Ashlyns in Epping Forest - Phone Number, Reservations, Reviews

Restaurant lovely. Food fresh and well presented. Staff friendly. Farm shop excellent. Local produce. Great quality every time. A gem of a business.

Great cafe and farm shop with fresh veg and a butcher

Great soft play area for youngsters, also farm animals and farm shop

Restaurant was expensive for what it was, the vegan sausage roll was more than double the price compared to the same one in the farm shop. The few salad leaves didn’t warrant that cost. Had to wait a long time for service and the waitress was pretty miserable. Saving Grace was the lovely chap in the butchers area. Very friendly and helpful. Would have given 1 star after the service in the restaurant but the butcher pulled some good points back

The staff here are extremely rude. This is not a family friendly restaurant at all. The staff are moody and act as though they are doing you a favour. After recently having a baby I went back twice, the first time I asked for help transporting my newborn son in his pram up the stairs to the table and was told no, they wouldn’t help me. The second time my son was in a high chair (I always clean up before we leave) and the waitress serving was moaning to her colleagues about the mess on the floor being made by BABIES. It’s as though some people forget that they all started off in this world as a baby?! As I said, I cleaned up before leaving so why moan when we are mid way through eating. I’ve repeatedly had bad, rude service here and kept giving them a chance but I will not be returning now. Spend your money elsewhere, don’t go if you have a baby, and if you do go be prepared for rude service.

Great for breakfast, lunch, Friday nights , exceptional service, all the staff are polite and friendly the Manager is very accommodating and friendly, food is excellent with a great choice, our favourite local restaurant so pleased we found it. Also has lovely farm shop , highly recommended

Great customer service, exceeded my expactations! Great day full of fun!

Great organic farm shop and butchers, sausages, and black pudding were amazing. Had a fish finger sandwich in the cafe, which was very good, lovely tartar sauce. Will definitely be back

What a wonderful wide range of flowers!

Just had a fabulous evening at Burger Night at Ashlyns restaurant. Excellent service and lovely food in a friendly, welcoming environment. Fresh ingredients, well cooked and well presented and served up. Definitely recommend!

The Coffee was nice, I did not enjoy the sponge cake which had awful artificial cream. Service was friendly and efficient. Cooked food looked good.

Nice cafe, farm stock limited. Friendly staff.

Rude manager and staff. My wife and 1.5-year-old had been for breakfast, and the manager told them off because my child couldn't touch the sugar sachets on the table for playing. It's very ironic that the place is for children, but the staff is entirely inexperienced about treating them well. I have been catering myself for more than ten years and have never treated any clients this way. They did not even say sorry at the end. We were regulars but will never go here again. I hope the owner reads this message so they can arrange a manner training course for their staff.

Alway a warm welcome from the team, good consistently good and always a great service - never disappoints. Feel lucky to have this place in our local area.

Indoor soft play area is cool 😎

Went for a baby’s 1st birthday party with family and friends including other young children! We were told on the phone we could bring balloons and banners etc 2 days before, and the person on the phone was very helpful… unfortunately on the day the Manageress of the restaurant was extremely rude, and unhelpful to the point of making everyone there very uncomfortable! The food is not inexpensive and to feel you want to leave straight after eating, after driving for 2 hours to get there… Great farm etc, bad restaurant atmosphere!

Soft play was too busy that it seemed unsafe, big kids ran riot in the toddler area, so left after 5 minutes. Farm is really lovely and the jumping pillows are super special! The farm shop cafe is a huge disappointment, coffee wasn’t nice, food is over priced for what it is and the staff have a very bad attitude, I would recommend some customer service training or new management because the language and aggressive tone that the manager had spoken to a mum in front of her 3 children was appalling and inappropriate. She only questioned why she couldn’t split the bill.

Farm was great for little ones.Pete in the soft place had really good customer service as he appreciated that the soft play was clearly over subscribed as you couldn't move. But the main reason for 1 star is the totally unacceptable rudeness of what I believe was the manager in the restaurant. Our simple request for whatever reason was not possible, paying seperatly ? But the rudeness and aggressive response actually made 2 of of guests leave the 1st birthday party gathering that we was all attending. She actually said well if you talk down to me? I have told you 3 times we aint doing it like that! My sister in law just asked a simple question that rattled her cage and didn't we know about it. I hope we was just very unfortunate to have received this outrageous service. Because in truth, I can see why others had they not been verbally attacked during what would normally be deemed as an easy request at a restaurant - it would have been 4* for sure. 5* if we could actually use the soft play due to capacity. I only review excellent service and experience or absolutely dia. This is the first time I have felt the need to review a bad experience and that's because it was truly terrible from the restaurant lady with blonde hair who seemed to be in charge on a Saturday afternoon. Word of advice- just because someone is well spoken does not mean they are talking down to you, a request to pay seperatly really isn't that difficult

Our group, a bunch of around 15 for a 1st birthday, went up for food after a morning at the farm. Our moods were swiftly dampened by the diabolical behavior of the café manager. Picture this: a few couples politely request to settle their bills separately, a seemingly simple enough task. Yet, instead of accommodating our reasonable request with a smile, the manager lost it. Raising her voice and honestly seeming like she was having a break down. You could tell by all the other miserable staff working under her, her management skills are as bad as her attitude. To witness someone in a customer-facing role lose their temper over such a trivial matter was not only baffling but downright disappointing. Especially for the host who has spent time and money organising a special day for her little girl. The audacity reached new heights when she asked our friend, a mother of three, to leave simply because she dared to challenge her about paying separately. Honestly, if you go to this farm, TAKE A PICNIC and avoid that cafe.

Enjoyed the breakfast and had a browse around the farm shop whilst we waited for a table. The food tasted fresh and of a good quality, will visit again in future

The amount charged wasn’t the amount on the receipt. When question on the difference advised it was a service charge. Need to be transparent on what customers are paying for. No signal and Wi-Fi wasn’t working. Food average and not worth the price.

Softplay, food, staff all great! However animal welfare needs attention, especially owl whom seems distressed & keeps flying hard at the cage walls (very limited space for many of the animals) sad to see this in 2024!

Excellent food and exceptional service! Very hospitable and friendly. Good atmosphere. Farm shop has great choices of organic goods.

I had the homemade kebab from the menu here at lunchtime today. Choice of lime chicken or jerk chicken - my friend and I tried each. The chicken was tasty and filling, however the rice was shockingly dry, possibly undercooked and tasteless. Disappointing considering we paid nearly £24 each for what we had. The prices have increased since I last visited here. The restaurant is overall very nice, the staff are friendly and it is bright and welcoming inside.

If I am ever driving past I always stop for a steak pie from the deli. Been coming here sporadically for 10 years and it's the best cold pie you can buy.

Nice place to visit and helpful staff just found a little pricey but worth the visit. Was a nice day out.

Had the light breakfast was very nice

Great food, great atmosphere. The only thing that let's this place down is the toilets. They're really dirty and need a thorough deep clean of walls and floors.

Went for burger night, will 100% be going back, the food was 10/10 !!!! Definitely best burgers we’ve had!

For a breakfast it was well overpriced almost £50 for 3 breakfasts and one of them was 2 eggs on toast Staff are lovely and it's clean too,but simply more for TOWIEs than your average worker. But I guess they are not looking for blokes in muddy boots,not so much a cafe as a nice place for ladies that lunch to meet and chat.

Lovely cafe with a great breakfast. Felt slightly expensive but I know costs have risen. Lovely quality food.

Had a lovely lunch in the cafe.

My partner and I visited in October of this year as we hadn't been for about 5 years, what a disappointment, hardly any of the fresh produce was organic, it was even more expensive than it used to be (and I don't mean in regard to inflation), the staff were clueless and unattentive, it really was a poor shadow of it's former incarnation! We later found out that the whole farm had been sold by the founders. It is very disappointing because it was such a great place to go for an organic lunch, a stroll around the farm and then a bit of organic shopping before going home, now the whole place is geared to making money and it has completely lost it's original charm, what a shame and we won't be returning.

Popped in for lunch today with my daughter,son in law and granddaughter. We were greeted by very friendly staff and were seated very quickly. Our waitress (I wish I'd asked her name) was absolutely lovely. Extremely friendly and made us all feel very welcome. I asked if they had a little biscuit for my granddaughter as it was her 1st bday today and bless her she went and got a little tub of ice cream and popped a biscuit in and lit a candle and sang Happy Birthday to her. It absolutely made our day. I thanked her afterwards as her kindness really made a huge difference to us all. We will definitely be back.

Great place for live edge wood behind ashlyns farm shop

No prams allowed- on a farm with soft play geared up for kids. Staff were rude and said fire risk but there were so many free tables.

Most of the food here is so very good, sometimes the fresh veg can look a bit wilted. The food in the cafe/restaurant used to be wonderfully filling, mostly, good for you, and we'll served. Today we had a rude waitress who slammed our food and drink down on the table each time. Not so good.

I only go for the shop and it's got some cool items but it's a little pricey!

First impressions ok. My friends and I took a table in the restaurant. The music was VERY loud so we politely asked for it to be turned down and, after some discussion, were told ‘No, we can’t turn it down’. We moved tables which did help a bit, however, the new table wasn’t clean, nor was the cutlery that was in the metal container. The food was okay to nice. Staff were surly throughout - however they did do everything we asked of them (i.e. change the milk in the coffee), it was just such a shame they were unable to do anything with grace or a smile. My friend remarked to me that the staff did not seem to enjoy their work. There is a service charge added to the bill, which you could quite easily miss so just be aware that your final total will include 10% service charge. We did not pay the service charge. Toilet is very dirty - not the pan itself, but the room of the toilet. I’m pretty sure this would fail any sort of health inspection. Overall a very disappointing lunch which could so easily have been enjoyable if someone was actually prepared to make sure things were clean, and someone could teach the waiting staff how to smile.

Great little farm shop and cafe just down the road from North Weald village. The cafe restaurant is nestled at the back of the farm shop overlooking gardens, with indoor seating upstairs and downstairs in the glazed barn or outside in the garden when the weather permits. Ashlyns offer a wide selection of dishes for breakfast and lunch; we enjoyed items recommended by the helpful team from the specials board including the delicious Jerk chicken kebabs. The team are welcoming and friendly and most of the items available in the cafe also there for purchase in the farm shop / butcher to take home along with a variety of local, and not so local, produce. There is plenty of parking on site as in addition to the farm shop and cafe there is a well stocked garden centre, wine emporium, soft play centre and farm with alpaca, llama goats and other animals.

Professional and polite staff. Lovely food, reasonably priced. Nice surroundings. Good farm shop to browse. Thank you Ashlyns Farm.

Went for Burger night on a Friday with family. Great service and fantastic food. Good atmosphere in restaurant and really enjoyed meal. Family go regularly to this restaurant for breakfast etc and always have a good service/food. Really glad to have such excellent local restaurant.

I have eaten in the restaurant numerous times and have really enjoyed every meal. However today I was very disappointed with the response I was given from the restaurant manager who I feel was extremely unprofessional! My dad who had the battered fish with a green salad found a piece of stringy plastic in his salad which he had to remove from his mouth so I called a waitress over and showed her it, she then informed the manager who then came over and asked what the problem was so I showed her the piece of plastic, on picking up the said piece she informed me that it was definitely not from the kitchen said sorry and walked off !! I left the restaurant feeling that she had implied that we had planted it !!! The professional response would of been to ask my dad if he was ok as he had actually gone to eat it and then say she would show it to the head chef and at least remove the cost of the salad as a form of curtsy!! Definitely not going back to say the least !!!

A good selection of products but most can be found at a local supermarket at far cheaper prices. We were very disappointed with the very small selection of fruit and vegetables, most of them non organic. Disappointed.

Come here for some good quality grass fed meat , the chuck steak was absolutely delicious along with the burgers and mince . The butcher and staff are very friendly.

I'm sure everything you might need is right here, including a butcher's and restaurant! Really worth a visit

I’ve been coming here since I was little & even suggested to my partner coming here for my birthday this year. I went today & thought there is room for improvement. The food was alright, the waitress was rude & the overall atmosphere wasn’t particularly enjoyable. I actually watched somebody come into the kitchen (male, didn’t seem to be a chef) put something in his mouth and spit it back out into his hand again. Not very impressed considering it isn’t particularly cheap. This place used to be lovely, I’m not sure what happened.

Absolutely lovely meal with family. Friendly staff & wonderful Location. We sat outside & had chicken burger,Ashlyns burger & tuna sandwich- all were delicious! Love the location aswell.

Very average food but the whole experience ruined by the most awful smell. A cross between manure and rotting food. As soon as we got out of the car it hit us.

Table at 12.30 Thursday, and it was noisy with tables occupied by Mums and toddlers. Staff tidied up when some left, and rearranged chairs - very noisily. Also, clean cutlery was replenished into a metal container - also so noisily. Sandwiches were fresh, chips were good, tea was nice. Staff did their job, as necessary. My cup and milk jug were chipped. In short, there was nothing to draw us back here.

When first opened this was the best place to go for a quality breakfast but unfortunately our recent experience was poor. The cutlery was dirty, the food was over cooked and porridge quality. All this at a very expensive price. We will never return again to our once loved restaurant

Party at Ashley softplay. Good afternoon, It is with regret that I am required to email to complain about the establishment in which was hired for my nephew's 1st birthday on 29th April 2023. The accommodation in which was provided was beautiful, it was clean and well maintained. However, the weather was approximately 19/20 degrees outside and the establishment was extremely warm, the upstairs of the building where food was kept was uncomfortable and guests were required to leave that space regularly as there babies and young children where sweating and extremely red in the face. It was noticed that the heating was on as the radiators were hot, it was asked for these to be turn off and we were informed they were. This was an area that was occupied by a significant number of adults, children and a space were a cake and food was left for significant periods of time. The room was so unbearable at times, that people where often required to leave a space that was meant for celebrating, eating and gathering together; due to how hot it was, it meant at times people were segregated and this defeats the object of paying/proving a space to be together. Furthermore, we purchased food from your establishment which was due to be served at 5:30pm. This was hot food; chips, pizza, sweet potato fries and curly fries. I approached one of your staff at approximately 5.22 to buy chips, she informed me these would be included in the platter that had been purchased and that would be served at 5.30pm. I was quite shocked when I picked up a chip once upstairs, to find that these were cold, I proceeded to check all of the food which was also either cold or lukewarm. I made a comment that the food was cold, to which I was informed it had been upstairs for approximately 35/40 mins prior to the food/serve time of 5:30pm. When buying hot food at an establishment, you expect it to be exactly that, hot. Further to this, sandwiches were also placed upstairs, covered in clingfilm, in a room that was extremely hot which caused the food to sweat. The sandwiches also had Tuna, cheese and Mayonnaise contained inside, which would be required to remain chilled. At the end of the session, the staff removed the food, there was a lot left over with regards to sandwiches. We were not approached and asked what we wanted done with the food, the "hot food" would not have sustained being kept, however the sandwiches were something we could have handed out to others to reduce food and money waste. Another family member called into the kitchen to request the sandwiches to be wrapped up. Staff were seen eating the food that was left over, now we are happy for food not to be wasted, however without approaching your paying customers and asking what should happen to the leftover food first, is appalling and extremely unprofessional. Considering all of the above information, to get home (to which my sister lives approximately 15 minutes from your establishment) and to place the sandwiches in the fridge and to find MOULD on the bread was horrifying. These sandwiches were given to young babies, children and adults and my sister is mortified and quite embarrassed by this situation. This party cost my sister and her husband £538, minis the additional costs for drinks on the premises, which were even more necessary due to the significant heat. I have attached a photo of the mould on the bread, this is appalling and should absolutely not been served. I can appreciate "issues" arise, however staff where not forth coming about the heating, they were at times less then helpful when approached about this and served food that required chilled temperatures into a room that was stifling. I would ask that this is dealt with appropriately and in good time, I look forward to hearing from you so we can find some resolve. Kind Regards.

Good fresh organic products excellent cafe/restaurant with nice food. Farm and other animals to see children's playground wine shop and beauty parlour. Now has garden nursery also.

Nice enough, accousics are terrible which makes it hard to hear your conversation. Food is ok but not amazing.

Nice place to visit for lunch. Farm shop, kids soft play and animals. A good stocked plant centre too

We have eaten here regularly over the years. It’s changed. The food is still nice, but the service has changed. I asked for two separate bills when we ordered , we weren’t told no. At the end of the meal we were presented with a bill for the whole table, with print we couldn’t read. None of the staff looked very happy. The atmosphere isn’t the same and the place wasn’t full. Most times I’ve been the restaurant was heaving, it was surprisingly quiet today. I miss the old team. We visited with our grandchildren, and had a lovely time at the play area and adjoining farm.

Lovely atmosphere. Clean. Staff cheerful and helpful.

Visited Ashlyn’s farm park today with my family and was generally disappointed. The animal enclosures and play areas were reasonably good but the staff, facility maintenance and overall safety were well below acceptable levels. - Cafeteria staff were unpleasant teenagers with very poor customer skills, clearly low wage employees. - Restaurant staff enjoyed chatting and using their phones together rather than assisting diners. - Various areas around the park were hazardous: barbed wire in a pile on the farm trail near pig enclosure along with refuse and builders rubbish dotted around and in the waterways. - Toilets by bouncing mats was poorly maintained with no hand towels/ toilet paper. - Very little signage identifying animals, tail routes or any kind of map/ directions to assist public. It wouldn’t take much to fix everything up to be safe and put up a few signs explaining the facility. It seems there was some upgrade works taking place so hopefully there are plans to action this. Unfortunately, not good for us today.

Good farm shop and cafe , lots of organic produce and great butchers

Looked like nice food. . Had a variety of nice things

Great store and friendly staff. But the reason I am on here is to say…I am currently sitting in their parking lot and had to leave this review, before leaving their premises…Their vegan sausage roll is by far the best I have ever tried! So moist and delicious. Wow, wow, wow!

Food from the restaurant is quite nice, smoothies are good, farm animals were lovely too see however the play area I would strongly recommend only visiting if your child is five and up! Paid for my 18mo to go in and he was completely terrified of all the screaming older children, lots of pushing/hitting and kids crying. Also the baby area is a tiny corner with a slide.. not worth paying for.

Lovely staff and brilliant breakfast with a view

Always able to pick up good quality food but could do with a late night at the end of the week.

Understandably they have a limited menu between Christmas and New Year, but we enjoyder a bacon sandwich and a d=sausage and egg sandwich, both copius, and good cappachinos.

Great ham sandwich on seeded bread, dressed salad and tasty crisps! Mmm!

Called up to ask for ashlyns garden centre number, was immediately put on hold before I could finish my sentence. Phoned again and was given the number the garden centre. Called it. Was the soft play. Clueless. Also mega overpriced inside

As always, friendly staff always ready to help and provide helpful information to keep plants at their best. Will not go anywhere else

Great lunch in the restaurant and lovely food in the farm shop too.

Lovely coffee, stopped on route to Billericay. Will call again

Had a lovely lunch with great tasting food and loved seeing the animals in the farm as well :)

Very busy but pleasant food and atmosphere.

Met some friends here.. Their first visit...enjoyed lunch Staff very friendly. Lots to do... Food shop soft play area and wine shop. Also picnic tables....around children's play area.

Popped in to have a coffee in their lovely diner, ended up having eggs benedict which was perfect.

We visited today and spent the morning in the play barn and around the farm. We had a really lovely time (children 7&4.) the play barn/soft play was really clean. There were different animals to see and they had a lovely time on the play equipment and bouncy pillows. Lots to keep children entertained. My only negative would be the price of the ice creams £2.50 for one scoop seemed a bit steep. The other food was good value.

trying to eat out food…. flies everywhere… landing on our food. on our faces…on the uncovered food in kitchen. flies walking around on the floor in the kitchen. never experienced anything like it. it was like we was being attacked by a swarm of bees but flies. 2 flies had landed on my daughters food which i wouldnt allow her to eat when told staff i wouldnt be paying for her food they shook there heads and laughed like silly little boys - these were grown men may i add. how can kitchen staff think that its ok to have that many flies around food. may get the environmental health team involved. be careful eating here flies in our drinks the lot - be careful of sickness bugs and germs- when we mentioned the flies flying around on the uncovered salad in thr kitchen the guy answered its gone now what you talking about because it was the end of the day and probably cleaning up even tho it had been sat there all day infested with flies. DISGUSTING DIRTY VILE really wish i would of videoed it they would be shut down filthy people. furthermore i will be back to make a video of it to send to environmental health to get this place closed down.

Lovely place to shop for so many things you go in for one thing and come home with more

The cafe is worth going to for their lunch time menu. I think there is a degree of pride and care in their food service. Nice to browse around afterwards around the shop and see the farm animals.

Love this farm shop. Every time when my partner plays golf, he would always come back with chicken. Chicken crown, thigh, whole chicken. Sometimes treat us grass fed beef rib eye or steak. Sometimes organic milk which isn't dearer. Must try their restaurant some day.

Friendly service would recommend the food

Very expensive!! Won't pop there for salad as cost me over £6 for Rocket, cos, and spring onions.

A lovely coffee and scone but no flapjack!!

Love the homemade sausage roll and scotch eggs.

Busy but fantastic generous food in restaurant - Best salads 👍 kids loved play area too and the wine shop is also excellent

Fantastic breakfast and atmosphere. Can even see the animals through the fence

Very nice breakfast every thing freshly cooked

Great Sunday lunch and fairly priced. Kids loved it !!!

RUDE STAFF. Came here Saturday to take my children to the soft play & Farm Park, which was unexpectedly closed, I had already checked Ashlyns farm shop website and the farm Park to Instagram page prior to coming, so very frustrating that I had a one hour round trip for no reason. I went into the farm shop to enquire, was faced by a young girl who had the moodiest face and when I asked is the farm close she didnt even get up from laying across the counter said “yeah” and gave me a filthy look, apparently they didn’t know about it either but her and the senior member of staff were really rude, cut me off mid sentence to say the farm is nothing to do with them… but they share the same name, they’re on the same site, and they have a link to them on their website so I feel they have a duty to let people know when they are closed? Regardless of all of that, i don’t like being spoken to the way they spoke to me, the young girl needs to learn how to deal with the public or get a new job, or very minimum learn to bloody smile.

Went for brunch last Sunday and was bloody lovely, fair prices and great staff.

Amazing selection and so many tasty treats to be eaten

Nice breakfast and interesting shop.

Lovely breakfast and shop is not too bad either ☺️

Really nice farm shop. We always get the fresh sourdough and cheese. Items slightly more expensive then elsewhere but lots of choice and selection of local produce.

Delicious food, shop full of local products, friendly staff

Never stopped here just didn't realise how much was there

My toddler ended up in the hospital after having a meal at this restaurant. Staff were told about my child's severe nut and egg allergy before ordering our meal. Within an hour, during our journey back to London, my child ended up with severe allergic reaction and ended up in the hospital overnight. My child had nothing else eat apart from the meal from this restaurant. This is not a restaurant for anyone with any sort of allergy --- I would stay well away unless you want to gamble with your life. One star is too many, would give it minus one.

Service at the tills is always a bit of a mixed bag, but the butchers are excellent and the produce is great.

Lovely local and organic produce, highly recommend.

Went with a friend who drive me. We had a snack and tea. Very friendly staff and very clean. After looked at the plants. Smaller than I expected but the gentleman there was very friendly and knowledgeable. Went into the farm shop. Had a good variety of food. Very clean and staff once again very nice. Will definitely come again.

My daughter had a party with Ashlyns farm and the whole set up was a shambles. I sent a lengthy email to express feedback, hoping for at least a response but nothing at all. Overrated and overpriced! Lesson learnt.