Blog Food & drink

2026-05-045 min readcheaphotels

Seven independent cafes in Reading and Caversham, ranked on coffee, pastries and whether you’d walk 20 minutes to reach them.

1. Workhouse Coffee, King's Road

Workhouse is Reading's original speciality coffee roaster and still the town's best flat white. They roast on-site on King's Road, use their own beans across a rotating single-origin espresso menu, and the baristas will actually talk you through what's in the hopper if you ask. £3.20 for a flat white, £3.80 for a filter, and the pastries — laminated by a small bakery on the same street — sell out by 11am on Saturdays. Simple room, wooden tables, good wifi, no attitude.

Ranks first because the coffee is objectively the best in Reading and has been for a decade, and because the second location on Prospect Street in Caversham means you’re never more than 15 minutes from a proper cup. Order the day's single-origin as a filter and you’ll taste the difference from every chain in the Oracle. Avoid weekday lunchtimes when the office crowd fills every seat.

2. Anonymous Coffee, Chatham Street

Small, minimalist, ten seats maximum, tucked into a side street west of the town centre. Anonymous roasts a bit lighter than Workhouse — brighter, more acidic, fruit-forward espressos — and the baristas take the extraction as seriously as anywhere in the south-east. Flat white £3.30, cortado £3, batch brew £2.50. Small food menu: sourdough toast, banana bread, one pastry, done well.

Ranks second because the coffee is arguably as good as Workhouse and the room is quieter and more considered, but the tiny footprint means you often can’t sit down. This is a takeaway-and-walk cafe more than a lingering cafe. If you’re passing through town for the day and want the single best cup, come here first thing and take it to the Abbey ruins across the ring road. Closed Sundays, which is the only real complaint.

3. Tamp Culture, Kings Walk

Started as a coffee cart in Reading market and grew into a proper shop on Kings Walk, next to the market square. Their approach is more approachable than Anonymous — good coffee served fast for the office crowd, with a bigger food menu including proper breakfast rolls (£6, generous), sandwiches, and cakes. Flat white £3.20, and the batch brew is consistently good throughout the day rather than fading after the morning rush.

Ranks third because the coffee is excellent and the food actually complements it — you can have breakfast here rather than just a caffeine hit. Outdoor seats in the paved market area work well on sunny mornings. Popular with runners doing the Thames loop who stop here on the way back. Gets busy 8-10am on weekdays; quieter after 11 and on Saturday mornings before 10.

4. Picnic, Kings Road

Picnic isn’t strictly a coffee-first cafe — it's a proper brunch spot with excellent coffee — but it deserves to rank here for the whole package. Bright room, big windows onto King's Road, and a menu that does the modern brunch canon (avocado toast, shakshuka, pancakes, full English) with more care than most. £11-14 for a plate, £3.30 for a flat white sourced from a rotating local roaster.

Ranks fourth because if you want to sit down for an hour, eat well, drink good coffee and not be hurried, Picnic is the answer. It's the cafe to bring visitors to who don’t want to stand in a queue and drink a takeaway. Weekend brunch queues from 10am — arrive by 9:30 or after 12 to walk in. Takes bookings for tables of four or more on weekends.

5. C.U.P., Prospect Street, Caversham

Caversham's proper coffee shop, five minutes from the bridge on Prospect Street. Uses beans from a rotating cast of small UK roasters — often Round Hill from Bath or Extract from Bristol — and the barista work is genuinely careful. Flat white £3.20, cakes from a nearby home baker, small selection of sandwiches at lunch. Not a big room; six tables plus a bench in the window.

Ranks fifth because the coffee stands up to anywhere in town but the location keeps it off most visitors' radar. If you’re walking from Reading station across Caversham Bridge to Christchurch Meadows or Thames Lido, this is the coffee stop en route. Closes at 3pm most days, so it's a morning-and-lunch place. The Prospect Street location makes it a natural pair with Workhouse's Caversham branch two doors down.

6. Kyrenia, Broad Street Mall area

Cypriot family-run cafe that's been in Reading longer than the speciality coffee scene, and it does something none of the above do: proper Greek coffee, brewed in a briki, served with a glass of water and a piece of loukoumi. £2.50 a cup, and the room feels like a Nicosia backstreet. Also does excellent baklava, spanakopita and koulouri to take away.

Ranks sixth because the coffee is a different tradition entirely and comparing it directly to a flat white is unfair — but if you want the best £2.50 coffee experience in Reading, and something to eat with genuine roots rather than a laminated pastry, come here. Family-run, warm welcome, no wifi and no laptops, which is deliberate and welcome. Cash still preferred though card is accepted.

7. Warings Bakery, London Road

Not primarily a cafe — it's a proper bakery with a few seats — but the sourdough is the best in Reading and the coffee they serve alongside it is competent rather than remarkable. Come here to buy bread, eat a pastry with a coffee at one of the four inside tables, and take a loaf home. £3.50 for a sourdough loaf, £3 for a pain au chocolat, £2.80 for a flat white.

Ranks seventh because the coffee doesn’t quite match the food, but the food is the point. A sausage roll from Warings eaten in the Abbey Gardens with a takeaway coffee is one of the best £6 lunches in Reading. Opens early (7am), closes when they’ve sold out — usually by 3pm on Saturdays. The London Road location is a 10-minute walk east of the centre and worth the walk.

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Before you book

What people ask before booking Caversham.