The Cunning Man. in West Berkshire

We stopped for lunch at the Cunning Man while walking the Kennet & Avon Canal. Pub is lovely and right next to the canal walk. Beer was good, food was excellent, and staff were very friendly and helpful.

Really friendly server, was served quickly with a smile, came back to check on how our food was and how pudding was. Would certainly recommend to others and would visit again. Excellent pudding- serverd by Millie

Stopped for a quick drink whilst out for a walk along the canal. Lovely garden. Meals are amazing too, been a couple of times recently with different family members and they can always cater for everyone whatever the group size.

Debs who served us was very friendly and helpful

Excellent service from Holly today.

Popped in on my walk from Theale and had the Sunday roast belly pork which was delicious. I sat in the bar area and ordered my food and drink from the bar. There was a table service area available too. Dogs were allowed.

Debs is an incredibly attentive server, super friendly and approachable! Couldn't sing her praises more. Food is delicious and the cosiest atmosphere with a gorgeous fire. 10/10

Hmmm, mixed feelings, but mainly very disappointed. Our table was booked for 12.15, we arrived early and had a drink in the bar. I checked that the highchair requested was at the table - it wasn't. The notes I had put when I made the booking, had not been read. We seated at 12-12.15, there were two less to the original booking, and I placed an order for a bottle of champagne. The afternoon progressed with delays to taking orders, receiving those drinks and food orders - we had to chase a few times. At one point, I went to the bar/host station, where I waited a few minutes before someone attended to me, to ask for our mains to be sent as we'd been waiting a very long time since even our starter plates had been cleared. Whilst we watched a full restaurant get their food before we did, despite arriving quite a bit later than us. When our mains arrived they were warm and the steak was overcooked. We had waited so long for our food, that we just continued, except for the steak, which was returned. I don't know what to say, it was extremely poor. I won't be returning, unfortunately.

Deepika looked after us fabulously

Great food and staff, we went in for dinner a bit last minute and they were able to offer us a table right away. We didn't have to wait long before we were served drinks and food.

Lovely setting by the canal. Perfect stop when walking or cycling. Good selection of food beers wines and cider.

Great pub and great food, so close to the canal too which was a bonus. Millie our waitress was lovely too 😊

Nice location & atmosphere. Mille looked after us well, good food with prompt service. Would have been a 5 star review, but the colleague I was with is disabled and the footpath to the pub was difficult to negotiate as the wheels of his walker kept getting stuck in the gaps on the pathway. A smooth surface is better for wheelchair users & those with walkers. Also if disabled parking was nearer the entrance it would mitigate this as well. Please pass onto the owners of this chain. Thank you.

Amazing pub Friendly & very helpful staff Fantastic food 😋 Warm & homely 100% recommend Well done cunning man 👏👏💕

Good food, nice atmosphere, and good location for a canal walk. Gotta register inside for your parking though.

Lovely tasty food. Server Millie was friendly & attentive.

Food is really hit and miss. Had a roast and it was cold and tasted like it had been sat under heaters all day. Soggy and not crispy. Came back for another meal and thought I would give the steak a try. Ordered rare, got over-cooked meat which didn't have an bit of pink in it. Sent it back and got a barely seared slab of fat. Which was a bit outrageous for a £30+ 7oz sirloin. Sent that back and gave up.

Don’t go here avoid at all cost food terrible staff terrible service terrible

We came here for the pub quiz as a group and we really impressed with The Cunning Man! The location is really green, peaceful and really close to Reading without the busyness. Everyone was impressed with the food, service and the quizmaster! We love puz quizzes and this pub is now our favourite. Well done team!

Lovely food and environment. Molly offered a great service and was very helpful. Definitely going to be returning again.

Sadly I was very disappointed by my experience at the Cunning Man a week ago. We met relatives for a Sunday evening meal and chat. Fortunately we enjoyed the chat as the food was very poor. The Sunday roast was poor quality, served tepid, vegetables very badly cooked. The broccoli was hard: not raw, hard! We would have asked for replacements, but had waited quite a while for the food to arrive so decided to cut our losses. I can only assume there were staffing issues in the kitchen on the day, as the personable serving staff seemed surprised when we said the meal hadn't been great! We had to repeat requests for drinks: the final issue was an incorrect bill which I checked carefully. Needless to say, we won't be returning for food, which is sad as the pub is attractive with a good vibe.

We had a fantastic lunch and Debz was super attentive. It is really a bit more upmarket.

Everything wonderful! Very tasty food and very well served dishes. Amazing desserts! Very good beer and at the correct temperature. Excellent service from Holly! The place is cozy and very comfortable.

Perfect for going out with girls. Cosy pub. Lovely staff.

Delicious food and great service by Radhika, thanks a lot!

Wow! I am completely speechless. The atmosphere was incredibly warm and inviting, as were the servers. We were so impressed by the quality and taste of the food, we had to come back the next night to try more of the menu. Helen was very attentive, remembering us from the night previously, and returning my scarf which I had left behind we felt very looked after. We cannot recommend this place enough. It has become one of our favourites and we look forward to visiting frequently in the future.

Had a Sunday roast here a few weeks back, amazing food for the price, generous portions and a nice outdoor seating area. Very pleased with the service too, shout out too our server Amelia!

Thank you for serving us Holly!

Great service the waitress was lovely her name is Deepika very friendly. Lovely place will definitely come again.

We just got a 155 pound fine… from that evening claiming we were supposed to pay parking from our phones? Not only did we have a 2 or even 3 meal course and left over 200 pounds there (it was 4 of us), but now also 155 pounds. It should have been made clearer that parking was not allowed. We just got a threatening letter in the post that parking fine could not be appealed - and we got the fine over a year later… Appalling !

Fabulous 5* service from Deepika, main courses all very good, deserts not as good standard as mains. Banoffee choux bun was flat and a Baileys liqure coffee was whisky not Baileys

Had a lunch here on the 31/12/21 for my Birthday and just have to mention Adam who was on duty that day he was absolutely fantastic with us and made us feel so welcome and nothing was too much for him a great member of staff a real ⭐ Food was delicious and cooked perfectly with a good range on offer . We come once a month and will continue in 2022 .

I like the cunning man a lot, but the food does feel quite overpriced for what it is. It's also quite a big pub which means it can be noisy at busy times, but it is cosy and has a lovely atmosphere.

Food wasn't amazing as gammon was very fatty but Debs was amazing and couldn't have done more to keep us happy. You are lucky to have her working for you ❤️

Very great atmosphere, very tasty food and Very nice girl Deepiha served us. Thank you

The Cunning man is a lovely and cozy pub with some great food and we had an excellent service by Deepika - highly recommend.

We all enjoyed our meal and our waitress, Deepika was really sweet and helpful. We had mushrooms in garlic sauce and fishcakes starters followed by Chicken and veg curry, Beef bourguinon and chicken parmigiana. Portions were so big we didn’t have room for dessert. Deepika was very helpful as I have laryngitis and Couldn’t actually speak to order.

Fabulous food and service from Helen was brilliant. Will definitely be back.

Consistently superb. Great variety of dishes. Service always good, atmosphere in the dining area is darker but with log fires. Bar end is lighter and many outside tables if you want fresh air.

Great food lovely atmosphere and our server Deepika was great ,very efficient and nothing was to much trouble for her . Definitely reccomend eating here .

Very good service, manger man was very friendly and good chat. Deepika very nice lady. Food was very nice. Starter bit to much but on the food on point! Struggle to finish the main. Lots of seating location. Parking spaces, strange with parking display And information .

Credit where it’s due, this is a lovely pub in a stunning setting. But the food really lets it down. My Sunday roast was underdone, undercooked, under seasoned and generally just a bit meh. Watery gravy, several items mentioned on menu were missing and strangely it arrived with a watercress salad. Boring, partially inedible, not worth the money at all.

Had an absolutely lovely roast here yesterday with my partner. Very friendly team and great service from Sadihka. Great prices and value. Will definitely be back.

lovely food, atmosphere and service from Deepilca!

Lovely atmosphere and good food, been a few times and it never disappoints. Big summer beer garden

We waited for over an hour gor our food with no apology.

What's great - location, environment, the way the pub is designed, free parking, reception. Things to improve - staff empathy (some are lovely and some quite blunt), food not cooked to perfection (medium steak was more like overdone and dry, thanks with the sauce otherwise would have chocked), service requires a lot more attention due to long wait times and miscommunication within the staff members as they wanted to take the order for the mains twice. No attention to the order, received a tomato garnish instead of a side of greens and also staff needs to be educated on ingredients as they don't seem to know what truffle first are.

We had a lovely lunch for 2 days in a row, great good and great atmosphere. Deepika was our waitress and she was really nice

Amazing find en route to Cornwall and the waitress Deepitea was outstanding.

Really nice and quaint pub. Food was fantastic and Deepika's service was great.

We were a party of 8 that stopped here for dinner. The food was nice although the prawn skewers were served with the shell on, once the shells were removed there wasn't much fish which was disappointing. Service was a little slow although the restaurant was quite busy, and 2 of the drinks were wrong which was rectified.

We've come here as a family lots of times and it never disappoints! Food is delicious, service is fantastic - Millie took great care of us 😊

A lovely birthday meal with good service (thanks Deepika) and delicious food. Would recommend the sea bass main.

Sunday lunch - Booked beforehand, but restaurant was overcrowded, with long delays in getting a table and then in getting the food.

Served by the lovely Ceri. Wonderful service, great food, nice portion of vegetables. Kids happy. Thanks you.

Had a lovely roast dinner with our puppy to get her used to out and about. Alex was super friendly, attentive to us and our pup as we're the rest of the staff. Plenty of events on to look forward to. Will definitely be coming back We had 2 courses each

Helen our lovely hostess. Always smiling, always extremely helpful. A joy to deal with. Satisfied customers...Sheila John Neil and Francoise.

The atmosphere in the pub was so good and it was so cosy and pretty. It was a very busy Friday night and we were very warmly greeted! Once we were sat the service was extremely slow, it was really hard to get anyone’s attention to order etc. Then there was an hours wait for food (literally exactly an hour). We ordered the Camembert which bizarrely had the top cut off so it had obviously bubbled up and gone everywhere whilst cooking and then become crispy… wouldn’t eat here again but would definitely go for a drink

We had my wife's birthday on Sunday there. Great food good service Very busy.

Amazing presentation of food and very delicious. Our waitress was Debbie very quick and attentive and such a bubbly character. We will deffo be back

Radhika was very attentive and all with a smile. Very happy. Thanks.

Really loved our food. I had lamb skewer with halloumi and flatbread and the mini pudding was a delicious finish. Deepika, our server was lovely and super friendly despite being very busy.

Wonderful meal and service tonight, thank you, Debs!

Fantastic dinner at the Cunning Man - food and service were amazing! Debz looked after us so well, thanks a mill!

We had a great evening! The food was excellent, and the service from Debz was fantastic!

Nice location and very dog friendly pub. The food was r really good however unfortunately the experience was let down by the service and cleanliness. On arrival, the guy behind the bar didn't acknowledge us, we were just left to work out if we could find our own table or whether we needed to be seated. He did the same again when I went up later on to chase the food, even though he was busy making a coffee, he could have just acknowledged I was there. As we choose to sit in the bar area there were no menus just specials so had to go and find those ourselves. We were a table of 3, the food came out staggered so the initial 2 had almost finished theirs whilst the third person was left waiting. We had ordered a side of Triple cooked chips which was put with our friends main meal instead and we ended up with the standard chips. After chasing the food, I accidentally knocked the dog's water bowl over, on clearing it up, the napkkns were black from the floor- bearing in mind we arrived at 12.30pm shortly after opening there was no way that floor had been cleaned that morning. Shame as it is a really nice pub with good food.

Went for lunch here today with my mum. Waited 45 mins for food and when we chased it we were told the order hadn't been sent through to the kitchen. Technical blip apparently. They promised to get it out ASAP, and it did arrive 20 mins later. No drinks offered for the delay. When it did arrive my prawn skewers were so overcooked they were barely edible. Mum said her paté was nice tho. Mum asked for complementary coffees and the manager did agree to this. Waited nearly 30 mins for these coffees before giving up and leaving! Really poor experience today from two local people. Service is usually slow here but not this bad. Won't be returning any time soon.

Staff always on hand, friendly and helpful. Food is gorgeous! Never had a bad meal here and the atmosphere is always restful, cosy and calm . You’re not kicked off the table or rushed with the bill. Overall a very pleasant, enjoyable experience! We are slowly becoming regulars here

How can you get a Ploughman’s so wrong!

Service and food was perfect. We were served by Millie and she couldn’t have been more friendly and attentive. Best steak I have had in a long time, and eat steak out quite a lot! Will be back.

Great food! Great service from Margot! Will definitely come again.

Terrible place. Got to recommend something to post Jesus I recommend not going. So ignore my recommendations.

Had a lovely time yesterday celebrating a friends birthday. We had food and drinks (the halloumi fries are amazing). We were looked after well and although all staff were super friendly and helpful Alex was amazing and very accommodating along with Franklin who was super helpful and very friendly. These two staff members definitely added to our experience and nothing was a bother. I would highly recommend a visit. ☺️

A lovely pub in great surroundings.

Amazing food with great location

Amy was a brilliant waitress dealing with our massive party! Food was delicious. Thanks so much!

Amy was wonderful, very helpful and friendly. We were a large group and she was very patient!

We came to the cunning man today, for a family meal, we were welcomed in, the food came out promptly. We were served by Amy who was absolutely amazing, very kind, caring towards us. Massive shout out to her, thank you. We will definitely be back!

Was so noisey To many tables no space . Complete havac when trying to pay people waiting to be seated .waiting to pay .

Sunday lunch outdoors - bit of rain but they have an extensive covered area - very pleasant. Very generous portion sizes for starters and mains. Lovely setting/location/lovely old building. The staff were very friendly. Food was a bit slow in coming, but nothing major. Sunday roast for mains and a sharing selection for starters. Will definitely visit again when in the area. There's a bus stop right outside, big car park which is free for patrons, or reach by walking along the river.

Waitress debz very helpful friendly , polite, def made the atmosphere a pleasant one and would come back

Had an amazing family meal , served by the most friendly helpful waitress we have come across.. Debs was amazing from start to finish even thru the horrible thunder and lightning.

Good beer and decent pub grub at reasonable price

Debz , great service , very attentive , very friendly , we will be back ,

The food was fantastic. Everything was lovely, including our server Debs.

Our waitress Debz was completely brilliant

I would like to commend the waitress, Debz, for her outstanding service. She was incredibly polite and always wore a bright smile, which made my dining experience truly enjoyable. Thank you for creating such a welcoming atmosphere in the restaurant!

Excellent food and wonderful service. Thank you for a super meal for all the family. The service officered is exemplary and the staff all so friendly.

Been here twice now. Once for Sunday lunch, and once for comedy (food I’ve both times). The pub is lovely but on both occasions it took absolutely ages to get served (for drinks and food). My friend has mobility issues and can’t walk far, so they didn’t want to serve us food in an area of the beer garden closest to the car park, because there’s a designated food area and a designated drink area and they didn’t want to ‘make an exception for us or they’d have to for everyone else’. Please let common sense kick in - if somebody is disabled that’s exactly when you should be making an exception otherwise, that’s discrimination. We were met with ‘Computer says no’ type attitude and had to fart around with me leaving my friend alone, waiting in the food area for the food to be delivered there so I could then carry it over to the area where my friend was sat so we could eat it. That being said - also on both of these occasions, after we were eventually able to place our orders, we were taken excellent care of by Emma who was very can do, sympathetic and accommodating (unlike her Managers). Service really needs sorting out here.

A very nice meal. Millie was a lovely waitress

Had excellent service today very friendly attentive waitress called Ella. Will definitely visit again 😀

We had a wonderful waitress, Debs, who was very helpful and polite. The food was good and we like the decor.

We didn’t know what to expect as we booked on spec but we’re delighted with the meal and the pub. The food is pricey but exquisite- complements to the chef! And a big thank you to our server Diksha who managed our table of 12 with poise and efficiency. The location is superb as well.

We had such a lovely time here! The food was fantastic and really great for a lunchtime treat. Our waitress Deb was especially lovely and provided us with excellent service. Highly recommend!

Food was amazing, all the family very much enjoyed and the service as just as good. Waiting staff were very helpful and friendly, in particular shout out to Amy who served our drinks, really warm and welcoming and took the time to check my sons' food order to make sure everything was as we wanted. Thank you, Amy, for the service

Food was average, service was friendly and prompt. Downside check your glassware because mine had thick lipstick all around the rim and flies were plentyful.

The best pub in the summer!! It’s my favourite place and the food is absolutely delicious!

Enjoyed lunch today. The pub was extremely busy but service was outstanding - very friendly and efficient young lady called Ella looked after us. She was particularly attentive to the fact that I am 'nut intolerant' and is a real asset to this establishment! Food was good with a wide choice.

Great food and great waitress, thanks Ella

Fantastic meal with very good service. Pub is very well presented and gives the classic country pub feel. Will definitely come again. Ella served us and she was wonderful.