Bramshill Hunt, Arborfieldback to pub details please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
This place was very busy when I visisted the other Saturday, with a nice mix of people. The bar hasn't changed much, but the lounge has lovely, comfortable seats and has undergone a nice makeover.
Beer is still average, but the place has much improved.
TMYNS - 11 Jun 2013 12:11 |
Please note that this pub is not in Reading but is a good 8 miles out of town and you will need a bus or car to get there. (Bus 144 stops nearby)
BITE appear to be listing pubs with RG postcodes under Reading when many of them are miles out of town and some are even in different counties.
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Basically an estate pub serving the local residents including Arborfield Garrison. Boring beer (ie GK) in reasonable condition. Nothing really wrong with it but absolutely no reason to visit if you don't live nearby.
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The pub has recently come under new Management with brilliant new staff and an excellent new TOP CHEF!! The new Landlord and Landlady are absolutley brilliant and have brought so much to the pub already in the first 5 months of being there. They have a lovely new decking area outside the the front of the pub which has replaced the grotty, horrible, univiting painted green tarmac area and is now secure enough to let your Children play out there (obviously with your supervision) without worrying that they might escape out into the road. Also a lovely new secure area out the back of the pub is also available. It is finally brilliant to see the new management bring the pub up to what it should be and looking after it, instead like previous management just letting it fall apart and not caring about it or it customer needs.
The pub is now a very inviting friendly place (very different from what it used to be). The Landlord and Ladylady are very welcoming to new customers and are always seen to be around the pub making sure everything is ok. They are a very friendly couple and nothing is a chore and they will try and meet any requirements that you may need.
Food is excellent, they have a fully qualified, well experienced chef who is absolutely amazing. I have never tasted food like this in a pub and it is nice to know that everything is homecooked (and not out of the freezer and bunged in a microwave and then served up on your plate looking like slop!) and if there isn't something on the menu that you would like, he will do his very best to cook something up for you without any fuss. They use local produce from the surrounding area's and you can taste this in the food with it being lovely, tasteful, fresh and hot!
To sum it up the pub is a lovely place, I've never had such a warm welcome at this pub in all the years I've been going to it. If you were a regular at this pub and left to previous management running it into the ground. Then i ask you to go back as i'm sure you will change your opinion very quickly. Or if you have never been to the pub i suggest you come and try it out I'm sure you won't be disappointed.
Fantastic Pub!!!!!
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I have 2 children, aged 4 and 1 and they love coming to the brams, much like many other families that are rapidly becoming friends. Great atmosphere, excellent food, and nice to finally see new management bringing the place up to date and showing everyone the way forward. Please come and try for yourself, you will not be disappointed.
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Last saw this place on a cold December evening in 1971 as my time at the Army Apprentices College was coming to an end, I was 18.
My outstanding memory of the pub (as it was then - less the extensions out front - just the white building behind) was that it was a dive, only frequented by stroppy locals and pissed nonces from the College.
However it was a taste of normality from the madness of the College, even if the beer was warm (used to be a Courage pub back then.)
Remember the cider was cheap (and warm) and there was bar billiards for free. Oh and the ploughmans lunch (when we could afford it) was a welcome escape from the rations dished up in camp.
Its a crap pub, and always will be, but its got a place in mine and thousands of of other Ex-Boys from the camp down the road's memories,(before the Garrison appeared)
I visited Arborfield today on a memory trip - thanks for still being there and good luck for the future
Frank Delacoe
Intake 70A (A Company) at Army Apprentices College Arborfield,
now resident in Portsmouth.
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Well, well. My son ventured in the other week (he used to work there under another mangement regime) and he says the place is much better than it used to be.
Gone are the n'er-do-wells and the place is much more professional. He didn't have a drink 'cause he's teatotal (apart from Jack Danniels now and again), but his companion did have quite a good meal.
If I venture up again, I will pop in to review the changes. But it does sound quite promising.
But the question remains, now the Brams has cleaned it's act up, where do the animals go to drink? The Bull at Arborfield is off the list; Dave and Babs in the Swan keep a reasonably tight ship; and the Bull At Barkham is closed half the time while the landlady pots her jam, makes sausages, and cheese.
The Legion is off limits, so it must be brown paper bags on the rugby pitches for Arborfield's finest.
Good to hear the Brams has taken massive steps to get rid of it's old 'rustic' charm.
Good luck.
anonymous - 23 Dec 2009 13:34 |
Many thanks, mick7895 for the kind words. As I have moved away from the Arborfield area, I have not been privy to the changes he alludes to. No doubt the celebrity status of the X factor contestant (or whatever it is called) has pushed up the profile of the place.
It's just that I have fond memories of the place. I recall playing the quiz machine when one of the disgusting brats belonging to some sub-human garrison creature came up an pressed buttons thereby ending my game. Or when the power-line contractors were ratted one night and decided to play a game of who can hit the dart-board from 30 meters; or when a barmaid's husband thought it would be a good idea to run around the pub naked; or when a squaddie's wife decided to take off her top and wriggle her jugs around the bar..... Or the charming Breandan Wooffe spreading his joy around the place....
Such fun times, and I do miss the chaotic nature of the place sooooo much...
anonymous - 9 Dec 2009 14:06 |
What a load of drivel posted by TMYNS. Place is friendly and food and beer is of a higher standard than his pet Swan. Get a life you pleb!
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Obviously Berryhead went in on a quiet day! The place is crawling with soldiers and the management have introduced live music and quiz nights. Both times I went in last week (Saturday night & Sunday day) the place was heaving. No alcoholics or old boys, just a friendly atmosphere and the management and staff happy and obliging.
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Squaddie pub by the barracks. Pretty average GK beer (Abbot and IPA).
Fair enough inside, but a fairly forgettable drinking experience really. Wouldn�t recommend.
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A great local, friendly atmosphere with very helpfull staff. you wont find better landlords in any other pub. food is outstanding with a variety of choices. large beer garden with bouncy castle for the little ones. pool table, music, darts, sky its got it all as well as a great selection of warm punters.
10 out of 10 for this great pub.
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