The Back of Beyond - JD Wetherspoon in Reading

It is good bargain for a pub classic with the Afternoon deal in week days.

Good spoons. Buttermilk chicken burger.

Best pub in Reading, just need to open the gate to let bikes in and would be perfect

Enjoyed a lot , nice place to have fun .

Had a fun time on the patio. Cheap drinks and lively atmosphere!

WRONGLY ACCUSED AND BARRED. I have been coming to this pub for around 30 years for meals and drinks. Probably every couple of weeks. I went in yesterday with my daughter. We were meeting friends for a meal. The Duty Manager came up to me and said I wasn't welcome in the establishment. I was shocked and asked why, he said I had been identified by a members of staff as being involved in an incident earlier in the year, dancing on the table and starting trouble and the police had to be called. He said it was either me or the person looked like me, so there was clearly an element of doubt. IT WASN'T ME. I explained that it wasn't me and I had been coming to the pub for years and in fact was in there two weeks prior and several times before that since the beginning of the year so why was I not asked to leave before if it was me. Why leave it months since the incident to bar me? I am 50 years old and have arthritis and there is no way I would be getting on a table dancing, there is no music in there to dance to anyway. The Duty Manager was not having it. I asked to see the CCTV which he said couldn't be viewed for a week. I said if the police were called surely they had a name of the person and they could check my ID. He said no. It was completely bizarre and I was humiliated and accused of something I hadn't done in front of my child, my friends and their children and an extremely busy pub. It was very upsetting. I tried to explain and the Duty Manager ushered us out and said we were barred. He also refused to give his name when I asked. I had also ordered drinks and he said I would get a refund in 3 days. I am so upset and disappointed to be treated like this in a pub I have been to for many years.

You know what you're getting if you want a wetherspoons, quiet weekdays and busy weekends, food quality as expected, which is 5* if your baseline is spoons quality.

Jeez. The staff here should ask for a refund from whatever charm school they attended. Customers are an inconvenient intrusion on their day. A couple of laptops with AI bots would be a massive improvement. Google will block this review if I use the "C" word, but all I can say to these staff is "See You Next Tuesday" - you can be rude, lazy and contemptuous of customers but I can eat and drink somewhere civil. I back Tim on Brexit, so this is not a political review!

Very busy over the weekends, being in the town centre. Too noisy for me not being able to hold conversations.

Treat with caution when ordering wine by the glass through the app. Today twice I was given 175ml instead of 250. Was rectified without apology though.

Delicious pub food, comfortable space, a good place to take a break during the trip!

Stopped by for a quick lunch. It's conveniently located and though I don't always use it, I love that they have bottomless tea / coffee refills with your meal (depending on your meal order I think). The food is always great otherwise!

Shame I couldn't leave a 0 star review. The bar staff (including the duty manager) were incredibly rude and cut off our entire group for 'some of us having too much' The group had been there 2 hours (from 2pm) and no one had ordered anywhere near enough to even be drunk. Most of our group were only on their second pint. They refused service to me when trying to order a pepsi max... And nothing else!!!💀😂. They clearly care loads about my caffeine intake. Won't be coming back✌️

Great atmosphere, interesting location by the river. We are regular visitors: the best managed Spoons for some considerable distance, good food, friendly staff.

Good food. Good service. Good atmosphere

Frierndly efficient staff. Great choice of food served ftesh, and quickly to table. Great prices and portions compared to other restaurants and pubs in Oracle shopping centre. Clean toilets. Comfortable seats and pleaseant atmosphere with free WiFi.

Pretty good food. Nice place to go out with friends for a bit of fun. Atmosphere and prices are decent for a pub. Staff are friendly too.

Beer has been better in the past but wasn't too great on my last visit. Too warm and not a very good selection.

Nice pub, reasonably priced as you'd expect from Wetherspoon. Been a couple of times and would go back again with my family.

Duty manager on shift 22/2/25 @ 3:08 has a real attitude problem. If your having a shit day don't take it out on the customers. All the other staff were very nice and polite

Classic Wetherspoon. Good prices, tasty food and I like the atmosphere in those pubs 😊

Food was awful took forever and was awful arrived about an hour later. Tried ordering ar bar and was ignored for about 1 hour and half on a pretty much empty bar (like 2 other people in the whole place) staff were so rude for no reason wouldn’t recommend if in reading go to the other spoons much MUCH better. They should learn from them.

Nice place with reasonable prices

Typical wetherspoon. Very good value for money.

I am very happy when I am there and I love this place. Very good service and nice atmosphere.

The Reading tide line for pubs does worse go home go broke, comfortable value, social spot

Typical Weatherspoon pub. Good selection of beers, wine, and food

Excellent Wetherspoon, very good standard.

Friendly service, clean and value for money.

Usual 'Spoons fare, good atmosphere as normally full in the evening.

Many thanks to Layla for being a great member of staff and helping us during our night out!

This place doesn't deserve more.

Cheap beer with fast service. Not what you would call good quality but definitely good value, and the beer had better options than other places we visited in the evening..

OK for a quick one and cheap drinks. Don't appreciate seeing staff with grubby bitten dirty nails when serving drinks. Absolutely repulsive.

Not as good as the Hope tap!!! Xx

Its spoons you know what you are getting

Nice pub. Very traditional and cozy. Food is brought quickly. The food is not bad, but not super tasty.... Maybe you should go here for beer 😅 Burgers are very small. The fries are too thickly cut and dry... My husband is satisfied with the beer 😅

Out of the 2 spoons in reading i would say this one is bigger and nicer. With its river side beer garden adding for a nice experience. It is just a bit out of the town centre.

Served 2 different pints of those in the Real Ale festival. Only ordered 2 half's via the app. One was ok but the other was very cloudy you could not see through it, but aroma did not indicate it was off. Was it from the slops tray,? Person pouring the pint should know it wasn't right, but was sent out. Better training of the staff and be honest that my order needed to be amended.

Your typical Wetherspoons. Fits the bill perfectly, nothing too posh but nice and clear, good service and reasonable prices

Great spacious pub, lovely outdoor area. Good choice of real ales. Bit disappointed with the staff earlier this week. A load of freshers (students) came in and were treated and shouted at like kids. Some of their staff are uni students so they should be more understanding. Other than that, no issues.

Your usual Wetherspoon. With a big back garden and plenty of tables. Customers below the average standard.

Good visit nice friendly staff and the staff haven't got an attitude.

Always good, I can recommend the Leffe.

Went there last night order food and drink waited 40mins for the food and then we had to ask for the drinks ,food was terrible large mixed grill came without the fried egg mushroom was raw peas just thrown over the top most of the meat was cold peppercorn sauce was stone cold ansolid

Excellent Wetherspoons, spacious interior, outdoor seating and window tables at the rear of the pub offering views over the River Kennet. The service here was fast friendly and efficient when we visted and as always great prices across a huge selection of drinks & meals from the comprehensive menu. The pub has a good atmosphere to it, without being too crowded and like most Wetherspoons has a good interior layout and decor. Recommended to visit.

Great food and great beer I enjoy going to this pub

Good atmosphere, good selection of ales. A good Wetherspoon!

Had some drinks here out in the garden area

Had a long black coffee here before one of THOSE business meetings and spoke to Rory that worked there with his kind and friendly attitide Wetherspoons should try to find more people called Rory, and and hour later THAT meeting sealed the deal, which one may you ask? Well both I can reveal!

Typical 'Spoons but with a sunny garden in town😁 speedy table service and cheap grub, What's not to like!

Wonderful food and drinks, awesome friendly staff, just a shame about some of the older male patrons who wolf whistled and leered at my 16 year old daughter. Other than that, a great birthday lunch thank you so much!! ☺️

Cheap decent food and decent well priced drinks

Regular spoons prices, good service, the layout is slightly odd but not a big issue

Bar man / Manager Paul is an asset to the bar staff always happy and smiley 😁😁

I like it because it's cheap and now the burgers are a lot better. Service is normally quick and easy but last night I was ignored and ended up ordering on the app. Atmosphere, well, nobody knows your name...

Food awful had the lasagne with in an hour I had chronic diarrhoea the waiter pinched my glass before I finished felt rushed my partner had the stake swimming in grease definitely the worst meal we had out.

Very nice spoons. Good mixture of ages, I didn't feel too ancient in there. Some places are like youth clubs 🤭. We had some food and it was good. Not too noisy. Outside area.

Had the curry Thursday tasted good plenty of chicken in it great value for money

Myself & my husband have been regular customers for many many years of The Back of Beyond to eat & drink on Saturdays. We waited patiently at the bar to be served, lady behind bar said who was next & despite my husband saying it was him & putting his hand up she proceeded to serve someone else! We were clearly next as had been stood next to the lady she had just been serving. When we spoke up she said “don’t start anything” At this point we walked out. Needless to say we won’t ever return with that kind of treatment. Staff training in customer service is clearly required here!!

Bad customer service; we were waiting in the queue and “Beth” she just left the priority: customers; I know can be something more important but in any case you can pass nicely the customers to another colleague; improve your customer service; so, more training and more respect for each other!

One of those pub where you get good food to enjoy along with your favourite drink. Indian curries deal on Thursdays not to be missed.

Very enjoyable meal great value for money

A pretty run of the bill pub, this place isn't fancy but gets the job done.

Air con on full... got quite cold and uncomfortable.

Nice enough, but looking dated now compared to some other local pubs. .

Tristan was amazing & really nice, really welcoming and polite! Asset to the company!!

Enjoyed my evening at the back of beyond, lovely summer evening in the courtyard garden, staff very helpful and polite,toilets nice and clean, we didn't have a meal but hope to next time.

The pub is quite pleasant. The service is commendable, and there is a spacious outdoor area. The menu offers a wide variety of options, although the portion sizes have diminished compared to the past. It would be greatly appreciated if larger portions could be provided.

Very empty on a monday but noisy because a bunch of foul mouthed irish swearing loudly. Awful staff with no skill at all.

Lovely place to meet good all round .

spacious, friendly mates, nice food and drinks

Been in today madness staff run of their feet tables a mess but at least 45 mins for drink but the stood together and got the job done they should get a bouns for all the word today

Staff weren't great. Food was quick and tasty

We didn’t eat, they had problems in the kitchen! I understand equipment breaks down, but they just couldn’t communicate that to the customers waiting.

Was there today. Staff were ridiculous. There was a little Asian guy who for no reason decided he was not going to serve us. It was for no reason. Said he was the manager and then proceeded to be unreasonable for a while. Refuses to give me his name. Then another person decided he was the manager and decided to uphold a the bad decision. I recorded everything. If someone from Wetherspoons head office would please like to review video. Please get in contact with me. I am the manager of a business in Reading town centre.

Lovely place for everyone. Their service is excellent as always.

Bad staff always in corner of bar laughing and talking food is very bad.no right managers glasses left on tables don't even wipe tables down worst weather spoons I've been in. Won't be going back

Good pub, quick service. Food pretty good

Like any wetherspoons bar it is quite dark and dingy. The interiors arent impressive but the food and drinks are always our favorite and it has been our fav for the last 15 yrs.

Generally good, food very good.

Cheapest beers, fast service unless they are too crowded. There is more than enough space available to sit outdoor in summer.

It's a spoons, has a big area and large outside patio, easy to find seating space.

Great breakfast! I wish I'd been there at beer-o-clock because they had some great sounding beers on tap.

Mediocre Spoons full of noisy brats when I went

Very busy Wetherspoons, really loud but decent food and good pint

Never thought I’d have to leave a review like this, been coming here years. This is the worst service I have ever received: drinks, food and cutlery thrown at us onto our table. Extremely unwelcoming, rude service from staff. Sad to say I won’t be returning.

I was banned from this bar for no good reason. As I approached the bar to order our second round, I was told that I would not be served due to some fictitious arguments I had during my last visit, from my recollection, it was a perfectly peaceful one. I complied as there was little point in arguing, but it was quite awkward to explain to my guest from Spain. In all honesty, as a British-Indian man, I think there may be a race-issue involved here.....#playingtheracecard 😂

Nice Indian restaurant near the reading station.

If I could rate customer service from 1-10 it would have to be 1 because on more than 10 visits I’m treated like an inconvenience rather than a valued customer. No verbal interaction just pours drink and points to payment machine. Ok it’s cheap but if it wasn’t open til 12 and I live close I would never come here. I’ve been polite at all times using verbs like please and thank you but clearly not shared or valued. If you want cheap ok but if you want any measure of service forget it

This is a good bar staff are mostly good, my problem is they keep putting on the air conditioning on. It is 6 degrees outside and warmer than inside. The manager wants to get his head out of the clouds and look at his customers, who are sat with coats and scarfs on because of the cold. You do not get this at the hope tap, people need feel comfortable when out not freezing.

Good beer... nice food.. friendly 👍🤠

Pretty divey, poor service but the drinks were cheap.

It’s a great place to have a budget meal I’d say, but the atmosphere is really true if you more into pubs and traditional sort of things.

Far superior to Reading's other wetherspoons but could improve, particularly in clearing the tables, and for gawds sake wipe them down! The ale selection is not great. I'm not sure if the manager doesn't care for beer or what. I've been there a hundred times but am never acknowledged as a regular customer.

Food was nice, great breakfast and cheap. But very dirty, sticky tables and dirty stained seats. Service was fast and friendly.

Staff not friendly. Barely an acknowledgement of your existence.

The Irish worker got pushed out and it will never be the same. Should have promoted him :(

Great breakfast and not over priced, hot food nicely presented, coffee machine needs to be a bit hotter apart from that 100% recommended. Beats any breakfast in reading on quality and price

Less than £9 for a vegan BBQ stack burger & chips including a pint of local Windsor & Eton Brewery beer trumps my namby pamby woke principles. Rapid service (without a smile, but that’s absolutely fine) using the app, high on calories but lower on carbon emissions. Plenty of space here, definitely one of the better ‘Spoons.