The George and Dragon at Swallowfield in Wokingham

Tiny pub, food was OK when it arrived - expect to wait 45mins plus for dry food, few greens and a big bill

It's difficult to give a fair and accurate rating for the George & Dragon because of the variation in service and for, and the constraints of the rating process. We both had the battered fish, which was good, chips cruncky, pureed peas than proper mushy. Quite large portions. My dessert had been sitting under a hot plate and came out custard that tarmac would have been proud of, BUT I was offered a replacement or a refund - very good. The service was jolly and professional from one of the team and, the other must have missed the training course. Beer and wine were acceptable rather than remarkable. The atmosphere was cold, metaphorically speaking. Not cosy or warm or welcoming. Finally, my bugbear of pub prices. I've heard that costs have risen for the hospitality industry but high prices for ordinary food and drink are hard to bear.

Lovely Saturday evening meal with friends. Fires on and very cosy atmosphere.

Such a lovely little pub, staff were so attentive and polite. Food was super and so were the drinks. All very reasonably priced too. Definitely will be back.

Great value set lunch, with very tasty starters paneer and satay chicken skewers.

Just love it here. Sophie who leads the team is fantastic. The staff are lovely. Food is great. Atmosphere welcoming and cosy. Today we sampled these new snacks yum!

Super cosy pub with great Sunday lunch food. Staff were amazing and went out of their way to accommodate us with 2 Small children. Can’t wait to come back

I had booked this for my birthday lunch with family and was incredibly disappointed. The staff were perfectly fine and attentive - so no issues here. However, we ordered garlic sourdough for a starter which was just toast with garlic on it, definitely not sourdough. This turned out to be around £2.50 per slice of toast if you share with someone. I ordered the roast pork and it came SO tough, it was unbearable to eat. This gastropub was my local for over 10 years and I never had a bad meal here, feels like it’s declining. I did in fact book this table for my birthday but had no acknowledgement that this was a birthday booking which was odd, as they asked if I was booking this for an occasion? Overall, bang average food for quite a generous price tag and don’t think it’s worth it now.

The Siren beer Soundwave is amazing, so full of flavour. The food was really good, as was the atmosphere; definitely one of the best pubs around!

Fantastic English Country Pub. Service is super friendly, fire is fantastic and the food is very tasty.

We had a lovely dinner at The George & Dragon. Cannot fault the service or the food, our waitress Emma was super attentive and the new general manager Sophie was lovely and welcoming. The food was amazing - would highly recommend the sea bass special and brûlée banana waffle dessert! Cannot wait to see our local pub thrive under its new management and head chef!!

Lovely country pub with friendly staff and a great selection of beers from the Siren brewery.

Me and my partner went here for our 2nd year anniversary, it was so lovely, the service was amazing and the food was incredible, I would highly recommend it to eat here. We will be coming back here soon

Possibly the most fabulous pub in Berkshire but most importantly the newly refurbished gents loos are a triumph of style and class

Lovely food, great service, slightly dated interior re loos but looks like refurb on the cards. We had a nice time. Thanks!

After a country walk, stopped for a drink and light bite to eat. Sandwich menu- one club and one steak sandwich. Blooming delicious. Will def be back n

I've lived in the area for forty years and have enjoyed many excellent meals , including a couple of Christmas Day lunches, in what was a top Gastropub. Sadly, in recent years, standards have fallen and I've been disappointed. On a walk around Swallowfield with a friend, I decided to give it another go. Her lunch was the cauliflower and cheese soup, which she said was tasty enough but so thick, it was like eating cheese sauce. She left most of it. I had a 'classic Caesar salad' - but there was no evidence of either parmesan or anchovy that I could see or taste, so was presented with a pile of chopped lettuce and croutons for £11! (£16 with added chicken) I was reminded of this yesterday, when I ordered the same meal in London's West End. £15 including a glass of house wine and generous amounts of all the classic ingredients. I'd love the pub to take comments on board and restore its previous standards

Great pub, staff and food. As per Michelin star ratings, this would be a two star - excellent, worth the detour.

Gutted. We used to love this pub, it was our go-to for a local country pub, previous visits were fantastic, however drastically let down on our visit this week for a special 40th birthday. We came as a large family. When we prebooked we mentioned specifically that we had our dog with us as we are aware dogs are only allowed in the bar area. Upon arrival, our table was in the main restaurant where dogs are not allowed and were told there was no mention of dog on the booking. Thankfully the bar was empty and they could put some tables together for our larger group. Our server was friendly but service was very very slow. We waited a good 30 minutes before the food arrived, and then one of our guests who only ordered a salad waited a further 5 minutes for theirs to arrive, and of course, everyone wanted to wait. The food was OK, not like it used to be - pricey for what you got. One comment I must make is on the cleanliness of the place, in general, OK. However, the ladies' toilets were grim. The sink area looked clean-ish, but the actual cubicles were disgusting. Haven't had a clean in weeks! Dead flies, cobwebs everywhere, generally dirty. I appreciate this is a country pub in the middle of nowhere, and occasional dust/bugs will come in, but these had been there for weeks - its like only the toilet paper was replaced and perhaps actual toilet bowl was cleaned - made me think how clean is their kitchen?

We were kept waiting ages before we got our food, even though the place wasn’t very busy. Then when I visited the ladies toilet I was disgusted by how dirty it was. Dead flies on shelf just above the cistern, and cobwebs and dirt all around the toilet. I tried to speak to landlady next day on the phone but was told she was too busy to speak to me.

Somewhat run down looking pub but at least it sells great Siren beer which was spot on. Sadly the bar service is a little strained, and the garden has the kitchen extraction churning away and a bad whiff of sewerage from presumably their septic tank. Food menu actually looks quite good as is the range of beer but it's let down by the rest of the pub.....sorry.

I met a mate for lunch and was very disappointed in the food. I complained the bread was stale. Ashley seemed to disbelieve me and just gave me two more slices of stale bread. The soup was like water with no taste my mate’s satay was no better. All food was warm not hot. I made sure Ashley knew I was unhappy, but just got tell someone who cares attitude. The whole place was unclean especially the run down toilet. The bill for this experience was way higher than the quality.

Classic old school country pub with great food, welcoming staff and great Siren Brewery craft beer options as well.

Just to highlight, I did not eat here so I cannot comment on this, they seem to get good reviews so I'm sure the food is good. My experience lasted about 10 minutes - we arrived, to a slightly run down looking pub, letters missing from the signage, and the pub sign of George and the dragon was round the back leaning against the wall. Hmm. Still, we went in. The first pint was 'bitter' (in a bad way) and second pint glass was just dirty. Unfortunately, that to me suggests my experience would continue like this, and we left. I'm sure after some TLC this could be a really good pub

Lovely pub, we had a nice dinner and drinks! Staff were very attentive and welcoming.

Chicken sandwich was spectacular. I would love to shake the chef’s hand for that one Staff were delightful as always.

Charming pub with good food, atmosphere and service.

Proper country pub, which is rare these days! Good beer and good food and friendly atmosphere and servers. I could have stayed much longer if I could!

Place was very quaint And the fact that they get their beers from a distillery near them I think that this was brilliant. My husband really enjoyed drinking. local beer. The staff were very friendly and helpful. Food was quick to come out. Server made sure that we were okay definitely be going back. I liked the fact that there was a section for people with their animals and another section for eating for people that don’t have animals.

Great country pub serving great Siren beer!

Sunday Lunch Disaster. We used this place twice as my mother is in a care home not too far away. Staff are friendly enough but certainly not trained in any way. On our first visit, our food was cold when it arrived at our table and so called, roast potatoes were half raw. We could have brought this up with staff but decided not to mention it as they were a little busy at the time. On our second visit with Mum (One week later), nothing has improved. We were hoping our first experience was a one off but sadly it wasn't. Semi warm food and half cooked raw potatoes. To top it all, when I made a complaint the response was " I'll tell the chef" Fantastic! Tell the chef! but also deal with the customer as you should. We saw at least another 4 people leave half of their dinners because of the low standard. Terrible food terrible service. Avoid this place like the plague!

Lovely meal with great friends and a superb venue Must recommend Rachel for her excellent service and attention x

Excellent food and staff very friendly and welcoming with the option of taking the dog aswell will be back 😍

Rachel served us. Very friendly and efficient

Rachel couldn't of been more helpful and friendly, food was excellent 👌

Tried the summer 2 course meal. Lovely staff . My wife had a decent chicken skewer then fish and chips. I ordered the soup of the day which was nice However massive letdown was the Greek Salad,. My goodness it was just large chunks of cucumber with tomatoes, a sprinkle of feta and maybe 1 red pepper That was supposed to be a main . Shocked really . Cannot see us going back The bull at arborfield and then barkham will be our next lunches

Nice country pub. Rear garden spoilt because of smell of sewage but they can’t help that.

Been several times and recently for the pub quiz. Amazing food and beer and welcoming staff. The quiz was a laugh and felt like a community pub again

One of our favourite pubs, great food, great beer and great people

I used to really like this pub before it was Siren and I used to really love Siren as a brewery. Unfortunately the Heinekinification of Siren is in full swing and they are insistent on taking this pub with them. Typical Siren style, under invest, sweat assets, trade on name. Really unfortunate as its a kick in the teeth for their previous supporters.

Been here before but won't be rushing back. Food was OK apart from the advertised Pork Loin which was actually Belly Pork. Pricey compared to other pubs in the area. Service was poor and charged £16 for. Main courses were brought out before the starter plates were cleared and we had to ask for more drinks. Were never asked if we would like desert when we asked for the bill.£185 for a Sunday lunch for 4 having 2 drinks each in a pub is in my opinion too much.

We stopped here as Google thought it would be somewhere we liked and it wasn’t wrong. They squeezed us in for Sunday lunch despite being full (we promised to eat quick!). We the staff were friendly and the Roasts we had were great for the price. The only downside is their carpark. There’s a huge dip on the way in that’s unavoidable. We crunched our car quite badly on the way in, and on the way out it ripped the splitter off the front bumper. That brought our lunch total to £500+. We’d go back, but park down the road.

Gluten Free Beer on the Tap!!!!!! Staff extremely attentive and caring.

Booked in for a Sunday roast in the afternoon and they were out of beef and this was before 3pm, settled for a burger as there were no other beef meals on the menu. The burger was ok and my mum had the pork loin, it was bland and tough! She struggled to cut it. She told them she didn’t want the cheesy cauliflower which came with the meal, she got in anyway and I decided to try it and it was horrible, think of mash potatoes but cauliflower and cheese. For dessert I had the sticky toffee I asked for vanilla ice cream and they were out. So settled for salted caramel, the middle of the pudding was still cold. Truly disappointed today. Also had a started of honey glazed pork belly, very bland wouldn’t recommend it.

I’m very glad we finally tried The George & Dragon. We had the special of the day which was ribs, chips and coleslaw. Food was really delicious. Nice atmosphere with fireplace and cosy decor. Will be back sometime I’m sure

lovely meal, and great news they are open on Mondays too now

Really love this pub. Great hospitality, period atmosphere and really nice home made meals at reasonable prices. They've done a great job at hosting my large 25 person events.

Nice country pub with rustic interior, friendly staff, selling pub food and ale from the nearby Sirencraft brewery.

Good food and local beers and friendly service. Dogs welcome in bar. Glad you're reopened.

Always wanted to go here. My son has been on numerous occasions and is very impressed. Car parking is limited when busy. The pub is old fashioned with low ceilings and in the winter a real fire. We had a host who answered our questions, took our orders and who was very helpful. We were there on a Friday night and it was busy so best to reserve a table. The menu is not huge and the prices are reasonable for an upmarket eating place. They serve Siren beer on cask/keg plus there is a beer fridge too. The food was very good but I felt the portions were a bit on the small side. It's easy to rack up a large bill with extra drinks. The men's toilets were OK but need to be refurbished. Great place to visit for a special event!

The vegetarian roast was delicious 😋. The pub had a friendly, warm atmosphere. It's an old quirky building.

Delicious freshly cooked food and a good range of real beers. We will definitely be back!

Amazing old pub. Wonderful service. Huge portions of food and very hot. Amazing prices only £20 for two courses now part of siren brewery fully recommend this pub

Great addition. My favourite gastro pub has just got even better. The G&D have converted their back room into a secluded sports lounge. They have added a 55 inch TV. You can now share great sport, Siren Craft ales 🍺 and excellent food with family friends and dog in one of Berkshire’s hidden treasures. I’ll be back on Saturday for the next round of the Six Nations. A must for sports fans. The great thing is that the Sports Lounge is secluded and the restaurant and Pub would not know you are there.

We loved the whole experience! Hadn't been for a while since it changed hands, but it was as great as ever! Highly recommended 👌

Had a great lunch here the other day. Highly recommend. Great food and great service.

Amazing ale, crafted bear, and incredible Sunday Roast! I can't find a better place in the area!

The G&D never fails to deliver a great meal in a nice environment. Service is outstanding as always and offers a true dog friendly place to eat. Siren beers are on tap, so what could go wrong 😬. It would be nice if a wider range of Siren cans were available as an alternative to the more mainstream tap selection.

Beautiful old pub. We had a big table and a baby with us and the service was efficient but we didn’t feel rushed which is exactly what you want for a lazy Sunday lunch! Food was delicious and loved the open fires!

Amazing Sunday roast and great service 👌🏼

We had a wonderful lunch here. The staff couldn't have been more friendly and the burger was fab.

I took my parents here for Christmas dinner, it was a lovely experience! From the lovely staff and great food to the charming atmosphere and log fires. I would highly recommend this pub to anyone.

A friend had booked lunch for 4 people , we had been to the pub before and were not disappointed with the food. This time it was awful , the service was very slow, ordered Christmas turkey lunch and Christmas pudding . The food was tasteless the potatoes were hard and greasy the Christmas pudding was dry with no flavour .. My husband had fish and chips the fish was burnt almost black . His crumble was powdery and looked uncooked. We will not be returning.

Great food , locally sourced, friendly staff , great service..lovely atmosphere...Will definitely go back

Excellent coffee, friendly staff

Lovely pub, great atmosphere and menu. Brilliant Sunday roast.

Thank you for asking us to return. We had a nice meal for the three of us but some of the vegetables were not cooked properly. The service was excellent staff very friendly. There is room for improvement to get back to the old George & Dragon.

Popped in for a swift half and was very welcomed. Staff and customers all seemed like it was their local and willing to share it. Dog friendly was a great bonus and will bring the dog with me next time.

A quaint little village pub run by Siren Craft Brew in Swallowfield - but don't take its outside appearance as it "just" being a pub. The staff are absolutely outstanding - You are greeted with a smile as soon as you walk through the door. If you want decent food, amazing atmosphere and seriously good local beer and spirits, this is one I'd highly recommend to anyone!

Went to meet family, had soup of the day, very nice indeed. Will go back for a larger lunch or dinner. Open fire, great..lots of local ales..pity I was driving.

Food is well made and great customer service

I wouldn’t recommend this pub to anyone. It was a birthday celebration. The food we had was cooked very bad. Some of it was burnt. The roast potatoes had been kept warm for too long. My daughter complained to the manager. But wasn’t offered any thing as gesture of goodwill. The young waiter was friendly, but my family will not be going there again. Worst Sunday lunch we have ever had.

Always friendly, new menu delicious, needed a snack the soup of the day and the coquettes were so tasty, just what we needed. Love this pub the ambience is perfect.

What an amazing meal we all had last night. Will be back soon. The food quality and service was perfect. Pear salad was out of this world.

Brilliant food and drink, lovely atmosphere, dog friendly, excellent service. Would highly recommend!

Happy to report that after a terrible experience 2 years ago, we attended the pub last night and can only give high praise for a brilliant turnaround in both service and quality of food. Excellent value for money (set menu) & so lovely to have such a pretty fire end a perfect dinner.

I’ve been to the George & Dragon a few times and quite liked it hence why we came back and this time with guests which turned out to be a car crush. We were sat in the room outside of the main dinning area and were mostly forgotten, it took us about 40min to just get water. Our friend was lactose intolerant so we had to ask the waitress to check with the kitchen a few times what is safe for him to order, once the order was placed, we probably waited for over an hour (even for a simple burger) but to top it up when my friend received his dish it came with mushy peas … with butter, not really a lactose free dish, luckily my wife stopped him before he ate any of it. So this was a very very poor visit

We went for the Wednesday Grill Night and had excellent steaks, great service, and enjoyed the free beer or wine with the steaks. The steaks were perfectly cooked, and came with good fries, a cooked tomato and mushroom. The bernaise sauce was excellent. The meal was also excellent value. It feels like there is a lot of effort going into keeping this venerable old pub going, and as locals, we appreciate that.

My husband and I decided to try the Sunday lunch here as reviews for the roast on Google were very positive. I ordered the nut roast and it was not a traditional nut roast. It was made up of what I can assume was a beyond meat burger patty with some nuts mixed in. It didn't taste good. My husband ordered the beef which he enjoyed. Both of our vegetables were undercooked and under seasoned. The gravy was watery and had a layer of oil. The roast potatoes were overcooked and also under seasoned. The menu listed broccoli cheese as part of the roast but it wasn't included, when we asked about this we were told they had run out. It was one of the worst roasts we had eaten in comparison to the price we paid (£25 each including a drink). In addition our table was sticky so must not have been cleaned. Although they were busy our server was attentive and friendly, absolutely no issues there. Overall a disappointment.

We are searching for a decent place to eat in the area-and sadly we DID NOT find it at the George and Dragon Swallowfield. There are some very strange flavour combinations which we joked about and my partner decided to try, but didn’t get the opportunity as these elements were missing from the plate, despite trying to joke with the waiter, (who incidentally looked like he’d been harvesting all day and didn’t know what an original fever tree tonic without any flavours was) , just said oh ok. The main course arrived, sea bream with vanilla potatoes mussel and sour cream sauce- this is actually moulles marnier, with one raw potato, raw onion, with a fillet of fish on top! The fish was cooked nicely. The sticky toffee pudding, and coffee, toffee pudding sauce was full of granulated sugar crystals- quite unpleasant, was served 10 minutes after the coffee. The pub doesn’t look like it’s been cleared since before covid, the toilets were grim……. I leave it with you, ……

Gutes Essen zu fairen Preisen und eine nette Bedienung. Es gibt auch ein Mittagsmenü .

Absolutely lovely pub ,food fantastic service second to none , a must to visit, there's not many of these pubs around anymore

Superb Sunday lunch, excellent food and attentive and friendly service. Highly recommended.

As a Sunday roast one of the worst we have ever had ! over cooked roasties that like leather almost black burned yorkshire pud , lucky the meat was ok but for the charge we will never return . small meals high price and think a better chief would make this a lovely country pub . maybe that`s why there where very few in there ? sorry

The restaurant hasn’t been updated for years. It used to be fabulous, but with various changes in ownership over the past 20 yrs it is now owned by a local micro brewery. Although the staff are very friendly, the service is terrible (I think they’re actually understaffed), so not their fault. The food quality isn’t consistent and the decor is tired, curtains are dirty and toilets abysmal. We thought we’d give it another try, but won’t be back. So sad as it has such great potential.

Hadn't been since Covid and change to Siren and were considering it for a family Sunday lunch in autumn so popped out for dinner. Good atmosphere but immediately let down as no lemonade available ( broken pump, but surely a pub would keep a couple of bottles to hand), two non alcohol lagers which is ok if you like lager). Service was friendly but very slow, our starter was tasty but could have done with few more minutes in oven. When I mentioned it I got what felt like a real telling off for not saying so , that would have been impossible as it was the centre of it that was cool so we were halfway through and there were no staff in sight to tell. Mains were ok, very average and again not served hot enough. The server was quite strident when she brought it about I must say something and it felt very awkward. I have to say mine was served on a very small board so the slaw was piled on top of ribs, felt quite dated. Prices were fair, no issue there, but like a previous review we wont recommend to family and sadly wont rush back. More staff and hotter food needed.

Really nice pub, there was alot of wasps in the garden though, maybe they need to phone pest control and give them a free pint or something to sort it out.

A very tasty roast and lovely attentive staff. Would recommend!

Food was nice but dishes were a bit basic for the price unless you paid for extras which then worked out expensive. Some of the portion sizes were a bit small. Service was good and I would have left a tip but it was already added to the bill which I feel is wrong as should be up to the customer and dependant on how good the service is.

What a great find! A cosy pub with incredibly friendly staff. Popped by as another local pub we went to weren't serving food and the other half was starving. George & Dragon had stopped serving food too but very kindly said they'd do some chips for us. Which was amazing! They went above and beyond. Highly recommended and we will be revisiting.

Great service and delectable food. Can’t fault it.

A super friendly warm welcome, very busy and nice atmosphere Delicious food and wine and of course the siren beer! The arancini starter was so good and the roasts were the best I’ve had here in years!

Haven't been here for a long time and can't quite work out why. The best mussels I have ever eaten and my wife's fish and chips was topnotch. Great service and a lovely atmosphere. Well done to the Siren for doing an amazing job. Looking forward to a revisit for Sunday Lunch.

We live locally and are regulars at this pub over 20+ years. It went into rapid decline after the sale to Siren, we know they struggled through a kitchen refit, covid and inconsistent staff/chefs, totally understandable. We keep returning as we genuinely care to keep it alive (its our local and only walkable to pub), Staff are mostly new but doing great, beer is fantastic of course, but oh my the food is a rollercoaster and pot luck if you get a consistent experience. We came for Sunday lunch recently, I had the 'roast' chicken. I was served an unsliced leg of chicken, skin on and barely a hint of roast (I suspected it had been boiled), the potatoes were dry and actually black/burnt, the Yorkshire the same. It was really bad and we wont be returning for Sunday lunch. The restaurant was half empty which says a lot... you could never get a last minute table on a Sunday in previous years. Your facebook 'adverts' that 'we still have a couple of tables left for lunch/dinner' is having a reverse affect... it advertises that you are not doing well and people are not coming to you so much. PLEASE focus on the food and consistency, you're remote and so people will drive to you not for beer, but for the food quality that the previous owners maintained to high standards for many years. We will keep coming occasionally, but we are on the verge of giving up and are certainly no longer recommending it to neighbours, family and friends (which breaks our hearts).

Can’t recommend this pub enough! Our first visit and very impressed, wonderful food which is locally sourced, tasty Siren beer and all reasonably priced. Staff very friendly and lovely atmosphere. Their set menu is great, we had the flash rump steak for main and was the tastiest we have had for a while! Cannot wait to return!

Had lovely food, service was little slow looked under staffed for the amount of people in there. Had to remind staff for table water and sauces to accompany the meal.waitress serving us was very polite and efficient when around

Really lovely place Staff are super friendly and make you feel really welcome Food is amazing! We will definitely be back

Wow wow wow the chips at The George & Dragon are utterly amazing. Best chips I've ever tasted in my life. Thank you very much guys

Such a shame our first ever visit to this pub was ruined by slow service. We'd been there over 2hrs and decided to cancel our deserts and leave so we could get our son home for a reasonable time.

Great service and attention to detail by the staff. The food was beautifully presented, I had the tiger prawns starter and seabass for main both were delicious. My partner was equally happy with the arrancini starter and fish and chips main course. I liked the choice of wines we chose a delicious unoaked chardonnay that was served at the right chilled temperature which makes for an overall great experience. I will not hesitate to return to the George and Dragon its a lovely atmosphere and worth every penny.