Cheap eats in Reading: The Wee Waif at Charvil

Clocking in at number 10 in Trip Advisor’s selection of cheap eats is The Wee Waif, a country pub and hotel close to Sonning and just off the A4.

It has received lots of rave reviews for its food, service and value.

Part of Greene King’s Hungry Horse brand, it has a beer garden, EV charging and, well, food.

Customers can enjoy a Sunday roast and a drink for £10: beef, turkey or both, or a vegetable tart, served with roast potatoes, mash, carrots, peas, beans, a Yorkshire pudding and gravy.

On Wednesdays, it offers a curry and a drink for £8: Chicken Korma, Chicken Jalfrezi, Lamb Keema, or Chickpea and Sweet Potato.

On the regular menu at the Wee Waif

Its usual food menu includes starters, sharers, wings, pub classics, and a range of specials, such as the Crown of Burgers: two cheeseburgers, two bacon cheeseburgers and two Southern-fried chicken goujons, served with chips for £13.99.

The burger menu includes dishes you won’t have seen elsewhere: The Gravy One (£11.99) is a Southern-fried chicken burger, hash brown, and cheese, served with burger gravy with extra gravy on the side for dipping.

The Korean BBQ Chicken is £11.49, while The Cheeseburger Chilli Dipper is £12.99.

Definitely unique.

Sides include Mac ‘n’ Cheese (£2.99), chips (£3.29) and Salt and Pepper Fries (£3.79).

Mixed grills, steaks, starters … it’s all here and that’s before we get to dessert.

There are 11 different items to choose from including The Ultimate Big Candymania (chocolate and vanilla ice cream, cookie dough pieces, chocolate pieces, a Flake, cream and chocolate flavour sauce, £6.99), to Apple and Berry Crumble with custard or vegan ice cream (£5.29).

From the breakfast menu

We visited for breakfast, where more unique items were on the menu.

The Full English starts at £4.99 (sausage, bacon, fried egg, mushrooms, baked beans and two hash browns), with veggie and vegan options available for the same price. Larger plates are on the menu, for more money.

A Breakfast Wrap filled with sausage, bacon, hash brown, scrambled egg and cheese (£3.99) will rival McDonald’s for their money, while bacon or sausage butties will be popular (£2.99).

But it’s the Breakfast Legends section that will get tongues wagging. It’s a bit out there for a nation of Brits used to a dish of cereal and toast for their opening meal of the day.

The Spicy Mexican Flatbread (£5.99) is a spicy start: a warm flatbread with guacamole, salsa, cheese, jalapeño sausage, scrambled egg and green jalapeños.

Waffles Benedict (£5.49) is three US-style waffles topped with ham, eggs and Hollandaise sauce. It comes in a vegetarian option as well.

It’s also possible to customise it with the Waffles Your Way (£4.29), which allows people to fuse sausages with vanilla yoghurt, maple flavour syrup or chocolate sauce. Not sure about that. Thankfully, fruit is one of the options and that goes better with the sweet stuff.

Read more: Why are they queuing out of the door to get to Monty’s Café?

We tried the Cornflake Chicken Burger (£5.99).

Billed as taking cornflakes to a new level, this is two chicken tenders cooked in a cornflake batter, served with bacon, cheese, lettuce mayonnaise and accompanied by two hash browns.

It came on a plastic plate and looked every inch a value meal. Unfortunately the chicken was rather dry and bland, the bun was insipid, and the portion size small.

Compared to the Full English breakfast, it was terrible value.

The Super Special Breakfast (£6.99) is a super size version of the Full English. It comprises two sausages, three rashers of bacon, two fried eggs, three hash browns, mushrooms and baked beans (more than three) and toast and butter.

There is a Mega breakfast, which ups the number of sausages to four, gives an extra fried egg and an additional slice of toast for £8.99 – anyone eating that probably won’t have anything else going into their stomachs for another 24 hours.

So what is the breakfast like?

No denying it, it was good value. But also value sausages, rather than being meaty and flavoursome, these were bland, tasteless and disappointing.

However, the bacon was terrific, while the eggs were impressively fried – the yolk ran when dipped, and egg white wasn’t burnt.

The hash browns were thick and tasty, ditto for the toast.

Tea, or juice, adds £1.50 on the price. And given the size of the mug, which gives a Sports Direct cuppa a run for its money, that’s good value.

So yes, The Wee Waif deserves its place as one of Reading’s cheap eats, that offers value … but a little more oomph in its ingredients could improve the offerings.

Service with a smile

Food is served between 7am and 9pm seven days a week.

It was quiet on our visit, and we had to wait a few moments for staff to serve us. But they were warm and friendly, making us feel welcome, and asked all the right questions about allergies and if we wanted a black pudding (no, thank you).

We didn’t have too long to wait and there was a small delay between the Full English and the Cornflake Burger coming out of the hatches, but not enough to let one go cold.

The tables were a little sticky and, as can be seen from our mug of tea, the finish is starting to come away. Some TLC will be needed soon.

Would we return?

Yes. There is no denying The Wee Waif offers good value, but you get what you pay for. It’s good honest pub grub that the wallet will appreciate.

The Wee Waif

Old Bath Road

Charvil RG10 9RJ

0118 944 0066

www.hungryhorse.co.uk/pubs/berkshire/wee-waif