What if I told you that in 2025, you could go to a Reading town centre pub and buy two pints of beer and a packet of crisps and get change from a fiver?
No, this is not a great work of fiction, but the reality for visitors to The Hope Tap on Friar Street.
The Wetherspoon venue opposite the Sainsbury’s supermarket has recently reopened following a refurbishment, and continues to offer the same hospitality and value for money that you’d expect from the chain.
While The Monks Retreat has changed ownership and The Baron Cadogan has become Clay’s Hyderabadi Kitchen, both The Hope Tap and The Back of Beyond have flourished and are busy from morning till late at night.
We visited early on a Tuesday evening and there were just a handful of tables left empty.
Some were packed with friends catching up over a meal, others were solitary drinkers nursing a pint and enjoying some peace and quiet.
The Back of Beyond and The Hope Tap both opened in the late 1990s, and have always had keen prices … once upon a time the chain offered two meals for £5, and Wetherspoon also pioneered a drink and burger meal deal.
There are different meal deals now, including curry and steak nights, and at different prices. The offers vary depending on when you visit and menus are always available.
For drinkers, there is the usual selection to choose from, whatever your choice of tipple. Be aware the soft drinks are Pepsi, not Coke. Yes, they do have to ask if you mind, and one wonders if they should offer customers the chance to take the Pepsi Challenge.
There are now some large scale and very impressive taps installed for lagers and ciders – a magnificent dozen on tap including Stella, Bud Light, Leffe Blonde, Carlsberg, Carling and Corona. If you name it, it’s probably here.
There are also at least eight real ales on tap, with prices on our visit £2.63.The selection will vary as they will be while stocks last, but expect porters, stouts, milds and bitters. Ask nicely and the bar staff will let you try a tot to see if it slips down nicely.
Supporting independent breweries including Finchampstead’s Siren Craft Brew
The Hope Tap also has an offer on cans of craft beer from microbreweries, with two cans for £5.90, or around £3.50 each. Pleasingly, the menu for this includes tasting notes and features Finchampstead-based Siren Craft Brew’s Flex, a Californian style pale ale.
Eagle eyed readers will note that two pints of real ale will cost more than a fiver. So how do you get the change?
Well, for a pint of Greene King IPA, a fairly pleasant session ale, you will pay just £1.79.
Two pints will cost £3.58, giving you back £1.42 in change … that’s enough for a packet of crisps – 93p on our visit, and a decent sized bag too.
Other offers include unlimited tea, coffee and hot chocolate refills from machines set up close to the bar.
Read more: What we made of The Seven Red Roses
The pub itself is fairly spacious with hundreds of tables in the venue. Chances are there will be a space somewhere inside, and there is a walled beer garden outside.
There are several large and fairly obtrusive fruit machines dotted around the venue. These are high-tech fancy ones and a far cry from the one armed bandits that you might have found at a 1950s fairground. The big flat screens are bright and gaudy, and can be distracting when you’re talking to a friend.
Less obtrusive, towards the back there are some bookshelves stacked with reading material if your conversational partner gets a bit boring. There are plenty of books to browse through and you are bound to find something you want to pick up and read.
When Wetherspoon first came on the scene, such shelves were fairly common in its venues but over time have been phased out in many of them, so it’s pleasing to see The Hope Tap keep its collection.
Staff at the Hope were warm, friendly and chatty. It’s a sign of the times that some were wearing bodycams as well.
What hasn’t changed at The Hope Tap?
There is one thing that hasn’t changed in the refurbishment … the walk to the toilets.
There are viral videos that mock the length of time it takes to get to some Spoons’ loos and the humour is not without some truth. In The Hope Tap, it’s best to leave a few minutes before you need to go.
Head to the back, go through the doors, up the narrow flight of stairs (stopping to let someone pass you on the way), and then through another set of doors … Finally! As long as there is no queue.
While some may mock Wetherspoon pubs, the bottom line is they provide good beer, friendly service, clean venues and at a price that few can compete with. Yes, there are no log fires, live bands or other things that make a boozer, but The Hope Tap is part of the fabric of Reading town centre and long may that continue.
The pub is open from 8am daily, closing at midnight apart from Fridays and Saturdays when it shuts at 1am.
The Hope Tap
99–105 Friar Street
Reading RG1 1EP
0118 958 2266
https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/pubs/the-hope-tap-reading/
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