The Old Boot Inn, Reading

Blue Scrumpy left this review about The Old Boot Inn

A lovely country pub situated just outside of the village of Stanford Dingley.

On arrival, we soon got chatting to the Canadian landlord. He'd only been in charge for 8 weeks, but clearly had big plans for the pub. As a former chef at the Fat Duck in Bray for Heston Blumenthal, it's clear that the focus for this pub will be food. On the beer front, he seemed a lot less knowledegeable.

2 cask ales on were Rebellion IPA & Overthrow. The Overthrow was ok, but possibly not in the best condition. I mentioned that I liked to tour around pubs, especially those that are in or have been in the Good Beer Guide. He didn't seem to have heard of the Good Beer Guide, nor CAMRA and he asked how you get in it, for which we explained. However, from what I can see, it doesn't look as if the local CAMRA branch has been here for a few years. Ironically, a 2021 Good Beer Guide sticker is still on display on the entrance door. I'm not sure he'd even noticed that before!

Whilst there is clearly a focus on food here, our visit coincided with a day where they weren't actually serving any food and where they don't actually open until 5pm. Despite this, there were still a fair few people arriving for drinks, including families. Those ordering Fosters were soon disappointed, as the regulars had drunk them out of it. So, there is clearly a high demand for the wet side of this business, not just the food.

The front part of the pub is very traditional. Off to the left, there is a little more space for indoor dining. But the star attraction is the garden. The landlord has built what he described as a teepee. We took a look and found a massive structure in the garden clearly capable of serving a few hundred diners. It even has its own bar with handpulls.

Off to the right of the garden is another outdoor bar, whilst the "teepee" gives way to more garden space at the rear. There's clearly scope for a huge amount of business (both drinkers and diners) in the summer months. For a pub that seems to have had quite a few different owners giving it a go in the last few years, the current owner seems to be investing a lot of money and seems confident he will succeed.

Ironically, he mentioned that William & Kate are regulars here. Whether he's seen them in the 8 weeks he has been here, I'm not sure. But I'd imagine it's quite a spectacle when they turn up. Whilst I doubt they read this site (!), I'd imagine they'd be reasonably impressed with the pub as it currently stands.

On 27^th June 2024 - rating: 6
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