The Victoria Cross — Restaurant in Reading

My personal standpoint and view of The Victoria Cross + my experience from working here.

To start off, it should be noted that everything I say shouldn't be taken for granted, and a lot is subject to change, or has already changed, whether it be for the best or worst, as I stopped working there at around June of 2024 due to personal complications.

To begin with the general layout, the area you will first walk into, is the restaurant side, which is accustomed to average sized parties of 4, with the exception of a few tables being either larger, or smaller. For the larger tables, there is a booth capable of seating 6 at the back of the restaurant, a large round table as you walk in that can seat anywhere from 6-8 dependent on whether or not someone nicked a chair, 2 sideless booths to the left as you walk in, both capable of seating 8 each, and occasionally you can find to the further left of the restaurant, that there is a grouping of multiple tables that can be used to seat individual parties, or parties of 16-18 if all the tables are all combined. For the smaller tables, there are 2 tables next to eachother in a smaller enclosed space, capable of seating 2 on each table. In general, most seating can be ever so slightly modified to cater to your party's needs whether it be accessibility, size of the party, or something else. Staff will be happy to move a chair or two over, move tables together, but it has to be reasonable, and you shouldn't put the tables together without asking or letting a staff member know first.

Next on, the bar side, located through the double doors on the right hand side as you walk in. Unfortunately I do not have a great deal of memory with this side, so some of it may be inaccurate/incorrect. This area is 18+ only, with kids being strictly banned from the area. Most of the regulars will be in here, and there are multiple betting machines, televisions which show live events that can be changed by the staff if you ask nicely, and multiple tables to choose from. As far as I remember, there are 2-3 tables that can seat up to 6-8 people each, 5 tables which can seat 4 each, and a few high tables which can seat about 2 each. Truthfully, this side is maintained ever so slightly less that the main area, but is still kept in a fair and sanitary condition.

For the final area of the pub, we have the garden side. This side is situated outside, and has a play area which is usually under maintenance because somehow the kids keep finding unique ways to break parts of it. It is highly recommended to keep a watchful eye on your kids to make sure they are not being silly, breaking anything, or putting themselves in harm's way for "fun". Again with the tables, the typical sizing for the tables is 4 people, with there being less tables that can seat more or less. In this area however, you can freely move a table, as long as you respect other's boundaries and don't take up too much space, as well as return the tables to their original places before you moved them. (It is always a good idea to check with staff if there are booked tables before moving anything.)

Moving on away from the areas of the pub, is the food. Every good pub has its own good grub, with this pub being no exception. I have had many dishes in my time of working here, but it should be known that the staff are unable to make recommendations for you in the event you have an allergy, or a dietary restriction. My personal favourites are the Chicken Tikka/Korma (Dependent on your spice tolerance), Bacon cheeseburger with fries (Fairly large burger) Full English Breakfast (Comes on a platter plate with plenty to chow down on) and the Steak and Ale pie (An absolute pub classic.) For desserts, it is all-out mayhem when it comes to the menu, as the choices go from a single scoop of ice cream, to a chocolate and vanilla mixed sundae that a family of 4 would struggle to finish. (Candymania Sundae) There are are even vegan choices for dessert, just check the menu, or ask staff if you are still unsure!

(More will be added to this...

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...

I went to Victoria Cross on 5.8.20 with 3 friends, one of which is disabled. We initially went in to eat, but understandably it was busy because of the governments "Eat out" incentive so the lady who greeted us said unless we had booked we couldn't get a table. We left, and tried to find somewhere else to eat which was did, but it wasnt for another 1.5hrs so we thought as the bar seemed quiet we would go back in to Victoria Cross and have a couple of drinks. I went in to check availability at the bar as my disabled friend did not want to get out of the car unnecessarily. I went into the bar, and sat down on a table, a lady behind the bar asked if I could sit on another table, I said there are more people joining me so could I sit where I was as I knew my friend couldn't get inn the higher stools, and she said that was fine. I called my friends phone and said it was fine to come in. They walked in to a very rude reception. The lady wouldn't let them into the bar area, saying it was closed. They said I was in there holding a table. Another lady came in and was really rude and abrupt when she came over to me. She said I shouldn't be in there, so I said someone from behind the bar said it was fine, she then preceded to agressively ask everyone behind the bar "who told her she could sit here", and whats more annoying is that not one of them admitted to talking to me. This aggressive member of staff then said "well, can you tell me what they look like" as though I was lying, this was all happening with other customers looking on. I felt so embarrassed. I said she was just hear behind the bar, and I said she had asked me to go to another table but I said friends we're coming, almost just to prove I had a conversation but this rude women just carried on saying "well which one was It, you must know if you just spoke to them" She then said "well the bar is closed so we're not serving anyone else". Rather than have an argument we left. Customs service was just shocking!!!! I understand that it's busy, and we would of been happy to leave like we were the first time we came in, but there was no need to be rude and publicly embarrass my friends and I. We ended up going to Beefeater where the staff...