Audley End House in Uttlesford

As English Heritage members we call in at Audley sometimes for a snack on the way past. After our last visit in August I wrote to English Heritage to complain about the café but have not had any response so I decided to leave this review. My concerns were several - young staff with no supervision and rushed off their feet ( not their fault ). Food uncovered on a counter extremely close to where people were queuing and walking past. This is a serious hygiene matter. ( E.H. need to take a look at National Trust cafes ). Tables dirty full of used crockery and leftover food. There was a trolley for customers to use but tucked in a corner. Take a picnic, there are beautiful grounds to sit in and tables near the house which I might add is magnificent.

The service is a bit slow, and the surroundings a bit cramped and old-fashioned, but I find the food and drink to be OK - though a bit overpriced (as English Heritage restaurants usually are). There are lots of places to eat if you bring your own sandwiches and picnics, this is what many people do.

Highly disappointing, this small cafe was completely understaffed on day two of the BBC Gardeners Live event. One member of staff responsible for taking orders, asking the drinks, heating the panini’s and toasting the sandwiches, as well as taking the money. The member of staff was slow to make it worse. It’s not cheap either. Long queues,hot and stuffy location, and at best mediocre sandwiches just made it worse. Do your self a favour and avoid!

Lots of different cakes, etc, but very long queue. The house and garden are very popular, so really inadequate I'm afraid.

We had an amazing visit to many places in a short time, thanks to the kind, professional and skillful leadership of our guide, Maden. From our first moments off the airplane to our last goodbyes to our next airplane, we had quite a memorable visit learning and experiencing about the history, current culture, the delicious foods,and the spiritual traditions and shear beauty of this gem of a country. The temples were awesomely beautiful but learning the history and the current practices were equally beautiful! Our whole group felt like we had a true gem with Madden! We had such fun with his willingness to help with our photography and were led to the all the right places to make our visit one of a lifetime.

Took lunch here while visiting Audley End House. Choice and prices are fairly typical of stately homes. Access to the serving area is down steps and all seems a bit cramped. Quite a lot of tables although many had been "bagged" by people who then go and queue at the serving counter.

Just rejoined English Heritage after a couple of years of disappointing attractions and wished I hadn’t. Went to Audley End today only to find we couldn’t get in through main entrance but no signs telling us we couldn’t before reaching the main gate. We had to ask someone how we get in. We were redirected after doing an about turn to find the smallest entrance ever for a stately home through fields. I am a blue badge holder and could not find any available parking spaces although after parking and walking an incredible distance for someone with aggressive arthritis I found the original blue badge parking area virtually empty. When I mentioned this to the ticket assistant she just shrugged! Visiting the restaurant the baguette was overpriced, tasteless and stale. My husband went to the gents toilets and was appalled by the state of them. Come on English Heritage, please buck up. Don’t know if we will go again. Overpriced and disappointing.

People in period dress and rooms set up as they would have been... really nice, would go again, it’s grsat if weathers good.

All'interno della proprietà di Audley End House, nel parco vicino al walled garden. Tavoli all'interno e all'esterno. Comodo per uno spuntino se non si fosse portato del cibo da pic-nic

Die Tische waren unsauber und wurden nicht abgewischt, das Essen war mäßig und fast kalt, dafür aber teuer. Besser, man picknickt an den dafür aufgestellten Tischen im Park.

Whoever runs catering here/ for English Heritage should visit National Trust properties and see how they have upped their game. The cafe interior is elderly and the servery is dated not quaint. A better selection of food items, cutlery and seating would have encouraged us to return at the end of our visit but we had seen enough on having our entry cuppa. Oh and the toilets need an upgrade.

Great place to stop and have a drink and snack. They'll give you an extra shot if you like your coffee nice n strong. Eat in, or outside where there's a kids play area adjacent.

House and gardens amazing but this is a really expensive day. £66 for 2 adults ,a pensioner and a child is a lot. I don't understand why it isn't possible to put 3 adults and a child on a family ticket, after all, who defines what a modern family is now ?

We had a splendid day out at Audley End House. The house is truly beautiful and the artwork is exquisite. The grounds are awesome and the talk at the stable yard was very informative. Had a nice cream tea to round off the day. Well worth a visit.

An excellent glimpse into the past. One if English Heritage's gems I would say. Good value and the cafe wasn't overpriced as in many of these places Tha photo shows the STABLES!!!

We came here for a birthday picnic for my mums 70th. It's such a stunning place, plenty of space in the grounds to soak up crowds. The approach to the house is breath taking. I would particularly like to mention all the staff. Everywhere in the grounds, house and shop, everyone was so lovely and friendly. It really makes a difference.

para un español ( lo soy) resulta que - dada la riqueza culinaria en España - este tipo de comida no suele gustar. El sitio es muy similar para comer de todos aquellos "restaurantes2 ubicados en el national Trust o estos English heritage. Comida típica británica pura y dura. Muchas sopas 8 estaba bien la sopa de calabaza con cilantro), salchichas (nada que ver con las españolas de cerdo, y estas estaban un poco duras), pasteles de carne,mucha patata, etc. No son precios excesivamente caros ( entre las 4,95 y 7,75 libras precios medios), comes para salir del paso. Aceptable si estas acostumbrado a este tipo de comida ( yo ya lo estoy), si no es asi, lo mismo no te gustará.

There is a different review site for the House and Gardens. This one appears to be for the restaurant, which is pleasant and where we ate and drank very well although the prices were rather on the high side.

We have visited this lovely house many times and have often eaten in the restaurant in the house. The food has always been very good however today we found the cutlery has been changed and was made of thin wood. Having ordered a jacket potato, to say eating it was tricky was an understatement. A broken knife and a bent fork later I gave up and had to pick it up. This and the paper/foam(?) plates and cups really spoilt the experience. What a shame, not what you expect from English Heritage. Don't be put off, just bring your own knife, fork and spoon.

Me encanta este lugar y regularmente vienen con mi familia.

Such a great meal at a fantastic location! I don't recall what I had, but do remember it being quite good and not terribly expensive. It is all cooked fresh on site, with many ingredients from the premises!

Visitamos amigos en Debden y me sugirieron ir a visitar la Casa de Audley End. Todo lo que puedo decir es que tienes que ir allí. Es muy hermoso y muy interesante. Pasamos 4 horas allí y disfrutamos de cada minuto. Audley End House se adecuan a cada grupo de edad. Ir allí no te decepcionará. Lo recomiendo encarecidamente.

This is a fine house with a large number of points of interest ranging from a very valuable art collection to a magnificent library. If you can clamber up several flights of stairs to the third floor you will enjoy a large area occupied by the former nursery. Views from the higher floors across the gardens are truly beautiful.

Have just returned from a lovely visit to Audley End House . The grounds designed by Capability Brown are stunning as is the House and stable block . Cafe offers a variety of tasty meals well worth a visit .

I go regularly to Audley End House with my family. (Buying English Heritage membership is well worth it, especially with tesco vouchers.) For me the gardens are more interesting than the house. The food from the cafe in the house is quite pricey and frankly not very good so I would avoid that, whereas the food from the cafe by the stables is much better and you can sit in the sunshine while the children play on the playground. (The plants to buy are better that end too.) It would be good if the concerts started up again because the locals miss those! My children are old enough to appreciate them now and they've stopped! We really enjoyed the food fair.

it ws a beautiful sunny day when we visited this lovely estate. The society had done a commendble job in restoring quite a few rooms to their former glory, and one could easily imagine the absolute graduer of this house in former times. the staff were very knowledgable and added to the experience with their stories and anecdotes. Overall a very pleasant day out

English Heritage kitchens are a mixed bunch of eateries. This provides a full menu, with soup to start, a choice of main courses, and various puddings.We just had a salmon steak (with three salads and new potatoes) and a sausage roll (with three salads). Both were delicious and the total cost was just £12.95 - a bargain for a Stately Home.It is self-service and the dining rooms could do with a little cheering up and some TLC. But the staff were friendly and helpful.

We managed to spend all day and saw lots. Arriving before the house opened in the pouring rain we looked Round the out buildings, which were open, and of course enjoyed the cafe, then went in the house. The volunteers in every room were very knowledgeable and helpful, and the rooms are beautiful. I liked the more personal stories in the nursery it seemed to fit with the space (although the projector wasn't working) and the bedroom with dimmed lighting felt very atmospheric. The libraries are interesting and I could have enjoyed just that bit all day. Luckily the weather cleared so we could enjoy the grounds, saw the watermill and army left over pill box on the way to the stables and enjoyed the walled garden including the bothy with it's Giant spider webs. Although it's pricey we really got our moneys worth and spent the whole day. It was great weather for the ducks and we narrowly escaped taking an over friendly one home.

Had a great day at Audley End House..Fantastic 350approx year old property steeped in history.Would like to mention Mr Dave Birch who had all the answers to our questions..This place is a MUST visit as it's not far from London..Just get on M11 to Stansted and you're there!! Grounds and waterfall very tranquil to while away hours..beautiful place to enjoy...

At last time has been available to visit this gem. Superlative can only be used contents gardens buildings and the staff be voluntarily or not. Excellent. Weather great lunch tasty and reasonable. Wish I lIved closer

We used this café for a light lunch and thoroughly enjoyed it. The cost was reasonable and the quality of the food was excellent. We were told that most of the vegetables are sourced from the organic gardens of the house. All the waitresses were friendly, helpful and efficient. Highly recommended!

first time we have used our English heritage cards, had trouble finding the property to start with, no postcodes in the handbook!!! When we arrived we had to pay extra as there was a event going on! Gents toilets were terrible. The small greenhouse type cafe on the grass served Luke warm coffee for £2.25 per plastic cup! This was still better than the actual tea room food, which was terrible and overpriced one slice of sponge was £3.25 there were 14 slices cut from one sponge (so not a large portion) this makes a small sponge around £40. Overpriced? Rip-off??? A hard tuna roll was £3.85 if you had the cheese and salad hard roll it was £4.85. How terrible is that. No where to eat,tables left dirty, remember to always bring your own food unless you like getting ripped off. The house was very interesting. We always thought national trust charged a lot for food, but they seem reasonable compared to this.

The restaurant was very busy but the staff coped really well and we had an excellent good value lunch. The cakes were delicious. The queues were quite long but it was great to be able to eat actually in a room that was part of the house.

Although we have visited Audley End House before, this our first time at their Victorian Christmas. We arrived just after 1pm. We had a hot dog and coffee before seeing the horses deliver presents to the house, which was part of a good programme for the day. We took a self guided tour of the house which was decorated for a Victorian Christmas. We enjoyed meeting the family in their sitting room where the young lady was singing and playing the piano in between chatting to the visiting children. We were fortunate to be able to chat to the EH team member who designed the authentic Victorian table decoration for this year which was simple but effective. The house was lit with the modern equivalent of oil lamps and candles (now electric of course) so the lighting is fairly subdued by modern standards. There was some subtle back lighting in the dining room which helped visitors appreciate the decorations. We went round the house about 2 pm on an overcast day so the light was fading fast. Look out for the original Victorian recipe book in the covered glass case in the sitting room. It is in the window alcove where the ladies would have sat doing their embroidery and sewing to make best use of the available light.We enjoyed the Victorian entertainments around the service yard where the fire eater was the star turn whilst we were there. The performance of Dickens Christmas carol was good as was the Falconry display which had plenty of audience participation and was held on the lawn beside the house.If you book on line, the ticket gives the appearance of timed entry for the house but you can go in at any time though you will need to show your ticket - EH members included.Suggest that you do not leave your visit to the property much later than 1pm as the light fades fast this time of year. Last entry to the house is 3.30pm. The site closes at 4pm.

Enjoyed the services area, seeing the laundry, dairy, kitchens of bygone days. The house interior was very interesting with informed staff. The garden and grounds were well maintained with bridges over the Cam to the kitchen gardens. We were fortunate to be there on a garden tour day, this was most enjoyable and informative

We attended the apple festival and had a great day. The kids loved trying different apples and watching someone make them a spinning top. A beautiful day with plenty to see indoors and out. Highly recommended

wonderful presentation of house, its treasures and its family. Wartime letters of children and nursery really touching.

On arrival had a pot of tea and slice of bake well tart which was delicious. Returned later for a hotspot lunch. My wife had a leek and cheese tartlet with salad. Both were reasonably tasty and reasonably priced.

I don't know how English Heritage do it. This is a great place to visit and eat. The cafe is superb, the staff courteous and helpful and the house truly magnificent. The grounds are a delight and the flock of ducks that follow you around quite enchanting!When eating go for the quiche tartlets, rhubarb and ginger scones or plum cakes. They are all a dream.

Ok we have never wanted to eat a five course meal while we visited Audley end,so we have settled for the limited choice that is on offer for the visitor.Having said this,it is not unique to Audley end house cafe,in fact we have noticed that the lack of variety on offer seems to run across the English heritage portfolio that we have experienced so far.Summing up,don't expect to go and have a "slap up meal" at the cafe,you can have light refreshments to fill a gap.But don't let this put you & your family off from going and enjoying this gem of a house with wonderful gardens that is part of English heritage.

We have been visiting Audley End for 10 years now and visited again today with family visiting from far away. The grounds are always impressive, the nursery and presentation of daily life are really worthwhile too, but how has the café been allowed to be so bad? It seems harder to get it wrong given the superb location, captive audience and many friendly staff. I don't think there can be a kitchen there that works - no rolls for kid's lunches, asked to select from adult menu for kids aged 1,4,5 and 10 - kitchen offered to do half a bap for £2.50 when pressed. Half a bap with cheese - didn't even try to make an effort, so no butter in the bap - other food pretty tasteless, very pricey and they can't cope with customer service. Irony of the day - people doing a presentation on how bread was made - evidently more able to do this in Edwardian times than now as all brought in frozen, poor quality and extremely pricey. Really made us feel ripped off and I shall be cancelling my English Heritage membership of 10 years.

Having visited this attraction many times over the last few years and left rave reviews I was very disappointed on this trip.First though the good things. Free to EH members this beautifully appointed property has beautiful landscaped gardens and acres of parkland to explore. There is always ample free parking and the newly opened nursery wing and coal scullery were fantastic. The house itself has also come on brilliantly with easy chairs you can ïsit in within the library, the story of the royal bed and a piano to be played... fantastic. Likewise the kitchen being in use, the live action from cook and all the little details in the servants wing were interesting and really added to the experience. The guides were enthusiastic and managed the crowds well, children were welcome and encouraged. All great. So why the poor review?My first criticism is that the servant's wing seems to be getting tired. Several projections were not working and display boards missing. Also it would be nice if the actors in the kitchen shared info rather than acted out a soap opera.We left without feeling engaged where as we would normally spend some time here.Secondly on arrival we were told that BMW were on site and offering free ice cream. How lovely we thought. We were not told that you would only be offered the ice cream if the young people at the stand thought you worthy of their time. I am not sure how they were evaluating worth but several times we saw people queue at the stand and be completely ignored. One gentleman eventually asked the girl if there ws any ice cream available, to be told it was only for children. "I have two here", he said. He was told they could only have them if thdy completed a task. This whilst several more well to do looking couples were sat eating ice creams!! How disgusting. We did not bother with the stand and instead bought takeaway tea and cake from Audley End's own cafe. However we felt that the obvious snobbery of these BMW representatives really ruined the feel of Audley End and we would hesitate before returning.

Newly opened top floor to show the nursery. Well done English Heritage, they have a magnificent place to show after all their refurbishments.

Visited late on a Sunday afternoon, just before the house closed. As members of English Heritage we did not have to pay the entrance fee, but it is a bit pricey if we would have to pay. The house is spectacular, full of history, pictures, stuffed animals, decor, gardens, definitely worth a visit. The outside area is lovely, great place for a picnic on a sunny day! Will go there again :)

Visited Audley House and gardens today. This is a English Heritage site, so cost for an adult £15.00 each, but whilst there we, became members by direct debit as joint adult for £86, which gave us 18 months for price of 12 plus got our entrance fee refunded. The house is lovely, really well set out, and the guides are very knowledgeable about the rooms. They have just opened the nursery in the house which is very interesting. The gardeners are very friendly, and will answer and gardening questions you may have.

Went with my whole family to audley end. Didn't actually go into the house because you just dont need to, it's a beautiful area for a picnic and my little brother fed the ducks for hours. Lovely grounds and friendly staff

The rain stayed away until late in the day.... Great day, lots to see and take in, the servants quarters are very interesting and the interaction with the housekeepers helped make the day.The restaurant wasn't particularly well stocked, but it was reasonably priced and flavoursome.Allow the day and try to go on a guided tour of the house.

Visited with my parents and young daughter. You pay one entrance fee for the grounds and house and was advised on arrival that we needed to book at the visitor centre if we would like to see the house as was guided tours only. Were not given a map of what was available. When we asked were told they had out. Booked our slot to visit the house but when we turned up we had been given the wrong ticket and were told the tour was full. The staff did not seem to care and lacked customer service skills. Would not go back as also not much else to do and poor value for money.

I note the cafe had a very poor review last August things have not improved. Scones like cardboard (thank goodness for the jam), unable to eat the sausage roll after waiting 20 mins for it (sent it back for refund), coffee was just drinkable. Staff very pleasant the food let them down.

Parking no problem ,everything is well signposted ,Expect a big price some ten pounds per adult and a very overpriced guide book £ 5 ! Staff were OK and the house and grounds are spectacular , would like to have seen more of the house ! We were kept on one floor .Looks like a beautiful place for a summer or spring visit even in the bitter cold it was good .As per the other review cafe needs working on staff are a little slow and very limited selection. All in all a good day out so gets a VERY GOOD :-) if a little expensive !

I have lived near the wonderful house most of my life but never visited . The house your is full of information but its a shame you can't wander on your own. Beautiful house and so interesting. Lovely grounds which are perfect in summer for a picnic . House only open certain days so check first. Without the house not so much to see unless you are going for a walk.

Started of with house tour in the dry and rather humid weather. Guides excellent knowledge and clearly enthusiastic. Outside the walled kitchen garden is a must. A lot of effort has gone into this project - amazing - but don't forget the stables too. Great day out - with excellent play area and cafe fi kids.

The history of the house, and why it is now a fraction of it's original size is worth checking out.The Victorian kitchen, and the kitchen garden are a superb time-capsule, and the house itself is really interesting.The grounds are impressive, and a great place to watch the cricket on the front lawn. Worth taking a picnic, although the catering is good.

English Heritage have done wonders here at Audley End, and the new servants wing is a triumph. Very helpful and knowledgable room guides. However the cafe in the House is a different story. The table we sat at was filthy with left over food and spilt drinks, we had to ask twice to have the table cleaned, which was eventually done with very bad grace by an elderly serving gentleman, who managed to spray us with the cleaner, diliberatly! then swept everyting off the table with such force we had to stand up and move away to avoid being covered in debris!! In the half hour that we were there no one cleaned any of the tables or removed the stack of dirty trays etc.