I've written before about the lack of 'celebratory' destinations in central Reading - you know, the kind of places you go when grandma has her birthday, on Mother's Day or graduation when dad (or mum) is paying.

There's the Rising Sun, the Lido, perhaps The Reading Room or Mal at Malmaison, otherwise you're off to one of those chains The Botanist, Côte, Carluccio's, all of which do great food, but lack that certain cache.

Since the demise of Bel & The Dragon the obvious choice in central Reading remains the London Street Brasserie.

It's a stand out building in a stand out location on the riverside that serves stand out modern British food in a sea of ethnic food and chains.

So, on a sunny Friday my wife and I had just received some very good health news and, there being few things to celebrate these days, made a b-line for London Street.

We used to be regulars, but as prices crept up and up we started going less and less. Perhaps noticing this, LSB introduced a £25 lunchtime two course menu that has now become £30. It isn't a bad deal. But the trouble is, by the time you add a £15 glass of wine plus service, that's a ton for lunch for two.

I have tremendous sympathy for the prices our hospitality industry has now to charge in return for a good time. They are caught between a rock and a hard place and living in Britain in 2025 reminds me of past trips to Scandinavia where a nice meal out demanded a second mortgage.

From the empty restaurants I frequently see all over town these days it is pretty apparent that take aways and cooking at home is doing real damage to our restaurants industry. It’s probably also true that there are far too many restaurants in Reading – our own directory has nearly 200 just in town. The new trend, prominently seen just around the corner on Kings Road where Paesions, Just Momo and Amo Street Food are situated in deliver friendly micro restaurants.

But today we walk past them, weaving our way past the delivery drivers and their boxy bags and souped up supercycles and take a left. This part of town has been enhanced with the arrival of the wonderful games shop, Eclectic games, but you do keep on wondering why the lovely old Ship Inn remains empty still in a prime spot by the river ? Come on Greene King, do something about it!

As we arrived the owner Paul Clerehugh was standing at reception and greeted us like long lost friends (despite being regulars here and at his other gaff at Stoke Row I doubt if he actually remembered us).  The staff here are lovely and professional but unobtrusive and many are familiar faces fifteen years after our first visit.

The menu and the food and the wine at LSB can barely be faulted. It rises well above the usual ‘greatest hits’ of burgers, a steak, fish and chips, a pie, a curry and a pasta dish that bedevil most pub kitchens trying to turn a profit.

So, two glasses of champagne were called for, having narrowly missed a bullet. The house champagne, Nicholas Courtin is loverrrly, smooth and lacking the sour sharpness in many champagnes. As my wife commented, the first taste of alcohol of the day is often a bitter experience, but it wasn't in this case. Smooooth. I am not a fan of bubbles and like many these days will go for a DOCG Prosecco or ever a cremant, but this was a very well chosen house champagne.

And you see, this is the trouble with LSG. They suck you in with a mouth watering blackboard outside and before you know it, you have dived into their wine list and end up sucking a small breath when the bill is presented. It’s a clever approach to catering.

And the wine list is the best in Reading, in my view. It's long interesting and varied. A Lebanese wine here, a hard to get Italian there.

Ah, but this is a food review and I have neglected to make any mention of what was on offer. Well, it's always interesting - the fixed menu on our visit ranged from the inevitable good old fish and chips to oxtail and liver. 

On the fixed price lunch menu there is partridge, octopus and jerk chicken. And do not forget to order the piano bread, that cartridge paper thin bread from southern Italy that is here served with a harissa dip.

They say that the demise of the great British pub is down to people no longer going for a pint with colleagues after work, and equally, the demise of the boozy business lunch in these straitened times is the reason for the demise of places like Bel & the Dragon.

And LSB is not somewhere to come for lunch if you have an Important Call With The New York Office in the afternoon. I have known friends who have more than once come for lunch and still been here at closing time.

It is a pleasant space, despite being slightly higgldy piggldy (the building has variously been a an ironmonger, a chemist, and a beer retailer operated here in the mid-19th century. By 1895, the building was divided, with the northern half housing a confectioner and the southern half a public house. The building was extended and became a newsagent and tobacconist before becoming a restaurant).

Usually we go for the piano bread - Italy's answer to poppadoms, but today we demeaned, knowing that at LSG doggy bags are often involved even after a two course meal.

My wife had the lobster, langoustine, gruyere risotto cakes with roquette and gruyere crisps. She grew up in Switzerland and loves anything with the word 'Gruyere' in it. I tried half of one and found it cloying and too cheesy. I am not a fan of combining cheese and fish at the best of times and I dislike arancini and croquettes, but she cooed over her starter. Each to their own.

Given my good news, and in full celebratory mode, I had gone off piste and into the somewhat more expensive a la carte menu where starters are around £15 and mains £30 or more and had the mussels to start off. I could equally have chosen the yellowfin tuna sashimi or the duck, fennel, chicory and orange compote. Their classic oriental duck salad wasn’t on the menu this time, but is always worth plumping for if available.

The mussels were fat and juicy in a creamy herby garlicky broth. In this case it is my wife who hates molluscs (my theory is that Geneva is a long way from the sea) but she had one and asked for a second. They were that good. As our starters were whisked away along with most of that lovely broth I did wonder if I had made a mistake not ordering frites with my starter to mop it all up, though. LSB has a habit of making you greedy.

The champagne glasses were dry so I ordered a glass of the house white for my wife - the Lobster Shack, Chardonnay/Viognier/Chenin Blanc from the Western Cape, which must have been bought in bulk since there were crates of it lying randomly around the restaurant. It is a really well balanced wine with sharpness, fruitiness and creaminess in equal balance. My Nero d'Avola Italian red was a bit rough for my taste, but both glasses worked well with our main courses.

For mains, my better half had a simple dish of seared Cornish mackerel fillets. heirloom tomato citrus salad with pink grapefruit, roquette, orange and crumbled ricotta topped with lemon oil dressing. We had only just come back from our summer holiday in Cornwall, so I put her choice down to wistfulness.

I, on the other hand, went full menu and had a massive veal chop. A bit tough around the fat, in its centre it was lovely and soft. I managed about half of it with a heritage tomato salad and a massive side order of dauphinoise potatoes which went only part eaten, but if someone offers you oven cooked potato slices in garlic and cream, how can you refuse? I would have liked mine a bit crispier on top and perhaps a tad less creamy but it was a perfect accompaniment to the meat.

It was a delightful meal that lasted a couple of hours. We demurred on desserts and coffee, especially since the home made hobnobs with tea brulee were off the menu, and the bill came to just north of £170 with service.

We could have both eaten off the set menu and had a small glass of house wine each and brought the bill in for much less. But that is missing the point of LSB. It's a place for fat cats and people who think they deserve to be treated as a fat cat for a day.

It is literally the embodiment of my celebration of being around to enjoy life for a few more years yet. And where better to spend the occasional day than this lovely restaurant. Damn the kids! Spend that inheritance whilst you can.