My name is Paul McCrystal, and supported by my wife Irene, we are your hosts
at The Pack Saddle Inn. I am head chef, landlord and bon vivant and am
madly passionate about British food to the point where I drive my wife and staff
to distraction. I have never understood why in this country we prefer to do other
countries' cuisine badly rather than concentrating on our own good old-fashioned
British food at its best.
No description of The Packsaddle Inn would be complete without mention of
Wadworth Breweries. Wadworth are a real, traditional, family-run brewery who are
proud of their heritage and who brew top-class real ales. Their friendly, personal
service, as well as their outstanding products complement everything we strive for
at The Pack Saddle Inn
The philosophy here at The Pack Saddle Inn is to do everything we can to provide you, the customer, with the best we can offer. I spend an enormous amount of time tracking down the best quality products, it is the little things that are so important. All our food is cooked to order and we make virtually everything in house. Our bread, which we provide gratis to customers while waiting for their food, is sourced from a small, local family bakery. Our local butcher ensures our meat is of the highest order, our steaks are especially good, our sausages are made for us, as are our faggots.
We buy whole sides of bacon which are cut extra thick for us; it's real local bacon that makes that bacon buttie extra special. Our cheese board is predominantly from cheese-makers in and around the Reading area. We make all our own gravies from stock the old-fashioned way and oh yes we specialise in real potatoes. We do not do chips with everything unless you specify it, but we do real mash, real sauté and on occasions, rosti and au gratin.
Personally, I detest the usually-served 
British salad, limp lettuce, cucumber and tomato, and then we call it a garni. Here at The Pack Saddle Inn, we make our own lemon dressing, we use a variety of salad leaves to give colour and taste. We make our own coleslaw and mushroom tomato salad, topped with colourful mixed peppers, red onion, radish flower and it looks and tastes superb whether it accompanies our cooked gammon Ploughmans, a starter garnish or simply a fresh salad dish.
Finally, for our vegetarian diners, there is always a good vegetarian selection on offer, again prepared with the same zeal and fervour as the rest of our menu.
When did you last have a real home-made pudding at a pub? All our puddings are freshly made by us, you can really taste the diffrence, whether it be spotted dick, treacle tart or chocolate torte you can be assured it will taste just like how mother used to make it.
We are always willing to cater for any dietary requirements and our trained chefs will be happy to answer any questions you may have.
We are a wheelchair access friendly pub with disability toilets and reserved parking bays in our top car park. The friendly staff will only be to pleased to help when necessary.
Generous off-road parking is available.
Children are most welcome at The Pack Saddle Inn. Our children's menu offers a good range of healthier option as well as chips and nuggets. Our gardens have an extensive play activity area as well as a paddock for them to run amok. We also have baby changing facilities for our smaller clients in addition to high chairs and booster seats.
