The Shinfield Arms in Wokingham

Great pub and brilliant staff. Had the best night and the bonus of a quiz. Ok we came 2nd last but who cares when your having fun. Manager was super helpful when there was an error on our booking, which she resolved. Our waitress was a delight and was always smiling. Great pub, great staff, great food. Why are you reading this, go to the pub and see for yourself xxx

The portions were generous and left us completely satisfied.

Just finished my second visit here, food is very basic considering the high price and service was very slow during both visits. However this pub does offer nice seating outdoors.

Lovely food Enjoyed my fish and chips Good beer Really like the pods outside under a outside seating area

We loved our family lunch here. Everyone really enjoyed the food and the service was great as always. Despite having had a fire recently and coping with a smaller kitchen, the food tasted fabulous and nothing was too much trouble.

Having moved away a while ago we met with family at the "Black Boy" for a catch up. Had a lovely evening with good food and superb service with a side of fun from Shayla and Laura. The heated outside nooks are a great way of sitting "outside but inside" As an aside, nobody local will ever accept the new name.

Lovely roast, nice staff. Will come again :)

Disappointing given the othe reviews. Food was distinctly average and served from a mobile kitchen: a rather hard steak and kidney pudding, one part so hard it was inedible. Some lean bits of meat in an otherwise fatty rump of lamb, with a peculiarly sweet mint gravy, Having asked if it was ok to sit at a specific table, we were then told off as someone else had apparently booked that table. Not worthy of the other reviews, very disappointing.

Wonderful Sunday Roast with lots of fresh veg. Cauliflower cheese was amazing! All done from pop-up portacabin kitchen.

We went here on weekend lunchtime for some pub fish & chips. The staff was helpful however the food served was below what we expected from a pub. For the price of £18.99 the fish was not even cod but a substitute white fish that tasted like water, the chips were okay like average supermarket frozen ones, not the pub chunky chips. I've had far superior fish & chips at a local garden centre for £12.99 than this pub. Maybe because their kitchen was closed due to fire etc. so understandable, but substitute fish, no way!

Stopped in on a long car drive for dinner and let me just say the place is lovely place! The sausage and mash was delicious, and I would seriously recommend. I also got the double bacon cheeseburger, and was sadly disappointed. I really wanted to like it but I found it quite dry. Other than that, everything else was fantastic.

Nice little pub ' great atmosphere ' good range of lovely food

Excellent meal in a warm and welcoming atmosphere. Despite the lack of a permanent kitchen, the food was excellent.

We were a party of 7. We arrived and were quickly shown to our table which was one of the heated outdoor cabins. It would have been comfortable for 6 but somewhat cramped for 7, but fine, we could manage. It then turned a little cold and we asked if we could eat inside. "Of course" was the reply. Very understanding and helpful. Inside was cosy and we had more table room. We were much more comfortable. I had the veggie burger which was adequate. The burger was the kind that trys to mimic meat and I'm not keen on that. Otherwise it was good, although could have done with some salad. Overall, I would eat there again but would order the cauliflower dansak which my husband had and that was very good.

Lovely place. I'm local to the area to pop in here after work for a drink or something to eat. Never had a bad experience.

Been up a couple of times since the fire. Mobile kitchen is working well. We had the burgers last time which were great. I had the fish and chips this Friday was fantastic, highly recommend.

Great Food , Limited Menu since the Fire but staff were amazing , Had a super Lunch - Thanks

We are a group of 4 friends who worked together a long time ago and meet at this pub regularly. It was terrible to hear about the fire in January, and I was so pleased to hear the pub was open again, serving a limited menu. Well, this evening was our first visit and I was so impressed. The food was as good as it ever was, the pub was busy, which meant a fun atmosphere and is great to see! Our waitress was lovely and we had a really great evening. I can honestly say we would not have known about the temporary kitchen in the car park, apart from the reduced area for parking. Thank you for a great evening, we will be back!

Great place, lovely atmosphere. Had some sourdough pizzas and drinks. Nice and relaxed atmosphere, attentive service but never overbearing. Very glad we went to try it out and hope to be back again soon!

The food was okay and the service was good. Nice Place to catch up with friends over drinks.

We went over Christmas and got moved from 2 different tables. Then ended up sitting outside where they had some lovely firepits, on a very cold evening, what more could you ask for, well for starters they could of light them.

Having been out of the country at Christmas and missed out on a roast turkey dinner, it was good to discover that the Shinfield Arms could fill the gap. Sunday lunch there is a busy time and inevitably some customers were pretty noisy, but the team found us a quiet spot by the window which is what we were after. We've been before and we will return!

The only thing to work on is to reduce the waiting time for food, especially when the pub is catering for large groups. Suggestions will be, upon booking time, let customers know there may be a longer wait than usual if they come at a certain time or advise the best time to come for the evening.

Brilliant meal as always at the Shinfield Arms everytime the menu changes it still has great new items to taste

Nice pub with excellent food, good service. Prices reasonable

Visited mid week for the first time. The food and menu options were excellent. The experience was let down by slow service even though the restaurant did not look to be excessively busy. The room was also cold with us needing to keep coats on. This was despite there being a log burner next to our table that was not fired up. The service and temperature detracted from what was excellent food.

Good food and good service. Lovely selection on the menu. Much more than just a gastro pub. We will be back.

Great pub/restaurant. We chose this place on a whim as somewhere as a middle meet up venue. But discovered an absolute delight. Not only was food amazing but the service was incredible. Especially as we had due to traffic conditions arrived much later than planned.

Here for a Christmas dinner with friends and family. Excellent food, great friendly staff, served in good time, nice hot and fresh food. Desserts were amazing. Food choice on menu for all tastes, including vegan, gluten free etc Easy to locate and good parking space. Highly recommended. Will be back for more !

Not the best experience. 7 of us went here for a family meal. 3 of us had the fish and chips. 1 had ham egg and chips others had various. After waiting nearly an hour for food after we ordered it came .Not worth eaiting for the fish was tasteless , the chips wilting and just warm, the ham was a cold block. The others seemed to enjoy what they had. A lot was not eaten. Really disappointing foody evening. Will not go again. Sooner eat at home cheaper and at least it would be a hot freshly cooked meal.

Food is amazing quite pricey but definitely worth cheesy chips were phenomenal but the stakes are up there as well atmosphere was good.

Very nice for the group meal and Not halal

Lovely pub stopped in for an evening drink. Great atmosphere, can tell it is very popular!

I do like the Shinfield Arms, I’m local and have been going here on and off for years. Used to be called The Black Boy (meaning black horse) & has a long history. Nice food here, presented well and a pleasant atmosphere. Staff reasonable amount of attention to the table taking orders and food arrival quite fast.

Great place to sit and discuss amazing ideas

Visited here for our work team meal. Was pleasantly surprised as the venue itself was really nice and it had a decent sized car park at the rear. Food was great, service was really good and staff were all friendly. Would definitely visit again.

I have only ever been for drinks so far. I will be trying the food. It's always hard to get a seat to just have a drink :( But its a beautiful place and service is always good and fast

A really great pub for a pub lunch - loads of ales on even tho I went for a Guinness good selection of wine too and the light food dishes were ace - great friendly staff and quick service 🍻🍷😊😊

Food and beer selection is really good

All a bit meh! Neither good nor awful. Expensive for what it is.

Very nice Guinness, downside, no indoor seating as it was busy for food with reserved tables.

Great location for a lunch while you’re travelling. I’d recommend to book, it’s lovely to sit in the booths with heating lamps outside. The only thing that could be improved is to have more beef (see photo). For two meals and and two drinks we paid 58£ seems slightly on a higher side especially in a random location off m4 (on our way back to London). It is a very popular location so seems like booking is highly recommended. We would return here. Lovely to see so many vegan and gluten free options - well done for that! This is the reason we stopped here.

Food is good, service good. I'd go again.

Nice food and good service. A good vegetarian menu. The crumble desert was too sweet. Nothing to shout about but nothing to complain about either.

Had a lovely, family evening here. Food was really tasty and felt authentically homemade. A lovely pub that opens up at the back as a restaurant, the staff were really attentive and bubbly. Overall a good experience and would definitely come back. I marked one star down, as a third of the steak was a little under done to my liking which I’m not sure how that happens when the meat is the same thickness throughout. The two thirds that I did eat was delicious though. I should also add it came with a big mushroom and grilled tomato. Desserts were fabulous but slightly disappointed that there was not a cheeseboard available. None the less though the cookie and hot chocolate was dreamy! ❤️⭐️

Welcoming staff and good food and drink. Very attentive. Easy parking and dog 🐶 friendly in the bar and outside snuggly warm booths.

Great menu, delicious food but felt like a diner without a great retro feel.

Great staff, always chilled atmosphere, food is good.

Lovely pub/restaurant on the outskirts of Reading. We took a relative with limited mobility, and we were exceptionally well looked after. Food was delicious and generous 👍

Felt like a good British pub and serviced some good pub grub.

The Shinfield Arms went out of their way to welcome 29 members of our family today. Their administration was efficient, the food delicious and served hot to everyone despite the large numbers, and the staff were friendly and helpful. The covered seating and dining pods were ideal for people to mingle. A big thank you to all the staff.

Great place, great atmosphere and lovely staff. Food was amazing with great veggie and vegan options.

Nice pub. Very disappointing food, and not cheap!

I found that this place was overpriced and expensive. we went for a family meal and the service was rubbish they brought the starters out and then it was over 45 minutes before the mains appeared I had what to me is the worst jacket potato I've ever had,the potato was undercooked and I struggled to find the beans and cheese! because it was a family meal I was asked not to complain. to make things even worse when the bill arrived they had the cheek to charge 20% service!!

Enjoyed my visit to this pub. Good food and convient parking.

We had been seated for 15 minutes before we managed to ask someone if we could see a menu, this should have been the first clue the service would be poor, every interaction was with someone different. When the starters arrived it wasn't what we ordered, potato skins were literally just that, skins, no potato, and impressively under cooked. Eventually the mains came out, mine was over cooked this time, glad to see they are consistent in the cooking!! Desert was actually OK but sadly one of our table left early as they were suffering from stomach ache (read into that what you may!) Bill arrived with an already applied 10% service charge, not sure what service we were actually paying for, maybe some service a different table got because it certainly wasn't us!! Drinks were shockingly expensive too. Since getting home, you'd think we had a sofa and a TV in the bathroom judging by how much time my wife has spent in there, so out of the 4 of us that went, 2 have been glued to the toilet and I'm not feeling great now either. Do yourselves (and your toilet roll budget) a favour, find somewhere else to eat and give this place a miss. Got to go now, off to the loo...... good night all 👋🏻

What a wonder place to eat and socialise. Great food, great service, great atmosphere. Staff very happy. 5* all round.

Went with a large group of friends for a drink. Had a great time. Staff put up with us with a smile on their faces and friendly chat.

The food was fantastic brilliantly cooked to perfection will definitely be back soon

Stunning place. Absolutely amazing food. Thank you for that experience.

4 of us went for a meal at 5 o clock. Table booked. Restaurant very quiet. Ordered meals and drink £100. 2 of the meals were satisfactory. Other 2 had veggi burger with fries and coleslaw. The burgers were like flat anemic sausage very unattractive and unappetising. One person ate top of bun and other tasted theirs and left. The fries were barely warm. Very disappointing. Staff did not question why full plates going untouched apart from coleslaw. We were only visiting friends so won't be eating their again. Nice surroundings terrible food. Definitely don't order veggi burger.

Plenty of space to eat but car park cramped.

And yet again I visit an establishment where I just get that gut feeling that quality of food is slipping. 17.50 for bacon burger, bland chips and a thumb full of shop bought coleslaw. Prob won't visit again.

Manager is extremely rude and allows customers to illegally park outside the front causing a danger for pedestrians.

Amazing food inside such a cosy place! Loved it!

Food I think always great, really good menu and always cooked well. Don’t be put off by the main road outside, once your inside or in the garden you don’t know it’s there. Staff really friendly. And dog friendly!

Lovely a place to visit and chill in garden .

Food was really nice, good size portions well worth a visit, thank you.

It is hard to put into words how awful their Euro final offering was. I would have had a better setup in my garden with my laptop. They had one small TV in the whole establishment and the sound wasn't connected to any system so no one could hear what was going on. I like this pub but this is unforgivable for such a major sporting event like this. We went down to the six bells at half time and they had a proper major tournament environment that was in comparable.

I've been a moderately regular visitor to the pub and it is always fine. The food is consistent, as is the service but my most recent visit was frustrating. It was quite busy but it didn't seem that they had the staff to deal with the number of customers. I also get annoyed when it's assumed that diet Pepsi and diet Coke are interchangeable. Unfortunately my body doesn't deal with Pepsi varieties very well but I wasn't aware that is what I'd been given (they have diet Coke in bottles) and I'm now paying the consequences!

A very charming place, the food was delicious and the service was very attentive. We tried to change the fish and chips, the chicken leak and ham pie dish, I will definitely return.

Amazing food, very friendly staff. Looks fantastic in there

Found the staff helpful and really friendly, food is really good as well.

Great pub. The food was excellent, serving staff friendly and polite. Will definitely be going back to try other dishes on the menu 😋

Great food and great service . We love this place !!

Food was good, albeit smaller portion size of the steaks, both beef and lamb. Food arrived very fresh. However, the service was slow as manpower was thin on the ground. Be prepared to have a long meal!

Food is not great and expensive for what you get.

Very busy pub. Nice staff so service was good. Food was tasty. It was very loud and at times tricky to hear ourselves speak

A lovely place with great Staff, food and all you need to have a nice time with Family and friends

Nice pub. Friendly staff. Glasses are dirty and food is horrendously bad.

Love this place, great food and what a lovely outside area.....top notch puddings as well what more could you ask for. Plenty of parking and great service.....go along you won't be disappointed!!

Went here for Sunday lunch which was excelant well good filling food.

The food was great and the service was super friendly. Great evening!

I love the sister pub at Minley, but this place just doesn't quite match it sadly. Chips were dry and old, I got them replaced but had pretty much finished the fish by this point. I quite like my batter greasy, but my friend didn't like hers. Not bad, by any means but I wouldn't rush back. The staff are lovely and friendly, cannot fault them.

Not been here so visited at the weekend with some friends. Nice pub grub. Naturally, I went for the ultimate burger which was pretty good. Well presented and tasty with fast, pleasant service. Only let down for me personally was the lack of local beers available on tap. A touch on the more expensive side of pub grub though.

Fabulous food and plenty of it. Prices were very reasonable.

Ordered 6 ultimate burger and all came as medium well - well done ,both patties were different size so was hard to eat the burger also Very disappointed on the food Stuff were very friendly and good atmosphere

Plenty of parking great service and pleasant decor. It suddenly got manic and really loud when lunch hit and then you saw one who couldn't park in the great big car park. I thought it was expensive but plentiful and nice I woukd just avoid these peak times if possible.

Great place, been coming here for years. Food is always excellent. Service is always good! And the atmosphere was to be expected.. Busy as usual.

Took my team of six out for a great lunch today. Great menu with loads of veggie options for the two of us that were vegetarian. I couldn't believe how busy it was on a Wednesday lunchtime so make sure you book!!

Beer expensive (was drinking a 3.4%ale at £5.50!), burger was tepid at best. Covered Garden at rear was good

I love going to this pub just a stone's throw from my daughter's house when I come to England. Very good creamy Guiness, food and nice atmosphere.

Enjoyed an exceptional lunchtime meal here (can recommend the duck confit). Clean pub, friendly atmos, great service.

Food is great, pub has decent atmosphere and service is good

Always a good place for food and drinks in Shinflield. The services is nice as we always get serviced with good smiles. Food is good! The price is also reasonable. I would recommend this to anyone.

Very nice pub. The food others had looked good although i only had a coke. That cost the same has 6 Litres in the shop. Hence 3 stars.

Lovely pub. Good food and beverages. Still prefer the pub's old name.

First time was there. People and atmosphere were super great. Service speed and food taste was good, was expecting a bit more. Overall we were happy with the experience.

A lovely evening with delightful Jess who looked after us so well.A warm welcome as we arrived, comfortable restaurant. From the road you would not expect such spacious rooms. The meals we had were cooked perfectly and served piping hot. Our visit was a Monday evening. We will definitely return. Thanks to all the team.

Nice place to spend time with friend. Good food