticked all my boxes: large; hot (using hot milk); full flavoured; mellow (no bitter notes). Interesting taste tones were discernible, unusual for a mellow coffee. For me, it was the joint-best coffee I've had in Reading--and I've had a lot of coffees in Reading. (My other favourite is from Côte Brasserie. Côte's coffee is smokily intense and served in a small cup, as in France. This coffee at C.U.P. was a gentler hit--what I'd call a comfort coffee. Awesome.) Let there be no mistake, by my standards, the paragraph above is a rave. * The poached eggs were done perfectly, which is actually rare. The eggs were good quality and cooked just so, with no hardness or slime. They came on a tasty, extra-large slice of warm granary-style bread. I wouldn't call it toasted, as such--I prefer eggs on proper toast, to be honest. Not sure if that was a mistake or just the style of the house. Still an enjoyable breakfast. * This is a tiny cafe but has a cool vibe. Interesting decor, though to my jaded eyes the artistically shabby wall looked as if the plasterer had been drunk. The lady with dyed reddish-pink hair who served me was welcoming and a credit to C.U.P., Blagrave St. I hope the business and the staff find a way to survive the present COVID-19 challenge.

Very delicious, best gluten free cake I've had in quite some time (one of a selection I might add), not to mention gorgeous coffee. The servers, and atmosphere overall, were very warm and friendly. It was a little pricey, bit we definitely plan to visit again.

Love this place. They make great coffee and have an interesting variety of tasty breakfasts that they present with such care and attention to detail. The staff is super friendly, much nicer than at the one close to St Mary's.

I've been to the CUP quite a few times. The baristas do a great job and you can find sweet and savoury snacks to go with your beverage. Greek cheese pie is really nice :)

Brilliant food. Warm and welcoming service. Great brunch spot in Reading.

It is good but there is no toilet.

Eat, drink, chat, relax, smile.... Place to be!!!

Brilliant coffee and lovely staff 🤩

Tea is great. No toilet facilities that's why 4 star's

Wonderful coffee (Greek?) and really friendly staff. The atmosphere they create means that it has a very relaxing and continental café feel.

Small cafe with lovely coffee. Their coffee taste is really good.

I asked and paid for an espresso, but received an Americano. The barista refused to make me a second coffee, unless I paid for the second coffee. Very unlikely that I will return...

I go here weekly and absolutely love it. Always get an oat milk iced latte and always love it. The service is always wonderful and I look forward to going back every time I leave!

Great coffee and cakes, much better than Costa and Starbucks

Amazing coffee, cozy environment, great staff.