The High Street

Hobgoblin - The place to go for your traditional real ale - with a few regulars, and about half a dozen guests that change frequently. Only thing they do apart from that is one tap lager. Very old man - traditional small, wooden effect pub - with cubby holes at the back for some quiet contemplating. A very good place to go for a nice pint and read of the paper at 11am on a Saturday morning after shopping.

(The road running parallel to the High Street, to the North)

Boardwalk - Started going here on a Thursday night after the Walkabout started to get a bit quiet. Very nice place - big, spacious, loads of seating, or prop yourself up on the ample bar. Service slow, but do Courage Best on tap. £1.50/pint on Thursdays, and reasonably priced on normal nights. Good place to have a group meal, as they have raised dining areas, and a nice looking young crowd. (Noticed this has changed hands on the last visit to Reading)

Monk's Retreat - One of the two Weatherspoons on the street - this one pulling in the younger market. Not particularly big, but with two bars - unfortunately both of which have very slow service. Crowded, not a good layout, but very popular meeting place at the start of the night - with cheap drinks and a good selection of ale.

Honeypot - The gentleman's club of Reading. Looks pokey from the outside, is expensive to drink in, and is suprisingly small. But if topless ladies gyrating in your lap on a Friday night for a tenner is your thing, then you won't find a better alternative for 30 miles (well,any alternative for that matter...)

The Square - It's a Square....cocktails, expensive, but plenty of comfy chairs. Good on a pub crawl, but that's about it.

The Walkabout - A lot of fond memories from here - the place which led to a lot of being rather ill the next day, hungover mornings at work, and the development of a few new bizarre dancing techniques. Late licence Thurs-Sat, 2 for 1 on Thursdays, live bands some Thursdays. Good, reasonably priced bar- a interesting selection of uncommon bottled lagers - bitter drinkers will have to put up with creamflow Tetleys or Guinness - and service is usually fast (plus there are plenty of pillars to sneak up behind to get in front of people). Lovely barmaids. Small dance floor, plenty of seating, good food during the day, but unfortunately they take Switch and do cashback, which can get a bit fatal.

Yates' - Like every other Yates' - nice, gets crowded at the weekend, and quite pricey.

The Hope Tap - The second Weatherspoons - for the oldies. Eating area at the back, much better seating, less crowded. Good beer, much faster service, and of course, cheap.

O'Neills - On the corner - gets very busy at the weekend, and is the usual prequel meeting place to the Music Room.

The Music Room - Cheesy club. Walk past the bar and sparse seating to get to the dance floor, which is usually rammed with pissed people dancing. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. They do cash back, which makes for an expensive night, but it serves booze late, so gets points for that. Not quite sure why it costs a fiver to get in though. Darn captive market.

Reading Station

Oz Bar - An underground pub, literally - from the street it looks like a burger van or toilet, but go down the set of stairs inside to find a quite a big place. Pool table, late license sometimes. Think it's a Scottish & Newcastle, so your usual Best and Directors can be found there. Looks like it could be a bit locally though.

Three Guineas - Right next to the station - serves 2-3 Youngs ales most of the time. Good service, good seating, with outside tables too. Meant to get quite rough, and the place where the Reading FC brigade end up after they've lost their matches, so best avoided when that's on.

Down by the River, behind the Oracle

Bar Med - Expensive, but looks classy. Sofas if you're lucky, but mostly standing room. Noisy, but with really nice toilets and a novel communual handwashing area. Not really sure why you'd want to drink ther though.

Brannigan's - Very pricey, but does have a late license. Older crowd, as you'd expect for a Brannigan's, with live acts and dance floor etc.

Old Orleans - Nice bit of metal seating out the front for watching people walk past in the afternoon. Very pleasant in summer.

Pu Na Na's - An underground bar, with bottles only, I think. Looks like an Indian reastaurant gone wrong, with the skankiest of toilets. Can get bottles of Murphys, but whatever you go for it'll cost a few bob. Good for a group drink though, and very pleasant atmosphere. Tonnes of seating, and a little dancefloor if you feel the urge.

Great Expectations - Everything you could want from a pub - traditional feel, small TVs, good selection of beer, pool table, loads of seating and plenty of standing room. Quite a young crowd, and a really nice atmosphere.

Global Cafe - Small, strange pub, where all the overseas students and hippies seem to accumulate. Selection of bottled foreign lagers, which they seem keen on putting lime in the nexk of (nice!) Very cramped, noisy, and a small dancefloor at the back where you get salsa dancers showing their moves after finishing their classes upstairs.

South of the High Street (behind Virgin)

Purple Turtle - Where the freaks hang out - your typical goths and weird students who aren't welcome in normal pubs. Crowded, bad atmosphere (but I've only been there once, so may have been a one off)

Fez Club - Club on a few levels - I think with different music on each one. Bottles only, pricey, crowded. A few dancefloors, and with multiple bars you're probably going to find one where you can get served quickly. Good from what I can remember.

Chumleys - Usually running some sort of 2-4-1 drinks offer, so works out quite reasonable. Good place to meet and go to on a crawl.

Pavlov's Dog - Yellow Card pub - usually busy, full of students. Pool table and small TVs, and usually quite good service. Don't even try to use your card without a valid student ID to back it up though (and most of the staff only accept a Reading Uni card)

Oxford Road (Reading to Tilehurst main road, to the West)

Chicago's - Opposite the bus stop and open til midnight a lot of the time - so fatal when you're waiting for the last bus at 11.20pm, have 5 mins to spare, and fancy having a couple of cheeky doubles before heading home. Serve Worthy's on tap, is usually empty, and is an amusing plaec to go if you want to laugh at old drunk people.

Rileys - Pool club on the way out of town. about a dozen American pool tables, loads of snooker, and some English (although I think they're hidden away upstairs) Open 24 hours, serve normal bar grub, and the soft drinks are quite reasonably priced.

The Albion - Never been in. Going past it on the bus, it resembles an advert for baseball caps - to get in you either have to prove a) you dropped out of school at the age of 12, b) you can play the theme tune to "Deliverance" on the banjo, or c) you own bling and Burberry

The Sports Bar - Really nice pub, with projector Sky TV. Loads of seating, two normal and one L-shaped pool table, darts and jukebox. Couple of bog standard bitters on pump, and usually very quiet. Looks like a local, but without the muppets.

Harvester - Up the turning from the Norcot Roundabout - very expensive, poor selection of beers, and made to feel very unwelcome by the inter-related clan that have grown up there.

East Reading

Upin Arms - Another Yellow Card pub, where they're more happy to let you use it no matter who you are. A few pool tables, brightly lit, and thoroughly pleasant to be in - but a bit out of the way.

Theale-way

Utopia - Your typical Works/Ikon/Young club type place. Not bad - some good dance nights, and I think it has a second room upstairs, but that could just be a hazy dream ....