The Allied Arms, Reading

This is a nice traditional two-bar pub, very handy for escaping the town’s nearby retail streets. You enter the pub via a side door, accessed through a passage that suggests this might have once been a coaching inn. The door takes you into a somewhat bare rear bar area in a square room with the servery to the left and, rather oddly, no furniture whatsoever, unless you count a table that was being used for glass collection. A disused TV was mounted on one of the walls and there was an ancient looking juke box that may or may not be capable of blasting out some tunes, but otherwise the room was weirdly empty, essentially just being used as somewhere you can order your drink before moving elsewhere. I did exactly that, doubling back on myself to move through to a smaller front bar which has modern floorboards, dark beams across the ceiling and some mottled white walls, creating quite a nice traditional feel. The servery runs through into this room, again down the left-hand wall, with a dark wood counter and canopy, a stained glass end pane and a pleasant wood panelled bar back with high mirrors. A legend across the top of the bar back reads “The Allied Arms Est. 1828”. Attractive coloured glass lampshades hang from the ceiling and there is a collection of heraldic shields on display, a few old photos on the walls, plus another clapped out old juke box, positioned above an equally knackered looking table top arcade machine. I had the room pretty much to myself, as most customers had decided to sit out in the beer garden, although I didn’t get around to exploring out there myself. A decent indie soundtrack played in the background throughout my visit and there was a steady stream of customers coming and going the whole time I was there. At the bar, they had four handpulls on the go, offering a choice of Loddon Hullabaloo and Hoppit, West Berkshire Good Old Boy and Tring Citra Session. I tried a pint of the latter, which was in good nick but a bit low on the citra and ultimately not all that enjoyable. The staff seemed to be really on top of their game here and the barman that served me was engaging and helpful to all of the customers he served. I thought this was a good city centre pub with enough of interest to make it worth checking out. The beer selection was pretty good, there are some nice rooms to explore and the service was great - in fact, it was only really the strange emptied out main bar space and the fact that I didn’t like the beer I chose that let the side down. This place feels like its well positioned between a few of Reading’s must-do pubs, making it an easy addition to any crawl around the town.

Visited 23.4.21 and it was our first visit to this pub. Went through the pub to get to the garden which was rather full and a good atmosphere. Missed pub atmosphere so much. All covid regs applied. They asked what we wanted but no beer menu provided but I was allowed into the bar to take photos of the 5 pump clips to make our choice. Beers chosen Sherfield Village TBA and Vale Kitten Kong. Beers food and payment by card.

Now an entry in the 2018 Good Beer Guide. Popped in for the tick. Popped back out again when the Black Country Scratchings were £2 a pack. Visit blogged at http://bit.ly/2yuLhXK