Red Lion in Suffolk Coastal

Lovely family meal out for my wife’s 40th birthday. Staff were very friendly and food was lovely.

2024 Still nice here. Decent food and good service. Had a pleasant family dinner here today. We all enjoyed it. That said, £4.50 still seems very steep for a pint of Coke from the little tap! (Update to the below review that I wrote a couple of years ago.) 2023 Had a work Christmas dinner here today and it was much better than last time. They didn't ask if I'd ordered the vegan main because I'm vegan or because I'm veggie or because I just fancied it, they just assumed I'm vegan and didn't give me a Yorkshire pudding, which was disappointing! But what I had was nice. The soup was very good and when the mains arrived, there was thankfully no cling film in sight! I was less concerned about ventilation this time too, so didn't even think about it. _____ Had a work Christmas lunchtime dinner here. It was fine. Not great, just fine. Slow service: after 1¾h they were just clearing away our main course plates. I had nut roast, which was quite nice. Bizarrely, my roast potatoes (and those with someone else's nut roast) arrived under a plastic bowl with cling film around it, and didn't look quite like everyone else's roast potatoes. Not sure what that was about! The soup starter was nice. The gingerbread cheesecake dessert was very sugary and not very cheesecakey. Also, I contacted the pub beforehand to check that the place would be well ventilated, and was told that unfortunately a lot of the windows were painted shut so couldn't be opened, but they were more than happy to discuss any worries with me. I called a couple of times mid-morning but it rang through to the answering machine. And when I arrived, it was to discover no obvious ventilation at all. I'll do LFTs for the next few days...

Hadn’t been to the pub for dinner for over 2 years. Really enjoyed the evening and the food was excellent. The pub is welcoming and an authentic pub. Special mention to Madi who looked after our table. She was polite, professional and very personable. A credit to the Chef & Brewer brand.

An easy 5 star here. Beautiful country pub, really friendly and helpful service and the food is absolutely brilliant. A new favourite on my list - will come back whenever in the area.

We had Sunday lunch with friends at the Red lion. Alyssa looked after us at the table. She was very efficient, friendly and professional. The chef was Dave apparently. We didn't see him. The food was lovely, tasty and hot. Thank you for a great experience

Had lunch there on Thursday, the room that we sat in was very cold, no heating on.

We enjoyed our chat at this pub. Only us on the day we went so not busy.

Love the new style from the refit, everyone was lovely as always. Especially Jacob

Just had a lovely lunch in this cosy olde world pub. Can’t fault anything and service from Chloe was tops

Went there for my partner's birthday, great welcome from Jensen. Steaks cooked to perfection, well done Ryan in the kitchen. Good service from the waiting staff. All round brilliant birthday celebration.

1. Drinking glasses cloudy. 2. Yorkshire pudding was too crispy/overdone , I think too big in size. 3.roast potatoes greasy 4. Pork was 30% fat . 5. Server bought to me port wine with ice!!! And this drink did not look like port wine. I was second time in the 8th months time and wasn’t happy then,so I will not go there again

Beautiful food with friendly staff and cosy atmosphere

Nice lunchtime meal. For a 'chain' pub, the menu is quite varied. Service is very attentive, too.

Some seriously fantastic food on the menu, creative, well presented and so tasty. Highly recommend the lamb shank shepherds pie! Service is spot on too, the manager, Derek is very personable and adds to the experience. Very attentive, and would suggest you embrace his suggestions!! - definitely didn’t steer us wrong! 10/10 would recommend the Red Lion. If you’re in the area definitely check it out!

Good staff for a pleasant meal but glad of the special offer price reduction.

Very cosy inside, and deceptively big. Food was delicious and the recent refurb brings traditional quaint English environment, with great service and very attentive staff. Will be visiting again soon!

Good friendly staff, plenty of tables, excellent deserts.

A nice friendly pub with good food. Looked great with the Christmas decorations up.

A reasonably priced pub with a nice architecture of wooden beams that bring character to the pub. Although next to a fairly busy road the noise is isolated and brings a quiet atmosphere. Food had good quality and presentation and a nice dessert choice, including small selections to go with coffee and tea. Overall a good experience and will be visiting here again

Really good food. Friendly service.

Everything is great except the table is not clean :) We like it is triple chocolate brownie with ice cream

Had a super lunch. V dig friendly too.

For us that like lager beer. The Level Head is worth trying if you would like some of the British taste. Nice. 👍

This was our second visit . The first was shortly after newly reopening and was spot on ! Disappointingly, it has not maintained it’s good start . We had erratic service and the food was average and not very warm , served on cold plates.There is not going to be a third visit :-(

Went on a Sunday as they had an offer on which consisted of a 2 course meal and a bottle of wine for £50:00. Having informed the waiter of our choices he informed us that the offer only included the Sunday Roast as the main meal so we changed to that. However, the offer was supposed to include all other items, bar a couple of exclusions. Rightly or wrongly, we chose not to make a fuss. Sadly, we both found the roasts rather under-whelming with most of the plate occupied by a very oversized Yorkshire pudding. Plus, having told there'd be at least a 30 minute wait we went for a cigarette only to then be told 5 minutes later our meals were already on our table. Not really ideal. At this point I must say, despite the above, our waiter was both very professional and very polite. A credit to the pub.

Went in for lunch. Good food & very efficient service. Found the place a bit gloomy during the day.

Alyssa is a really efficient customer service assistant and has a wonderful, friendly personality. The food prepared by Chef Dave was excellent. The new decor has been tastefully done and the place feels very homely.

A great steak & ale pie with a pint 🍻

Great food and friendly service! The only thing I didn’t enjoy was the background music . . Everything else was great.

Was a bit gutted went for Sunday dinner full roast and was let down and even got meal free hopefully turns round and go back to how it use to be would give anther go.

We had a lovely Sunday roast , we were well looked after by Alissa would recommend 👍

Lovely friendly village type pub. Had good conversations with locals. Well worth a visit. Very dog friendly.

It was ok, great staff, food average, but at least not over priced. I liked that the tables were not squeezed in. I don't usually mind when old pubs are quite dark inside but the Red Lion appeared to be particularly bad, however it was a quite gloomy day outside

Great food options but more beef on the bone please

Best lunchtime meal I have ever had.

Wife and I had a meal here tonight must say it was lovely. but just a couple of things to complain about. it would have been nice to be asked if we would like some apple sauce but no we had to ask for it. and had to have the custard re heated up. I asked for the bill and we had a voucher on the wife's phone the young lady went to take the wife's phone we said no the lady got a snotty

Not sure a gastropub though. However staff are friendly and food is very nice.

We were at a nearby campsite so over a wet few days, visited the pub several times! Food was excellent, staff friendly, and newly refurbished premises looked great. Dog friendly too! Lovely pub, clean, safe and welcoming.

Really excellent, lovely food and friendly efficient service. Thank you!

Jenson our waiter was great. In fact all the staff were good. We were greeted when we arrived and taken to our table. I had mentioned it was our anniversary and we were wished happy anniversary by our greeter and Jenson. We both ordered the roast beef which was cooked to perfection. The Yorkshire puddings were enormous, thank you Reagan out chef. We will be back. Thank you

Great newly renovated patio and additional raised terrace out back! Lovely

Me and wife have always loved it here, and the new revamped outside area has made it even nicer and very cosy. Food is always perfect here.

Chloe was very welcoming, full of cheerfulness, and always smiling. Along with enjoyable food, it was a lovely lunchtime visit. There is only one thing I would like to request Salad Cream, please :)

First visit in many years. Nice friendly welcome on arrival but no acknowledgement at the bar by two staff members. Technical issues on tablets made ordering frustrating and asking for food orders before drinks had even arrived was poor. No warning given on sold out dishes meant disappointment on ordering. Fish pie served with no mash and round of bread was unusual and didn't work, just spoiled a favourite dish! Bottles of wine a little expensive.

Lovely place for a birthday meal. Proper pie that I couldn't finish.

Lovely place for a quiet pint,friendly staff, good atmosphere

A Welcoming atmosphere, delicious food and very efficient service, thanks to Madi for looking after our table 👍🏻

We were at The Red Lion twice last week. The food was very good. The two course Christmas menu was delicious. The staff were excellent.

Came for sunday lunch to celebrate a birthday. I want to start by saying the staff and the service were absolutely amazing! No issues from them at all. Unfortunately however, the food was really really bad for the price. The turkey was incredibly fatty and slimy, the broccoli was hard and undercooked, the bacon on the pigs in blankets was 90% fat and the big yorkshire was dry. The roast potatoes were lovely however you only got three and the stuffing was lovely as well but again, a tiny portion. The best tasting parts of the meal for me were tiny portions and the main parts were just inedible i actually gave away 80% of my food to other members of the table. I would like to mention two members had no issues with their food so i don't know if i was just unlucky with what i got but i was starving so incredibly disappointed. The dessert was lovely however again, i felt the portions were really small for the price. I would probably come here again based on the service alone however I would never come back for a sunday lunch.

Good food - plenty of choice - helpful staff!!!

Good food. Service from Madi was excellent!

Highly recommend roast was amazing on Sunday. Really friendly service

Picture perfect pub, great atmosphere and food. Initially I only stopped there to ask for directions but decided to stay for lunch after walking in and seeing the plates of food coming from the kitchen and I'm glad I did. Special mention for Derek who put the Google Maps App on my phone so we easily found the barracks after leaving. Cheers Derek!

Such a beautiful restaurant with incredible food and service. Jensen served us so well and made the evening a wonderful experience. Thank you so much. Will definitely be back :)

Great food, Madi was really attentive, polite and made us feel welcome.

Great meal, Great service, parking a nightmare, not sure what is going on with the drinks, 3/4 glass of prosecco 1st round, 2nd round just 1/2 a glass, same price for both? Not sure what is going on there, will definitely say something next time!!

Not as good as usual. Waited half an hour for our drinks. Very cramped seating, think they didn't want to open up the full pub. Seemed short staffed and the two senior staff seemed to disappear and leave the young lad to cope on his own. The food was good though, thankfully as this was an evening out with friends who'd never been before, so a mixed first impression for them. Daytime staffing is always much better.

I was happy that they had game mixed grill on only to be told by the front of house it wasnt available, the people who came in and sat next to us ordered the game mixed grill and got it, which made my wife and I feel a bit second best, we won’t be returning for that reason, the food we did have and the service we did get from the waitress was very good, but that incident did put a damper on the night

We visited this week for hubby's birthday. When arriving we got told there would be a 45 minute wait for food. When food finally arrived which was longer than the advised wait it was extremely disappointing. Two of our party ordered the mixed grill which was awful. One meal was partially cold and another being a steak wasn't enjoyed. Whilst the mixed grills were not charged for and a round of drinks supplied due to longer than advised wait I do not feel there should have been any charge made at all. On contacting the manager when I got home I was told two chefs had not turned up for work and they were trialing a new supplier of chicken and had had other complaints. He said he would speak to his manager and call me the next day. I have heard nothing. We should have been contacted regarding the wait and I just don't think there is any justification in the food that was served. Whole evening ruined. Half the party had either not eaten or barely eaten. We were not going to stay for desserts etc Only one nice thing to mention was the waitress who was lovely.

Tried calling to ask a question regarding a promotion... phone no listed on website inactive... found another number answered by an AI bot that could NOT answer a simple question.... so... won't be using this pub .... when will companies learn that we sometimes need to a person on site... they also send you emails, but do not accept a reply to same email address .... How dare we ask a question.. So will now take myself off and sit on the naughty step... but will not be using chef and brewer

First time back after the pubs refit and it didn't disappoint.The staff were very helpful as usual, Alyssa who was showing Phoebe the ropes were both very helpful and on arrival informed us that because they had had a very busy day some of the food was not available, and there was a 30 min wait for food,but in fact our food arrived in under 20 min. 10 out of 10 for lovley food from chef Dave and first class service from both Alyssa & Phoebe. Will be back again very soon.

The food at the red lion is usually really nice however had a small piece of gammon not worth the price paid on a previous visit. They did eventually swap it for an equally small piece. The worst part about going to the Red lion for me is that regardless of whether you book a table or not they always try to sit you in the area right outside the kitchen where everyone walks past when you are eating. I'd prefer to sit anywhere else in the restaurant but there however to the staff it seems a big fuss and effort finding another table for us so on occasions I've walked out and gone elsewhere. I did today as I don't want to eat and have everyone walking past me and nudging me in the back as I eat and to pay for a nice meal put today was my dad's birthday we went and ate elsewhere and the alternative restaurant we ate at let us choose our table and we had a delicious meal with excellent service greeted as you'd expect to be with a friendly hello and a smile. There was also at the red lion a lorry parked right in the entrance and exit of the carpark really inconvenient.

We were served by Chloe, who was friendly and welcoming. Food was quick to come out and delicious, with bigger portions than we expected. The evening came to a good price for what we ordered.

What a difference in my recent experience. The service, food and atmosphere was terrific. We were looked after by Chloe, who was new to the team but she was open and honest about her experience and looked after us splendidly. The evening staff could learn from their daytime staff.

My friend had the vegetable pie which was not very good. Seeds on top and inside just onions and celery. Very disappointing .

Lovely lunch today at The Red Lion, Martlesham. Good menu, great food and excellent service from Darcey. Love the option of mini dessert with a drink which allows you to finish off your lunch without feeling over full (or go the whole hog and try the trio of puddings, very yummy). Great atmosphere with options of inside or outside seating, just an incredibly nice place.

Went here for my grandad's birthday lovley staff and good food!

After some ups and downs the new team have managed to get the pub back to its best with good food and service. A lick of paint and some upholstery work will get it finally back on track. Six of us had a very enjoyable meal and evening with no complaints. Well done! Complete overhaul of exterior and interior. Garden area enlarged and improved. Very busy now.

Sunday lunch was amazing, highly recomend

Tried to book today for 10 adults and 5 children for September was told only take bookings for tables of 8 . We were happy to have two separate tables but said they could not guarantee the tables would be together . I have never heard such a load of rubbish we have been to many a place who are quite happy to accommodate a large family . Obviously doing so well they don’t need our custom .

Had a lovely meal with my partner, it was excellent! I had the lamb and my partner had the pie, Finished off with a raspberry tart, chocolate brownie and coffees. We were served by Jenson & Madison who were great and nothing was too much trouble. We will be back!

Had a lovely Sunday lunch and Alyssa was a wonderful waitress, especially patient with my miserable dog!

We had a delicious meal, the service was friendly and attentive (shout out to Jacob!) and the atmosphere was lovely. A really nice pub that I’d recommend :)

. Good food, exceptional service.

Family supper last night (20/09/24) at The Red Lion. Jensen served us and looked after us extremely well - thank you. Food is good pub grub and no complaints at all.

Best Sunday roast I have had in a long while, Jensen looked after us.

Brilliant Village Restaurant, well worth a visit.

Ridiculous wait time for food. We booked a table for 5:30 pm on a Wednesday - just three of us - and we arrived 45 minutes early to have some drinks. When 5:30 came around we were taken to a table that hadn't been cleaned, then left with the menus for 15 minutes before we managed to flag down a waiter. He took our orders then said "just to let you know there's an approximately 50-minute wait for food", at which point we decided to leave. The excuse was "lots of walk-in customers have arrived" - there were only five tables occupied. They could have told us to pre-order our meals if it was getting busy, given that we arrived so early and they knew we had a table booked, but no such initiative.

Great food and a lovely pub. Recently refurbished

Lovely atmosphere for an evening Drink / Meal, will definitely visit again to have some food.

We liked the staff but we didn't enjoy our meal

The food is excellent and the service is excellent too. Their ale is very good. Not much more I can add apart from if you don't go you'll never know

Always enjoyed our trips to the Red Lion

The food was fairly good apart from an overcooked steak. The service and communication with staff was poor. Drink and food orders were missed or got wrong. We had to ask a number of times for missing items. Some staff training would make a huge difference to our experience.

Very friendly atmosphere, food was great again. The children cleaned their plates too.

Food was very good. Service was very slow. Students serving were nice individuals but under pressure looked like they were new to the job and not supported by a senior or manager.

Lovely pub, food is lovely we had a lovely waitress, such a shame the deputy manager is very un friendly derek i think he was called.

20min drive from Ipswich town centre, ample parking. Lovely interior and friendly staff. The Sunday roast airline was average- the cut was dry, was overdone hence came dark brown, gravy was average. Carrots was excellence and best Yorkshire pudding ever- huge and crispy. The greens were average- somewhat lacked seasoning and the stuffing eas not very nice ,potatoes could do with being roasted for longer. Pistachio tart was good. The chocolate granacha was good. All in all a lovely ambience, friendly staff but did not enjoy the meat.

Very interesting place. We entered there by accident during the trip. And we do not regret it. Very nice service, with a smile and patience advised on the choice of food. The food was tasty and beautifully served. Congratulations to such employees. We will gladly return there.

A party of four of us visited on Thursday evening. The recent renovation is good and seating comfortable. Now comes the but.... No draft ales! What? This outfit is owned by Greene King! And, they seemingly offer discounts to CAMRA members! Didn't understand the explanation given. Tempted to walk, but settled for bottled Pedigree of which there only seemed to be two bottles in the entire place. The rest of the party resorted to other beverages. The mains were ok. Never had steamed radishes before and I'm not sure I will ever again. My desert wasn't ok. Apple tart with pastry that resembled steamed dumplings in colour and texture. Sent it back and was told I should have noticed it was "vegan". What? Is vegan pastry soggy and palid? Don't think so. No apology and taken away with bad grace. Probably in the future stick to the Woodbridge Red Lion, where at least you get a decent pint of London Pride.

A quiet late lunch. Service slow to non-existent. Had to ask if we could order food. Then went and ordered drinks at the bar, incorrect drinks delivered. We had to return to the bar to order food as no waiting staff around, and 2 of the 3 were sat looking at their phones. definitely not the service they used to give. Even though the food was good, I'm not in a hurry to return.

Visited for first time tonight. Very disappointing service was poor, staff lingering around not really knowing what to do, having to wait long periods for food and drink. Had to ask for more drinks didn’t seem like we were being noticed. Quite loud atmosphere. Food in general was decent quality, steak was lovely. We would’ve had dessert but didn’t mainly due to having to wait too long. Not a great experience unfortunately.

We did not have a good experience. The table we booked was given to someone else then we had to chase our drinks order after 30 minute wait and one of them was incorrect. It took an hour before we got our food which wasn’t exactly hot. Very unhappy as it was a birthday catch up.

Having been customers on the 1st day of opening we again decided to see if the standard of food and service had stayed the same, we were not disappointed the high level of customer service from the moment we walked in to our waiter Alex was 100% our meals were delicious and Alex also catered for the flexibility of our meal choices.

Love the refurbishment. The Red Lion is looking sharp. Swung by for a bite to eat this evening. Enjoyed a lovely beef roast washed down with a pint of Level Head. Service throughout was friendly and slick. Particularly a young chap called Jensen. He is a credit to this establishment. Attentive, good to chat to and nothing was too much trouble. We will be returning soon!

very Welcoming and friendly staff. The food was great too

Delicious vegan meal! I had the garden plot medley and it was absolutely delicious! Really beautifully presented! My daughter really enjoyed her meal too! Staff were amazing, our server really interacted with my daughter and it made the whole dinner experience really relaxed and lovely. Will definitely come back! :)

Fab food and service. We waited a while but it was worth it - as the food was high quality! There is a lovely outdoor area and a scavenger hunt to keep the children occupied. Everyone agreed the food was delicious, most of all the salted caramel Sundae. Even the kids meals Impressed. Staff were friendly and knowledgeable.

This was our first visit since it has changed and all I can say is, it was a total disappointment. The greeting wasn’t that friendly, we had a choice of two tables, so we picked the table for two so we didn’t use up a large table. We waited almost 15 minutes before someone came to us, so we ordered drinks plus two roast dinners. Whilst we were waiting another party came to the table next to us, they had a dog which was barking and jumping on the seats, we don’t mind dogs but it was a bit annoying. We asked to move our table, we were put near the entrance which was noisy because of the bar usage. After waiting an hour we received our meals, apologies were given for the wait. If the dinners had been worth the wait it would not have been so bad but unfortunately they were not! The potatoes were hardly roasted and tasted funny, the broccoli was so hard I don’t think it had seen any boiling water and the rest of the veg was cold. Extremely poor. When we were asked if our meals were ok we had to say no! We left our food and we’re charged for one meal as an apology. We definitely won’t visit again or recommend it either!

I recently visited this establishment with some ex work colleagues and can thoroughly recommend a visit or many. I had a lovely steak and ale pie with veg which I can highly recommend. The atmosphere and service was perfect for meeting up with friends. I will be back for sure.