Phil Sampson discovers a delightful eatery with service to match on the upper reaches of the Thames
LONDON STREET BRASSERIE READING
R emember your most dispiriting restaurant experience ever? I do, and it didn’t even involve food. Having gone out of my way to drop into a relatively upmarket establishment I asked if I could book a table for a month’s time. “No,” came the haughty reply. “Here, we only take bookings for today – if you want to book in advance, you have to do it online.” But (spotting a computer over the receptionist’s shoulder) I enquired, “Can’t you do that for me?” “No, I cannot.” And that was that. This miserable example of customer anti-service happened recently in central London. Fortunately, in another ‘London’ – the London Street Brasserie, Reading, the story was very different; the opposite in fact as the staff there could not have been more helpful or welcoming. I cannot imagine them ever turning away would-be diners.
Located on the south bank of the River Kennet, the Brasserie is an oasis of calm amid a feeding frenzy of restaurants in central Reading – there are at least 15 others, mostly chains, near the town’s fashionable heart, the main artery of which is the river itself. The nearest marina on the Thames is just a couple of miles away.
The restaurant itself is housed in two dissimilar but adjoining buildings which look to have been fused together in a head-on collision. Inside the place is a Tardis with several seating areas ranging from intimate corners downstairs to a large saloon upstairs, plus a terrace overlooking the river.
