The Victoria Cross in Reading

We went for a Sunday lunch Terrible food lack of staff dirty tables from previous guest. and had to wait over a hour for food. Then there was no cutlery would not recommend to anyone.

Great service and friendly staff always fresh beer

I bring my friends from out of town to watch the football and eat as its a great place to meet up

I have waited my food for at least 45 mins , and I still don’t know where is it …. Don’t worth it …

As an affordable, and family friendly venue, it was an easy choice to come here over the past few years, but it's been getting progressively worse, to the point where it's not worth giving it anymore chances. There's never enough staff to seat people, take orders, or even refill the cutlery trays. The wait for food has extended, to the point on the last sitting it took 30 minutes for 2 burgers and 2 kids chicken nuggets. When it did arrive, half the food on each place was blazing hot, with the other half stone cold. The kids ice cream, however, was extremely prompt where it turns up 5-10 after the mains were finally delivered, whereby we still had kids with plates full of food. The waitress looked confounded when we suggested we weren't ready yet, and that perhaps we'd like her to take them away and keep them cold. This was once a promising place to grab a quick bite to eat with the family, but unfortunately, I wouldn't recommend eating here anymore.

Beans from a jar, frozen cutlets and noodles from Chinese soup. Missing 3 spices.

Great food, drinks, staff and location!

Fantastic local bar and Restaurant. Good menu it was Very accommodating for a large bithday celebration. welcoming staff especially to Sam who was helpful making sure we had all we needed for our table. The Food was served hot . Will book again .

Great staff and food always welcoming. Been multiple times never disappointed. Went back again with a group. Not disappointed, very accommodating. 5/5

Great staff, food and drinks and pool table

Great customer service. The team and the management were very friendly and welcoming, definitely coming back to this place.

I went there yesterday with a group of friends and we had a good time and good food. Recommended!

The biggest chicken club sandwich I've ever seen. Good value food and drinks. Nice ambience

Absolutely beautiful place… amazing service from the staff and they are very friendly. Highly recommend!!

Great place for a whole family to have an amazing food. Recommend!

Two person lunch was at a reasonable price and the menu cover alot.

Took family out for a meal food took an hour and a half to come out now to top it off the wife and kids all are being sick and vomiting all night

Had a roast. It's not great save that for a carvery. Good for burgers and other fast food.

Food perfectly cooked. Friendly service. Plenty parking. Choice of peaceful seating or vibrant buzzy atmosphere. Family friendly.

Friendly staff clean and nice atmosphere

Buy one burger get one burger. Nice value. Do order for two, they'll charge for one. If you order for one. They'll give you one and you can't ask for it later. It's how it's done.

Visited on Saturday evening and what a disappointment. We visit Greene King restaurants regularly and usually have a pleasant experience but not at this one. We were allocated a booth that basically needed replacing. The seating was ripped and it was a good job there were only 3 of us, as there was no way that section could be sat on. Thr light above the table wasn’t working, so to actually read the menus we had to use a light on the phone. The table was sticky and not hygienic, as I always carry wipes, I cleaned it myself. We would have asked to move but the other tables looked no better! The drinks were dumped at end of the table where the tray remained until we left! When the food arrived, one of which was a rump steak, the server advised ‘we usually give a steak knife but we ain’t got none’ and the Chicken Tikka portion size was only fit for a child! To top it all off the server then started clearing the table when 2 of us were still eating! Extremely poor customer service and wholeheartedly unpleasant experience. Very unlike the other Greene King establishments we visit.

Air con and cold beer happy times

Friendly comfortable place to visit. Food came out quick and hot.

Went for a Friday evening meal with my partner. We ordered drinks through the app as we were sat outside, 25 minutes later they had not arrived. My partner went in to speak to the bar staff. The person behind the bar appeared in a world of her own, it wasn’t busy at all and she appeared not to know what my partner meant by online order even though there was a big screen with our order in red. She made no effort to apologise and was actually quite rude considering. Fine, one off we thought and decided to stay for food. Our food came quickly, the wait staff were friendly and helped us when we put the wrong table number. However again, the drinks don’t arrive… 15 minutes go by… then 25. This time I went up to the bar and the same woman was there - no one apart from me was waiting and she ignored me for at least 5 minutes and was speaking to someone on her mobile phone. I then asked about our drinks … again on the board in red. Shockingly someone was actually waiting for longer than us - 30 minutes! The bar woman appeared not bothered about this, no sense of urgency or any effort to apologise for there being such a delay (honestly, it was very quiet in there and there was no apparent reason for the delay apart from her lack of care about her job) Disappointing experience and left soon after. Shame as have been here before and it’s been alright, I would encourage Greene King to provide further training for your bar tender (shorter lady, brown hair and glasses working on 20.09 at 7.30pm on the bar) to avoid this happening again, and I would advise anyone who goes to visit to check who’s on the bar first!!

Fantastic value for money.and the food tasted great!

Friendly staff ordered on the app and quick service fish and chips were very tasty. Lunch meals all reduced to 6 pound at the moment

This is a good Hungry Horse pub, it's appearance in the UK is unusual as looks like a former car or retail showroom, but once inside has a great pub feel to it. Spacious seating areas with an upper level and adults only section with large screen TV, pool table, darts & bar. Some interesting artwork on the walls reflecting elements of local heritage and a good selection of drinks from the bars. Classic comprehensive Hungry Horse menu with meals & desserts for everyone's tastes. Ample free car parking right on the pub's doorstep and children's outdoor play area. Service was good each time we visited and hopefully new visitors will enjoy here as much as we did.

Very good ''vegetarian'' breakfast for me!

Great service as always from rhi and ellie. Always great beer and friendly faces.

Great service from rhi and Ellie as always - smiley and friendly service definitely be back soon!

Was served by Rebekah and star lovely service and welcoming atmosphere Amazing at pouring pint 🍺

The team are amazing here. Always met with incredible service. The team go above and beyond to make you feel welcome. They have great knowledge of the food and drinks they provide and I’m never disappointed in my visits.

Not great. Hire more staff, there's often only one person at the bar on a Saturday

Took around 20 mins to get served a drink as no staff in place. Got served a flat moreti, and when going back had to wait back in the Que even after telling staff my beer was flat to get this changed. Also noticed a couple trying to order food and being told they’re not allowed to order food in the area where the pool tables are as not enough staff, but then witnessed many people having food delivered right to them there which I found odd. Not a pub I’ll be visiting again

An honestly abysmal experience. I will say the manager was nice, she appologiesd and refunded us. Sadly its a bit too little too late. The major issue was them serving my vegetarian partner meat gravy on her vegetarian meal. This is a massive deal. But were they to mess up a dietary restriction for an allergy it could have been much worse than just being very upset. Additionally the place was not clean, the cutlery was filthy, as is the cutlery drawer (see pic). The toilets were broken, leaking urinal, busted locks and in dire need of a deep clean. The attitude of many of the staff was disinterested at best, dismissive at worse. The waiter couldn't figure out where food might go, even when everyone had a dish except one, he still seemed confused where it might go. The kitchen team and waitress couldn't quite figure out if gravy is vegetarian, and it took a manager to help them. The playground is currently broken, not thier fault but it was annoying. So we tried to get the kids to do the advertised activity pages on the menu, to which the staff said they had no pencils or crayons, with a half hearted shrug. I'd have expected then to acquire some or get something as people arriving with kids might expect this. Eventually I relented to my children to use the claw grabber machine, which it turns out is also broken, taking my money but not working. Finally the quality of the food I did get was so bad I didn't finish it. I should not be surprised as it came out so quickly it must all be pre prepared and microwaved. The vegetables were soggy and old (see pic), the mashed potato blob was cold and had a skin, the turkey was so dried I could barely swallow it. Whole heartedly do not recommend this place. Edit to add a response to the companies weird request to "understand how to improve". It should be obvious to anyone in the industry but here you go; Don't give meat products on labelled vegetarian dishes, train your staff to understand food requirements, clean everywhere better, starts with a deep clean, do the cutlery tray daily, inspect/clean toilets hourly, fix maintenance issues quickly, train staff in customer service, ensure supplies of non consumables are adequately stocked. As for the food quality, train chefs better and cook fresh. Hope that helps...

Amazing curry’s especially on the Wednesday deal. Food came out fast and hot not to mention looked great ,staff were welcoming and had nice chat with the server Rebecca about the history piece scattered around the pub.

Had the fish and chips. One bite and I knew it was off . Took the family there and spent £100 . I would not recommend it.

Nice place,nice stuff and great food. Thank you Cornelia and Starr.

Cornelia Claire , Rihanna they was the best , great food , fast service ..compliments for the chef s , Evelina and Ionuț !

Poped in for a drink with friends great atmosphere really friendly bar staff Shannon I think her name was will definitely be back

Was in this restaurant few days ago,very good experience nice staff cornelia,rhiana and claire was very nice and helpfull .food coming very fast everything was great.congratulations for chefs from that day Ionut and evelina food was delicious and nice plating

It's a great place to meet up with friends on a date. Drinks and food are served. The food tastes good, but it takes a while to eat.

Hello I will like to say Cornelia,Claire Ionuț and Evelina was the best great food ,fast service and lovely people. Keep up like this.

Food was delicious and thank the staff for the wonderful atmosphere and service

Unable to properly rate the food as was never able to order. As advertised, there was a gluten free breakfast menu available- but when we went up to order we were told they were out of gluten free bread. This is a half an hour after opening and with Aldi across the road, mind you. I pointed out that all options available on the gluten free menu contained toast and therefore was nothing possible to order? I was given simply a shrug. It seems the waiting staff don’t much care for gluten free customers and so lost out on business. Their loss.

Thank you Mia, Claire and Cornelia

Lovely food good service fast food delivery Thank you MIA CLAIRE CoRnelia

Delicios food, good servise, Mia, Claire and Cornelia have been very helpful.

Fantastic Pub, thanks to Charlie,Mia, Rebekam,Cornelia and Tyler. Great staff, very professional and friendly. 😁

Great service from the whole team. Food was excellent. Thank you to Charlie, Mia, Rebekah, Tyler and Ewelina

I walked in and was welcomed with a smile and catered to immediately by Rebecca who took my order. I was then handed over to Charlie who seated me and would make sure to come over and check that everything was as I’d like. The steak and burger meal I had was well presented and tasted perfect, so perfect that I asked who the chef was (Thanks Tyler!). Overall, it was a great visit and the team’s warm hospitality shouldn’t go unnoticed!

Fantastic pub thanks to Charlie, Mia, Rebekam, Cornelia, Tyler

Charlie behind the bar was very helpful, always on hand when wanted to order something, never had to wait or even queue for long

Had great service from Charlie, he was attentive, great banter and good conversation. Also poured a great pint Thanks mate

Charlie gave an excellent service! Thank you.

Amazing service from Charlie, really went above and beyond to accommodate seating arrangement for a big group of us and ensured there were no problems with our orders.

Came here again Thursday morning the breakfast was lovely and decently Portioned, the blonde waitress was a lovely mood riser and great chat. Also good air conditioning for the hot whether

Best pub in Whitley great management and all the team Claire, Rebekah and Ellie are really friendly and happy

Excellent service this afternoon from Eloise, Shannon and the rest of the team. Many Thanks.

Ordered large steak, kids meal and another adult meal. Staff apologised the large steak was out of stock after payment and offered two smaller ones in excess of the ordered weight. Lovely resolution. Food arrived very promptly, all tasted lovely, steaks cooked as asked. Big shout out to waitress Sam for her wonderful service, really considerate server and a lovely friendly approachable member of staff overall. (Atmosphere down marked slightly as air con was blasting so high I needed to wear my jacket but didn’t spoil the meal!)

The food was horrible sadly (mushy- chewy and tiny portions), the staff are really nice though ! Although a girl was left all on her own with a lot of people - good value for money on some things though overal, roast looked nice.

Watched the football and the server sam was an absolute legend very helpful and friendly

Great service from Sam and Ellie top staff

Best waitress, so friendly and welcoming.

Haven't eaten here yet, however the food looks lovely. Staff were prompt, atmosphere was light and enjoyable.

We had an amazing meal, We were served by Sam who was lovely. We would definitely come again

Love this place at any time of day. Staff are always welcoming and my boy who's nearly 3 loves coming here for breakfast/lunch as it's one of the only pubs in reading that has a park!

Went here for a rare date night. The food was lovely and there was a nice atmosphere. Will definitely go again.

Friendly staff, lots of seating

Great service from staff and meal come out quickly. Maria was friendly

It was quiet which was nice, the staff were friendly food was good. See you again

Great friendly service from Claire and I love the landlady, she's so sweet I look forward to going in there everytim3

Good pint of Guinness from rhi thank you! The girls are always lovely and friendly we enjoy our breakfast on the weekend.

We were served by Mia who was fun and friendly, also really knowledgeable with the menu and local area.

The staff was exceptional especially Sam lines

Iced caramel coffees are the best way to cool down after a hard day they taste amazing and look great too.

My go to for a meal and a couple of cheeky drinks. The staff here are fantastic, and makes you feel at home while on a first name basis. Friendly banter with the staff and always leave here in a better mood than when I arrive.

Ayla was lovely and attentive, food came quickly and was nice 😀

Had a great lunch out with the girls! Food was delicious and Staff was amazing and great service from Ayla

Food was good and staff are always friendly Ayla was amazing serving us today

Food was lovely and hot , was served by a very friendly thorough young lady called Ayla, asked if all was good and made sure we had everything we needed for a lovely dining experience.....***** for her.

Had an amazing meal and service was brilliant served by Ayla and nothing was to much trouble for her thank you

The Victoria Cross needs more staff and needs to put current staff through some customer service training. It's a nice restaurant for families, the food is ok nothing exceptional. Had a not great experience recently when I went for my daughter's birthday.

Had a great evening, the atmosphere and food was great and service was really good, special shout out to our waitress Ayla who couldn’t have done more for us, she was so polite and made us feel very comfortable and always made sure our glasses were filled! sadly i forgot to leave her a tip, so thought i would give her a review instead

Great service especially from Mia lovely place

Worst place Iv ever ate at , food runners are rude and look miserable, and my food was basically still alive on my place my meat with not cooked at all …disgusting

Food is nice and waitress Ayla who served us was kind and caring.

Good food can’t go wrong with the burger just randomly popped in after the gym and I was pleasantly surprised also thank you to Ayla for the help with the menu

Very good food here, loved the steak!

Had the food share and a couple of drinks good amounts of food for your money

Went with my little girl, service was amazing and staff were able to accommodate my little girl with her dietary requirements. Friendly atmosphere and would definitely go again

Ayla was such a great person at this place. Big her up!!!!

Ayla was a very polite and helpful waitress! Great service!

Ayla was amazing! She helped us with our food and enquires

Excellent service and food. Atmosphere only 4* because arrived before noon and premises were very quiet then.

Great food and superb customer service

Lovely team, friendly and warm and always happy to see you…

Absolutely wonderful food and atmosphere. Staff very polite and service was quick and efficient, only down side was all the advertisment for 1 particular item that was not available on the day, it would have helped knowing this before we tried to order it, very large poster outside advertising it so having a OOS sign on it would have helped, as we would not have had some very unhappy children not understanding that it was unavailable even though adverts for it were everywhere

May Bank holiday Monday, Lovely family venue, food was average, great portion sizes, good value. My biggest compliment is how clean the toilets are, very clean and fresh 10/10.