The Cunning Man. in West Berkshire - Phone Number, Reservations, Reviews

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.

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

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.

AVOID AT ALL COST - I booked a table for 4 when visiting my daughter . It was a sunny day and busy in the garden and the restaurant. We were sat inside . The waitress took our drink order which then took 10 minutes to come. When she bought our drinks she said she was going to clear the wine glasses and come back to take out order - why did'nt she take our order at the same time ? We then waited another 10 minutes before we had to go and find another waitress to take our food order. We then waited 45 minutes for our food which only came as I chased another waiter. Could the food have been worth the wait ... No ! The roast meat was overcooked , all of the roast vegtables were soggy as were the green vegtables. I ordered a side of stuffing which was also soggy and the plate was swimming in gravy . My daughter had the lamb skewer which was tough and rubbery . All of the waiting could have been better had someone told us that there was a wait . They were horribly understaffed in the kitchen and the restaurant . I will not be going back

Great vibes- Ella was a brilliant server and the food was delicious, drinks were great . Enjoyed our visit. Great time will come again

Ella 🙂 looked after us well. Sunday Roasts all round. Very generous portion sizes.

Food was very nice and the service by Ella was top class

Food is decent, but not great. Staff are all professional and friendly, innparticular Ella, who is very welcoming and polite.

I haven't been to The Cunning Man for more than 12 years as I've moved to the other side of the country. I met an friend there on a recent visit and I was really pleased we did. We had a great meal and the service from Ella was 5* all the way! Not many places you go to these days where the waitress is friendly, smiles and cares if you're enjoying your visit. I'd definitely recommend a visit and I'll be back again but I won't leave it 12 years next time.

Lovely spot on the canal. Staff great and very friendly. The only criticism is that the food wasn't warm enough

Ella provided exceptional service and was very attentive, we will definitely be coming back because of her and the great food

We were sitting in the garden. It wasn't clear where you should sit if you wanted to eat. I only found out after a long queue at the bar.

Amazing service from Ella - she was so polite and helpful with recommendations. We sat outside in the sunshine on a lovely terrace by the canal. The roast was delicious although to veg was a little underdone.

Really nice food and service from Ella!

A lovely find and great location. Excellent service from Ella and the team plus good food at a reasonable price, we'll be back!

Great service from all staff but a special shout out to Ella our server she was so helpful & patient making suggestions & recommendations. Service with a smile thank you Ella.

Highly recommend food and service always a high standard. Ella was an excellent server.

Great late lunch today. Thank you Radhika for your hospitality.

Our service from Jade was great!

Great atmosphere, great food, especially the chorizo and fish finger sandwich and lovely surroundings. Fantastic service particularly from Ella who took great care of us all day long!

Excellent food. Very friendly and helpful staff. Thank you Ella.

Good meal and good service especially from Ella throughout the whole night

Served by Ella , amazing service very polite & welcoming

Visited last Friday last minute. Booking online was easy. We were served by Ella a lovely young lady. She was friendly and helpful and nothing was too much trouble. She took time to have a chat and always had a smile. The food was average but at least it came hot.

42 of us ate lunch at the Cunning Man on 20 June. The food came out amazingly quickly given we were such a large party and was very good. Service excellent too. Thank you.

Great food, great service! Thanks Alex!

Good food , Ella was fantastic :-)

We had a brilliant family meal out 07/13. Ella was our server and she was fantastic.

Great experience Ella was lovely

Ella was excellent, really lovely service and the food was delicious. Thanks for a lovely morning!

As always, excellent food and wonderful service from Emma. Thank you Alex for fitting us in. Have a lovely rest of the day 😁

Had a good meal with brother in law on his birthday ,served by Samun who looked after us with a smile.

great pub and lovely setting, Alex our server was great and very helpful, making out night out very easy and enjoyable would 100% recommend visiting with staff they have

Alex was great, made sure we was looked after for a couple drinks with friends. Great drink at late with friends. Definitely come when Alex is on shift

Great service especially from Ella. Polite and cheerful

Only had a drink at the end of the walk but loved the cosy interior and fabulous beer garden. The Old Rosie cider was very drinkable.

Lovely pub, good atmosphere and nice staff. A little pricey for a pub but it is good food and a nice place to be. Really busy on a hot day but worth it.

A group of retired, local teachers,met for a reunion. We were asked to put in a preorder,as there were 16 of us. It worked a treat. We had time to get drinks, have a chat and catch up. Then along came the food, delicious, generous portions and all together. Another little break and our desserts and coffee arrived. We were efficiently served but not hurried. Then to paying the bill, who had what etc. Again dealt with in a very efficient manner.Many thanks to Alex and the team, we had a lovely time. We will be back. Christine Emerson

Wow! Not been here for a while..so it was nice to see the place again. Food was absolutely amazing 👏 Our compliments to the chef... all 7 of us left with content bellys! Tasted absolutely fabulous 👌 Customer service was exemplary..Will be definitely be going back again soon. Well done all, the atmosphere was so relaxing it made our dining experience truly heaven !

catered for a party of 12 with no problems

We had a really lovely time at the Cunning Man celebrating our anniversary. We cannot fault the food( we both had a turkey roast as it was a Sunday- delicious and a gorgeous dessert). There is a wide variety of menu. The ambience is perfect and first class service - Diksha was our very friendly and helpful waitress who helped to make our anniversary evening special. We did not feel rushed. Thank you so much. Kind Regards Tracy and Chris

The food we had today was good and bad. The wife had a chicken skewer and she said that was lovely. However, I had the chicken burger and that was awful. The chips felt like they’ve been on the hot plate for the last two days and were hard. The burger started off nice but the ends were so overcooked the chicken was dry and the coating so hard it was inedible. Millie was very apologetic and did not charge us for the burger.

Great service from Diksha and Radhika

Alex was our host today , he did a superb job and the food was absolutely delicious , thanks very much to the chefs, the bar staff and also Alex again could not have asked for a nicer evening.

Good food and welcomed our dog, very

Stumbled across this lovely little gem while driving home. Decided to stop in for a Sunday roast and wasn’t disappointed! The starters were probably the best I have had in a for long while, the chicken liver pate was out of this world! Myself & my partner had the slow cooked pork belly & sirloin of beef which was also exceptionally tasty! Am 100% coming back here again, and it’s also dog friendly!!

Been going to the cunning man for about 30 years, but today everything was brilliant. The staff were so friendly and had a good laugh with them all. The food rib eye steak with beef dripping was honestly the best I've ever had. Probably will only have that from now on. Well done all of you from a very happy customer 😊 p.s husbands food was good, but mine was better 😃

Eating at the cunning man is really a pleasure the staff friendly, the surroundings in the pub are comfy and welcoming there’s even a walk down the canal if you want… the food is luscious! No complaints here . Thank you guys especially Franklin who was a great host.

We were extremely satisfied with the standard of the Cunning Man. The server, Rhuen, was efficient, capable, considerate and very friendly. Throughout the evening we were asked if we needed more drinks, anything else and he could not do enough for our group of 7 women. We learnt at the end of the evening that this was his first shift, and we would not have known he was a newbie, he was so confident.

Staff were very pleasant and efficient.. Th food was very good and good proportions. Enjoyed the meal and environment

Lovely meal, excellent service from Rhuen!

Went to the cunning man for dinner as a family, food was great and rhuen was fab!

What a shame. Such a lovely looking pub but the food was very disappointing. I only ever write good reviews but unfortunately I cannot today. The roast dinner was almost £20 each and the beef was very hard and tasteless. We eat in a lot of nice restaurants and were looking forward to a nice roast during the football. The staff just left us at our table with the plates still there for over an hour after we had finished. We moved them ourselves to an empty table to watch the rest of the football. We wasn’t offered dessert or asked how our meals were. The young guy who took the order was friendly but unfortunately we had no contact with anyone else. We have recently moved into the area so was hoping to visit here more often. Probably not now.

Great selection of beer. We enjoyed tasty bar snacks (good helpings), burgers and fish and chips. Lovely garden by the canal. And friendly service too. A lovely surprise.

Food was good but I ordered king prawn skewer which was very over cooked, I was also quite shocked to find heads feet and shell still on the prawns. Had a salad instead which was very nice. We did feel that the waiters were a little over eager to take our plates away (twice) despite the fact that we hadn't finished eating.

Very enjoyable lunch on a sunny Saturday, Really nice beer garden

Had a great dinner at The Cunning Man with great venue friendly staff and awesome food/drink highly recommended

Lovely food, great atmosphere and top notch service from debs!

Lovely lunch in a nice setting 😊

Brilliant canal side pub! We were served by Ella and she was attentive, polite and was able to make recommendations from the menu for us. Great food and selection of drinks. Would highly recommend a visit.

Staff though busy but helpful and cheerful, Ella was serving our table that night and was very friendly Food were amazing, highly recommend slow-cooked pork belly and Lamb, steak was slightly overdone but still tasty Great for family gathering

We had an amazing time here on my mother's birthday. The food was spot-on. But what I really would like to highlight is the over-and-beyond customer service from Ella! She made us feel special! Thnak you!

Lovely family lunch today. Served by Ella and Alex who were very attentive. Ella is a "Ray of sunshine" 😁

We had a great time at Cunning Man and Ella was absolutely Amazing! 🤩

Everything was perfect and Ella made it even better for us !

Ella was excellent so friendly Service was brilliant

Absolutely delicious food for my family meal and I am very happy with my experience with a good day of sunshine later

Huge menu for food and very good cask ales at this freeholder.

Great food and location. Margot was very helpful and professional - many thanks

Really nice pub - good food for veggies and we had our dog with us. Margot was lovely with us.

Expensive food for what received. It tasted good but was not worth the price.

Moored up to grab a bite and a pint. Food excellent and very quick to table, online ordering from your table is a breeze. Beer fresh and tasty tho £6+ a pint. Enjoyed it all even on a busy Sunday. Next to the K&A canal network (river section) with plenty of moorings to stop on.

Fantastic location and website. Arrived on time it was seated to a table next to a very very large noisy table so asked to be moved not the restaurants fault so no problem with that. Eventually, drinks order was taken starters arrived after an hour, mains arrived 45 minutes later run out of drinks. Never asked how the food was and then had the audacity to add 10% service charge. When I asked to take the service charge off, they weren’t even interested to know why. We won’t be going back in a hurry,

Very pleasant very good food very reasonably priced

A warm and very pleasant atmosphere in this pub with first class table service from Ella. We were a party of 10 but she was extremely efficient in taking our orders with a friendly smile throughout. Unfortunately the food was somewhat disappointing on this occasion. For example, my wife and I chose fish cakes which was meant to come with tenderstem broccoli but actually came with ordinary broccoli. I ordered crème brûlée to follow, which was meant to come with homemade shortbread but instead was supplied with a handful of thin salted sesame seed biscuits!

Ella was amazing, very attentive and helped us with everything we needed.

Good variety of food, good atmosphere and garden nice to see speciality pizzas and skewers on the menu. Margot explained the menu and was friendly

Food good. Didn't like the sauce they had put in place of holindase sauce. But rest was ok. Pud was good. Service perfect.

Lovely lunchtime meal with friends. Fair but reduced menu choice. Good value however prices have increased. Very slow service on a quiet Monday lunchtime.

Really nice place. A really nice pint. Food was good and tasty. But let down by slow and unattentive service

The food was delicious, fresh and well portioned. My special request was accommodated without a problem. The roast was amazing but let down by the jarred cheap apple sauce. I understand it was very busy but it took quite a while for a our drinks to be taken and when they were taken, it created a lot of confusion with the server because the drinks were new on the menu. The drink order was partially incorrect when it finally arrived. The server seemed overwhelmed with customers and I felt the table service wasn't quite up to scratch. I really like the food here, so I will return but perhaps there should be more servers on during peak times.

We had an excellent Sunday lunch on Father’s Day. Our server Emma was very friendly and helpful. Great lunch was had by all, thank you

Margot was outstanding and very attentive to our needs and we were particularly impressed with her tenacity to ensure we all received exactly what we wanted, despite some challenges. She is an absolute credit to your team and deserves to be rewarded and recognised.

Had a great Father’s day meal here’s. The service was awesome and I would give our server Ella 5*. She was friendly, helpful and attentive. Can’t wait to go back

Helen was wonderful! We brought my dad for his father's day roast and he was so impressed! The food was amazing and service was perfect! Thanks again for a wonderful dinner we will be back

Ella our waitress was excellent

Emma was fantastic - great with our kid and really friendly. Food was great too!

Ella was a great waitress. Very attentive and friendly.

Ella was our waitress and she was very friendly, attentive and funny. Lovely food and good atmosphere.

Pulled up on the canal, the pork and fish were superb,the beer was ice cold the service was first class. Special thanks to Margot from Oz . 5stars all round.

Went to the Cunning Man for dinner Thursday evening and had a lovely time! It was my first visit and absolutely loved the atmosphere, all the fairylights are so cute. All the staff were really friendly and helpful! Shout out to Ella who was our lovely server! The pizza I had was really good as was the brownie I had for pudding :) Would recommend!

I held a retirement party for my work, and everything from the time of booking till the food and clean up was exceptional. We had to make last minute changes but that was not a problem and everything was organised as we requested. Alex and Debbie did an amazing job and really made the whole experience all the better. A big thank you to them.

Had a lovely meal in super surroundings. Our waitress Emma was very informative and helpful. Will visit again

Over visiting from the States. Cunning Man was a splendid meal with delightful service. We got the slow cooked pork belly on the recommendation of our server Elia and it was amazing. If we weren’t so full we would have stayed for trivia (Thursday nights, rock and roll bingo is Wednesdays).

Great service from Ella, really nice food!

Good food, not too expensive, within walking distance of the hotel. Just what you want when working away from home. Great service by Millie, very pleasant young lady.

Lovely customer service from Debs at lunch time today! Nice food and beautiful decorated pub nice friendly waitress! X

Helen was a wonderful waitress! we never wanted for anything! The food was incredible! We will definitely be back soon

Really great pub with good food and friendly staff

Great evening served by Ella, who looked after us perfectly.