Oh dear, what have you done to deserve being sent to Basingstoke, Mookiemoo?
I do the Reading - Basingstoke leg of that run on a fairly regular basis and as mentioned elsewhere, am fortunate enough to travel First Class thanks to my employer. I've yet to see a buffet car on that service let alone a restaurant.
And don't get me onto the subject of the delightfully old fashioned tea shop and newsagent (run by a train enthusiast, judging by all the memorabilia and photographs in the window) which was located on the Reading platform at Basingstoke until a few months ago - it got swept away by "improvements" which saw instead an anodyne, characterless and expensive cafe bar installed in its place. Grrr!
