Back in the day this used to be the Water Rat, but it changed its name and outlook some years ago. Surrounded by lovely gardens on the fringes of a Berkshire hamlet, the building’s red-brick walls and immaculately thatched roof are much as before, but the interior has been transformed with a cottagey all-day bar and a separate dining room that might have been lifted from an elegant country house. Call in for a pie and pint or go for the full three-course works – perhaps twice-baked cheese soufflé with hazelnut crumbs followed by grilled guinea fowl salad with butternut squash, roast pork tenderloin with mustard sauce or beer-battered haddock and chips. Steak cravers and veggies are also well served, while pud might be strawberry Eton mess. Afternoon cream teas and regular steak nights complete a useful package.