The Foundry Bell Wokingham in Wokingham

The admin at this Restaurant is not good and we were directed to an outdoor seating area which we were told we had booked - which we hadn't. We were told that if we wanted to eat inside we would need to leave within the hour. There were 11 of and we had pre ordered. We opted to stay outside and didn't get our food till an hour after we had sat down. The food however, was lovely and we were looked after well once we were there.

We went for Sunday lunch because it was recommended. On arrival we were told that the roast had rosemary on the potatoes, vegetables and possibly the gravy, this was not mentioned on the menu. My friend cannot eat rosemary, she had fish and chips which she did not enjoy. I didn’t have beef because rump is not a roasting joint, I suspect that the beef was not cooked on site, from what I saw someone else eating. I had the pork belly. I have had this elsewhere and I cook it so I know that it can be tender. The belly was two thirds fat, the meat was pink at one end, I did not eat any of the meat. The cost for one lump of very fatty belly was extortionate. The ‘roast’ potatoes were oily externally and internally. I ate them because I was hungry, I had indigestion for 24 hours. The root vegetables were uninteresting with a lump of various greens at the the bottom of a small pot. Much better to have fewer vegetables and better presented. The manager was very considerate and wanted to hear my views. He did not charge us for the meal,, although I offered to pay. The Yorkshire pudding was huge, crispy, and cold. I will not return for a roast. The staff were very good. The room became cold because the fire went out, that was quickly relit by a member of staff.

Had lunch with friends that I have not seen for a while. A Spanish girl that served us, was incredible, bubble, very friendly and with a lovely sense of humour. She understood that we had a lot to catch up and gave us the space we need it. Also, she showed knowledge about the dishes, and a lot of patience to explain. Food was very tasty, heard they will change the menu soon, cannot wait for the new dishes! My friends and I, had a great time in this restaurant and we shaw comeback. Thank you for the all team!

Casual night with mates Jo is a credit to you Bubbly fun but professional Rest of staff are extremely friendly and professional

Brilliant place to have lunch with the family. Lovely environment and even better food. Sophia was our waitress and she was absolutely fantastic, always available and on hand for anything we needed. Couldn’t recommend it more!!

Decor is good and staff were pleasant and welcoming. Downhill from there, service was very slow and food not very good at all. We shared a cote de boef at £70 and it was cooked OK but hardly any meat, about 3 slices each. Fish and chips were oily and chips hard Definitely not worth the price tab they are charging.

Just like everywhere else, the turn over of staff is unreal. Nice to see some friendly faces remain. Aonghus and Monique are shining stars if the bar and always take a moment out of their day to recognise their regulars. It means a lot to have that general acknowledgment from the staff that see us most often, they know what I’m drinking before I order , not that it really changes in a day to day but seeing them pour the drink without me asking is just perfect customer service in my books.

We had a lovely roast dinner - pribably one of the best I've had when eating out and the service was briliant! Absolutely recommed :-)

Great pub! Great decor! Great Service. Couldn’t ask for anything else, The Outside area can get very busy so would recommend booking.

Very dissapointed visit , definitely first and last time. I believe anyone who spend over 100£ expect good quality at every level. Strange menu, some of positions not available including coctails-very strange. Good manager make sure there is enough stock for weekend especially vodka etc. can be bought at local shop. Food barely warm. Waitress dont care when we sounds surprised, she said what we expect it was busy day LOL sorry If I will knew some stuff not available I will never come. Live music great but start much later and after few songs there was over 30 min break . Plants neglected, if manager will have some taste will remove them from tables- it wasnt only one like that. Much better places locally, not often we feel our money and time was wasted. I can see from other reviews these issues are ongoing and nobody rectify them . Thats the best reason to avoid this place. Nice interior nothing else.

Beautiful from the moment we arrived with a warm welcome into the cosy, warm space with crackling open fire. The staff were so helpful and friendly and the food definitely didn’t disappoint ! Our roast dinners were to die for ! Beautifully presented, tasted amazing and a good portion of everything.

We booked lunch as a family for Mother’s Day. Although the waiting staff were great, unfortunately the kitchen seemed to have been having a bad day. It took over 1 hour to get our Roast for lunch after having our starters, and the meat was not great with quite a lot of gristle. For £40pp this was a very disappointing and expensive 3 hour lunch.

Fish and chips - overdone. Waitress did not come and check out meals were ok Service was slow Area we sat was quite compact Pudding - donuts overdone Cheese board expensive for a slither of cheese Could do better

Mother’s Day lunch What an experience, was A* from start to finish service was amazing and attentive food was excellent and the team really delivered we will be back !

Loved the food here and the staff were incredibly friendly and attentive. They were extremely knowledgeable about everything we asked about with a fabulous manner. We were seated in an area with two large parties with a lot of children which made it super noisy. This made it a little difficult for my mother to hear and for our group to have a clear conversation. Note to self to ask when booking next time, to put us in a quieter area. Although really busy this did not affect the service or the quality of the food. Would highly recommend and definitely return. Thank you especially to our waitress (blonde young lady) and the Greek (I think) lady with the fabulous sense of humour. Golden nuggets of your team.

Today was our first visit and sadly we won’t be returning. We were really impressed with the decor and how well kitted out the pub was. We were expecting good things but we hadn’t checked the reviews - big mistake. The food is massively lacking seasoning. We weren’t offered any table water (the entire time) and items we ordered didn’t arrive. The rosemary fries aren’t seasoned with rosemary at all. They’re basically a portion of basic fries. The bread and Camembert is very basic and really needs some sort of chutney or honey to cut through the cheese. It just wasn’t very nice at all.

We had a very lovely meal for our anniversary, the service was good and the food was really nice and very fairly priced. Well definitely be going back again.

Hidden Gem, Visited on the off chance after half marathon and must say the roasts here are to die for. The staff are very attentive and knowledgeable well trained! The management team should be proud

Amazing food & service will deffinately come back Staff are very welcoming and knowledgeable and look generally happy to be there ! Which is hard to find

This was our first visit to the Foundry Bell and it will probably be our last. When it first opened, we'd heard good reports but before going yesterday we should have taken a peek at Tripadvisor. As a previous restaurant owner, I know the golden rules of hospitality are acknowledging your customers, making them feel valued and getting them seated with a drink! If you're too busy to do this then take fewer bookings or address your staff rota. After entering the door, we stood unacknowledged (I'm not sure if we were unnoticed) for several minutes until I went in search of someone. There was then a discussion between two staff members about which table we could have (we did have a reservation). Five minutes later a drink order was taken but took an unreasonably long time to arrive. The downside of having a busy bar in a restaurant. We took our first sip of wine and water 40 minutes after entering the restaurant. When our order was taken, I asked for the sea trout with crab risotto. It wasn't showing up on the tablet. Our server disappeared again only to come back and say we'd been given the wrong menus! We had no complaints about the food although our roasts must have been sitting on the pass for quite a while as they were tepid at best. To add insult to injury, a dirty knife was dropped on my jumper. Listening to what was going on around us, it appeared that we weren't the only people frustrated at long waits for service and food. It is obvious a vast amount of money was spent on converting Loch Fyne into the Foundry Bell but this restaurant won't last unless it invests in staff training and shows that it values its customers. (We were given some complementary bread but when ordering a starter and a roast, a drink or discount on the bill might have been more acceptable.)

The caeser salad was very poor, no anchovies, week runny sauce, no chicken that we paid extra for. Mostly just lettice leaf. Harissa lamb was just warm. The pies were off. Sausages were more the size of chipolats. All in all a very disappointing lunch.

Hugely disappointed. We decided to try as it has received some good reviews, I cannot say how disappointed we were. There were many items missing from the food, wine and drinks menu, on a Friday night. The food quality was OK but not well cooked being either over or under done and it was clear that the front of house staff were struggling with some who had insufficient experience to cope - not their fault they were doing their best. It was clear on the night were weren't the only table with issues and the comments here show that we all had the same problems.. Not a cheap meal especially considering that we didn't pay for all the main courses. Certainly won't risk a second visit

This place has lots of potential as it has a nice atmosphere but unfortunately there is some way yet to go. Six of us had dinner here, we were initially served a bottle of warm Prosecco and when we complained we were told that it was their last one and had to have a replacement. Half the food on the menu wasn’t available, service was very slow and our meals came at separate times. Very expensive for what it was.

First and last time Staff friendly and helpful but many items on menu not available Pre dinner drinks took a long time to arrive then only two of them, others arrived about ten minutes later Ordered a mix of starters to share. Padron peppers were barely cooked so not great and squid was lukewarm. Our wine ordered to accompany meal turned up just before our main course which took about forty five to fifty minutes to arrive after finishing our starters Two of us had ordered duck cooked pink. One portion ok although lukewarm but the other was not cooked as requested and not pink. I sent it back as not edible to me like that. I was flabbergasted when the waitress returned with the plate to say chef says it’s this or wait twenty five minutes for another duck to be cooked! I decided on an alternative main which I was told could be cooked more quickly. It arrived within minutes but other than the fries the chicken was lukewarm and dry.. so lukewarm the butter on it never melted even up to when our plates were cleared Obviously the place has staffing and supply shortages but this is not good enough or acceptable for paying customers and a shame for the front of house staff that are working there. We will not be back

Went with my girlfriends to celebrate 2 of our birthdays. It took over 40 minutes to get our cocktails before we got our table. Once we had squeezed onto our table it took a further 1/2 hour or so to take our order- many of the items on the menu weren't available. Last time I came bread was brought to the table but nothing this time. The food took forever to appear, I'd ordered pink peppercorn squid. There was absolutely no flavour at all, no pink peppercorn, no salt, nothing. Lots of oil though. Very soggy , the garlic dip would not trouble the most sensitive of vampires. One of my friends had broccoli bhaji which apparently tasted like a heavy stuffing. The rosemary chips had no rosemary, the whole meal had no seasoning. We asked for a bottle of prosecco which after a very long delay was dumped at the end of our table, some glasses arrived after a further 10 minutes or so, we were left to open the bottle ourselves. The water we requested arrived after we had finished our main course- but with only 2 glasses despite there being 5 of us. The desserts didn't fare much better, the crumble was like soup. The staff were evidently under the cosh, very short staffed and stressed- they were all lovely though. However, after paying out well over 50 quid each we would expect a way better experience. We definitely won't be visiting again.

I've been here a couple of times before and it was mostly good. Today we had a late lunch there and the experience was disappointing on a number of points: 1) When we arrived we ordered drinks at the bar. I was driving so wanted...

Met some friends for lunch and had very nice food, We tried the fish and chips and fist pie. We had wine with the food and the service was very good.

Eight of us had dinner to celebrate my husbands birthday. The food and service was excellent. I have dined here a couple of times before and unfortunately the service or food had let me down on these occasions but I was so impressed this time...

I booked a table of 16 people and changed it to 14 for 9 December 2023. On checking my booking to ensure everything was correct, I was told I had two bookings. Alarm bells were already ringing! I sent the menu choices by email (4...

Food was awful. We were served roast potatoes that had blatantly been reheated from the day before. Meat was dry. Portion sizes mediocre. Waitresses were excellent and very apologetic. Chefs should be ashamed of themselves for sending out such awful food. Contacted head office who...

Only 1 out of 6 enjoyed their main. 3 had hake with a full, plate of haricot beans not enjoyable. 2 had fish pies that got dropped so waited 20 mins for replacement, full of fish but a little watery. Puddings were OK, although waitress...

Came here last night for food and drink, staff were lovely and attentive. Especially the young manager called Tom, very charming, welcoming and knowledgable. We will be back !

Best pub in Wokingham for wines by the glass. And I know I work in wine! Super impressed…no one else does this. This combined by a cosy open fire that’s real makes for a perfect evening indeed!

Waitress had no idea about GF. 5 of them chatting at the bar with barmen, 2 on their phones. Had booked and had confirmation on phone yet they had no knowledge of us coming. Told us we could come in as long as we were...

The Foundry Bell's stunning exterior, welcoming staff & cosy atmosphere are really wonderful and although the food was lovely, if you're after "traditional" pub grub, this is a bit more upmarket! Would still recommend a visit though.

I’m Gluten free and they had a separate menu which had lots of great choices. We arrived late, after 9, so obviously some choices were sold out. I opted for the bubbles burger with fries and sauces. I was disappointed as I assumed it would...

Ryan was an amazing waiter. Would recommend, food was delicious. Other waitresses were just as attentive. Lovely atmosphere.

The food was very good. The service was good but we were put in the stables and were the only ones in there. We felt the service was a little slow as we were out of the way

Very enjoyable quality lunch in front of the splendid open fire. First class food and brilliant friendly service

We booked the Foundry Bell for New Years Eve, unfortunately it was incredibly disappointing! The 'entertainment' included within the set menu price couldn't be heard from the restaurant. We were charged for the 'complimentary' welcome drinks which were overly sweet and undrinkable. And finally, our...

Cannot fault this place! I have been here several times since opening and since new management team took over a couple of months ago, the vibe has changed for the better. In general there seems to be more team morale and their recent live music has been fantastic each Friday - gutted to see it has now stopped which is slightly annoying as they finally had a great atmosphere there on a Friday. The music each week has been UNREAL and very well needed. I recently came for a business lunch meeting and spoke to gentleman called Tom and he was very helpful as wanted to book their room at the back the restaurant. I asked who the Manager was and a lady called Vaida who has recently joined also. We had the risotto and fish pie (SO much fish included) and a few of the small plates and the food was lovely - hats off the chef! Defo be coming back again...

We book for Christmas Day with food being pre-ordered. . This was a treat for my wife so she didn’t have to cook on Christmas Day and a present for her parents. The table was booked for 4pm and sat down at 3.45 and was joined by my wife’s parents and brother at 3.55pm At 4.45 we had to go and ask if we had been forgotten as we had not received our starters. From then on some items were missing from our dishes, we were very short on vegetables for our mains and hot deserts were cold or wrong! Coffees were bought out the same time as our dessert so were cold by the time we had finished our deserts. Once our food started coming out it was very rushed and we were then hurried out the door as they were closing. For £100 a head for Christmas Day dinner this was not good! We have eaten here a few times over the past year but sorry Foundry Bell this was extremely disappointing!

the ambience of this place is good. it used to be a branch of the Loch Fyne fish restaurant chain but it has been tastefully revamoed. In line with all other restaurants in wokingham the standard is now very poor. it is over priced and the chef wants sacking. I an happy to give training sessions on how to cook good food; but i expect that head office has dictated and supplied istructions and poor quality ingredients. I am sure they did the best with what was suppkied bit as a chef I would refuse to iet dishes of the quality go over te pass.

Came in for a business meal on Wednesday after I had previously visited for Sunday lunch. I have to say everything from start to finish was amazing, the lovely warm welcome at the door by Tom, to the open lit fires crackling away. And the uplifted service from Ryan!. The food was ok this time round not as good as it normally but due to the amazing staff here I will give it 5* Thank you