6th visit of the outing to Maidenhead and its environs: Packed and raucous was my first impression of this Wetherspoon early evening and this continued throughout my stay and having left the relatively calm environment of The Lord Grenfell and fellow south-east London real ale enthusiasts on this outing in situ there. My purpose was to soak up those few earlier beers, as in two halves and a third in recent hours, with a curry. It took the longest for the said curry to appear of all visits to Spoons in recent memory at almost half an hour or three times as long as usual. That helps to illustrate just how busy they were as pretty much most of the time the meal arrives around 10 minutes after placing the order. Amazingly, it did not take long to get served at the bar to place my order having found a high circular table and chair. I was on the verge of demanding my money back since a London-bound train had to be caught to get back before too late. Just as I was going to ask a passing member of staff, there the meal was finally with me. In future I will ask them especially in a busier than usual Spoons just how long they estimate for the food.

I hadn’t really planned to come in here but spotted a couple of friends at an outside table as I was passing. Too few staff for a very busy pub led to a long wait for service. I did not note the available beers.