Running Horse in North Norfolk

Excellent staff and delicious food x

Have been to the running horse at Fakenham many times. Food is always good. Our server today was Andrea and she is really good, an assist to the restaurant

We run Duke of Edinburgh's Award Gold residentials and always head out for a final end of course meal. We chose the running horse after visiting many restaurants over the years. They say a successful business is based on its people, and I can absolutely confirm this. The staff on the evening were incredible. We have never been made to feel so welcome in a restaurant, it was truly amazing. Please thank them!

I've eaten here often as it is local. A lovely looking restaurant with decent parking. However it could do with a decent deep clean. The tables are sticky and the seating upholstery is extremely grubby and stained, so much so that it left dirt on my clothes. I've often seen workmen sitting eating in filthy clothes. The quality and quantity of the food had decreased too. Staff are very friendly.

Absolutely shocking roast dinner, 2 slices of small beef, a soggy/deflated Yorkshire pudding, few carrot batons, couple of broccoli florets a fork full of red cabbage an even less mash potato! No roast potatoes until I had to ask for them/question why they were missing. How can you charge what you charge for that!

Our experience was excellent in every way. The restaurant was comfortable, stylish and clean. The staff were friendly and efficient, and the food was first class and served in good time.

Average food for a chain pub! Presumably, all microwaved food that's cooked from frozen as nothing is homemade made and the foods over priced. It's a shame as they used to be known for the best breakfasts I in town, but they stopped doing them!!

Stopped here for lunch after a walk, friendly staff and helpful. Did wait a long time for our meals even though it wasn't busy, but I have to say food was very nice.

A new lady had started only half an hour before we arrived, despite being unsure about using the till she did her very best to serve us in a positive manner and did all she could to help us.

Service was very speedy and staff very friendly. Our food was very good and very hot.

We were on holiday and was our first night. As it was a Saturday it was very busy. But the service and staff was very good and the wait was only 30 mins for our meal, which was also very good. Will return.

Very pleasant visit and good food

Had lunch and everything was really good. Great food, good value and lovely staff who provided a great service. An improvement on a previous visit 1 year ago.

Nice clean pub. Friendly atmosphere. Food lovely. Nice and hot.

It was busy when we arrived. We waited 30 minutes for the meals which was OK considering hiw busy it was. But that was only 2 of them the 3rd meal was another 10 minutes. It was meant to come with gravy and didn't. We asked for it and they said they'd bring it and didn't. We have some loaded fries with pulled pork, but they came out with bacon when we questioned this they said we don't have any. My partners macaroni and cheese came out with burnt garlic bread as well. I'm giving a 3 as the manager refunded 2 of the meals and the sharer but it was disappointing

Always 1st class.food always excellent.love the place .staff a1.

Really enjoyed our meals, just a little moan my coffee could have been hotter.

Waited an hour for food, order was wrong. We left, hungry.

Went for Sunday roast. No turkey. Beef supplied was just fat . Unable to eat. Roast potatoes soft . Slow service. Just felt i was mugged. Half a pint of peroni £ 3.10. I don't live in London

We have been here a few times before, and they were fine. But the last time was Friday 20th September it was not as good. The service was slow. They brought our mains out before the starter was cleared away, and they had forgotten our desserts and when we did receive them the apple crumble was cold . We have booked for another meal soon so I hope it will be better.

Very nice menu, welcoming atmosphere with friendly staff. Can highly recommend.

Running horse has got to be the best place in Fakenham had a meal for 4 and it was fresh and tasty will definetly be back the staff were very polite and great service

Helpful friendly staff, good service and even though very busy, food did not take too long to appear.

The service was first class - very friendly- very positive, the seating area was clean - the food was very good overall very good experience

Found this pub n the way home. Food was excellent and service top notch. Will happily stop there in the future.

Lovely atmosphere, great food and very attentive staff. Paul was particularly helpful. Will definitely be returning 😊

Very friendly staff, fast service. Decent selection of choices on the menu. Premises looked clean. Only downside was, drinks were very expensive, nearly four pounds for a Coke Zero.

Stopped here on my way home and had a lovely time with my 2 little ones. Service was quick and the food was great too. Will be back again

Supposed to be the best roast dinner in Fakenham according to your literature. Owing to the trade descriptions act I suggest you put probably in front as the roast potatoes were terrible.

Great food, but not everything we wanted was available

Very clean and well.laid out . Service not very attentive plates left on table for 25 minutes after end of meal two desperate visits .

Over an hour for food to arrive. Starter arrived with main course and order still wasn't right. Seemingly no garlic bread of any type and the drink I ordered on their app didn't seem to exist. Food when it did arrive was OK at best. It wasn't even that busy.

Slow service, food order wrong and overcooked

Booked a table for a date night, to drive 20 miles to get there to be told they had no mixed grill and no chicken. So we left and went elsewhere. Should have been made aware of this when booking.

Booked a table for 6.30. On arrival told one hours wait for food then when I went to order it had gone up to an hour and a half and the bar man joked “looks like a chippy tea tonight” as he laughed. Lots of tables free and lots of tables left filthy for at least half an hour so would hate to see it when it’s really busy. Not worth booking a table

The table were very sticky , the food was nice but the service was terrible i had to ask twice to clear our table !!

Food was lovely especially the pizza , the staff were friendly and helpful especially Zara

We booked for Sunday lunch for a family of 5. The pubs decor is ok, a little run down but fine for dinner with kids. The menu was varied and well priced. Unfortunately they had run out of Yorkshire puddings and stuffing at 6pm but didn’t tell us until our, rather sparse looking, meals arrived. When we queried why we were not told at the time of ordering, the waitress just crossly told us it wasn’t her fault. We probably should have taken it further but the food had taken about 30 minutes to arrive and the kids were starving.

This was the highlight of a family gathering.

Recommended this place for a roast dinner and it did not disappoint. Tasty and plentiful. The desserts were yummy too.

We booked for 5.30, the pub looked busy, but not overly so. It took a little while for our order to be taken, we were told there would be a bit of a delay between starters and mains, which there was quite a considerable amount of time. The mains were ok, food was acceptable kind of what you'd expect from a chain restaurant. We had to ask for desert order to be taken quite a while after finishing mains, and had to ask for our table to be cleared after the dessert order was taken. We had to wait almost 40 minutes for our desserts having asked twice to be told they were on the way. I appreciate on a busy, sunny Sunday afternoon there would be longer than usual wait times but would also expect it to be better communicated. Numerous times members of staff walked by our table empty handed whilst our empty plates were clearly visible and we ended up having to ask for the table to be cleared, which takes moments. Whilst there was compensation for the long delays, it put a real dampener on what should have been a special occasion. The reasons given were that there was a large group and a trainee chef which are both things that should be prepared for with staffing. Just lack of attention to detail and a few poorly judged comments have made us feel that we would think twice about returning which is a real shame as its a good place for a family meal which caters for all tastes and ages. The staff that were there were very apologetic and it wasn't necessarily a case of front of house to blame for the delays, and I appreciate they get the brunt of the flack, I'm not sure if there was a manager on site who should have dealt with the situation maybe and given the young staff a bit more direction. Having read the other reviews it seems we may have just been unlucky this time.

Terrible! Food all dry to the point that we couldn't eat it, service very slow. Over priced drinks. Kids running all over and shouting nothing said to them!

Good value, good vibes, food was delicious and staff were polite and efficient

Lovely restaurant with friendly staff and family atmosphere. Food is always delicious. This is one of my favourite restaurant and every time when I'm in Fakenham I always popping in for lunch.

Very happy latte machine was working now...!!!!

There were 9 of us for a family get together. We had a lovely time and the food was great

Had a horrendous experience and will not be returning. It took 2.5 hours from ordering main to receiving desserts. Staff attitude and service was awful and we received an eye roll from one waitress. One dessert was not available and we were not told. We only found out because after half an hour of waiting, we queried the delay and were then asked to choose another. I can honestly say I have never received such bad service in a restaurant and will not be recommending or returning.

Food great, staff great and guess what? The whole experience was great... Thank you! 👍

Arrived and order through the QR code on the table. After waiting over 30 minutes for our drinks to come went to the bar to be told the order hadn't been received, and they would sort them. After a further 10+ minute wait went back up and they had still not even attempted to start our drink order. Had to stand at the bar and physically watch them make the drinks to make sure they did it. Had to show my receipt to prove I actually order them to 3 different staff members to get the drinks. Food took a while to come out but it was busy so was expected but not as long as we did wait. Ordered desserts seconds after another person in our group and they received their ice cream half melted and had finished their desserts before we eventually went to the bar to ask where our desserts were to be told it was busy. At this point the pub had 4 or 5 groups of people in. Came here due to the reviews speaking highly of it and it couldn't have been further from the truth.

Nice place,superb food. When possible, I will return ☺️

Lovely place, really nice food, but quite a long wait for your meal.

food very nice, good choices, friendly staff. consistent both times we've been. had a bit of a wait for desserts but it wasn't a problem, we were happy chatting. that said, I ordered extra fries and they arrived before i got back to the table, so that was super speedy. :-)

Brilliant staff excellent food great prices

Just wanted leave a little review, for this outstanding venue, me and my wife were greeted, sat down and drinks order taken in a very timely manner. Well the pizza we shared was incredible! Beautiful crust, good amount of cheese. Just excellent. We will be coming back again!

We visited the Running horse today the 24th July, we had a very tasty well cooked meal, the service was excellent, with plenty of attention to detail, the music was subtle, not over bearing, the atmosphere was pleasant. All in all a good experience Tina

Extremely good food ,menu choice very good . Friendly staff. Prices very reasonable. This is the second time we have visited a marstons and it certainly will not be the last . This was a very good experience. Thank you

first time there and would recommend. Staff friendly and helpful, atmosphere very pleasant, food was really good and presented well.

could not fault our visit we were given our favourite table and waitress knew what drinks we like to order food was well presented and cooked properly

Always a friendly welcome and great service

After a long week last week I didn`t fancy cooking at the weekend so I popped along to The Running Horse & the food did not disappoint! The steak & chips were excellent & beers to wash that down with were lovely & cold & reasonably priced. I`d be happy to not cook every weekend based on that visit!

We were celebrating our 55th Wedding Anniversary and we had a brilliant meal, staff were friendly, helpful and we were made to feel very welcome, We would and have recommended The Running Horse to our friends ans family.

Our first visit to The Running Horse and will definitley be returning! A great menu for all the family and the staff were very accommodating!

warm welcome, clean and tidy, easy parking, good choice of food, very reasonable prices, food well presented and tasty Very easy to book online. Everything you could possibly want for a pleasant dining experience.

Great pub!! Really friendly, reasonably priced but most importantly the service was exceptional!!

Great food at reasonable price. Surf and turf was delicious and spicy burger very satisfying. Dog friendly.

Steak really bad, not just from being badly cooked, probably from lidle up the road. Salad hadn't been rinsed, very gritty. Wheres Ramsey when you need him😂

Didn't book a table as wasnt sure when family member was finishing work, if you can relate to such then expect to find a seat yourself and then go back to the bar and order your meals... Once ordered, expect to receive your starters with your mains and about 5 minutes into that, you can expect your dessert to follow suit 🤦🏽‍♂️ These were returned to kitchen then kindly reheated when we were actually ready 🤢 Never seen such an unorganised restaurant Didn't know when you ordered 3 courses you get them all at once 👍🏼🙃 Last visit I'll be making there. 2 stars because the food still tasted ok.

Ist of all,we had to wait 45 minutes for the food to arrive, well the wait was not good, I ordered steak well done and it was on the outside, pink inside, the mushrooms were dried up, the onion rings were none existent my wife had scampi and chips, utterly awful, my son had barbecue chicken pizza and had to leave the chicken out as it was like rubber and under cooked, the member of staff was rude and what was a dog bowl full of water under the table for ,plus we had too clean the table before sitting down, definitely won't be back..

Typical pub food good service shame they had to turn the coffee machine off at 9pm.

Family lunch. Great service, tasty food. Nice treat having table service on Sundays. All the staff were fab but special thanks to Jazz who was absolutely brilliant!!!

Good food at a good price (with two-for-one on all main meals). Service a little slow at busy times, but that's a minor issue really. Update: experienced faster service on our most recent visit and the two-for-one offer makes it good value. Further update: Sadly the two-for-one offers are no longer available, so the food is not such good value as it used to be.

Came here for Sunday lunch. My partner and I were shown to a table in the part that was full of families and noisy kids. We sat there for 2 mins then I went and asked for another table, which we got. Why we weren't given that one in the first place, I don't know. The other room was virtually empty. Anyway the food was nice, apart from the cold broccoli. Has a 30% off voucher so was happy with the lunch.

Booking was quick and easy. We went for Sunday lunch with my family and we were all pleased with our food, it was all delicious. The staff were polite and professional. The service was excellent.

Excellent service from the friendly and cheery staff who are a credit to Marston Inns. There was minimal waiting time for our food (both courses) and the menu gave plenty of choice of tasty options and the portions were generous. Thanks again. We will be back!!!

Always polite friendly staff, food good quality for the price. As it is a big area it can be quite noisy, but that is to be expected.

They need some kind of fly deterrent - eg a lamp as we were constantly flicking them away from our food. At 1 point there were 3 around my husband's head then plate. It may have been where we were sat as they were on the window between the restaurant and the entrance hall

Great food great service and even better price had what seemed a lot of food for what was paid. Just wish I had more cash for bigger tip as excellent staff all around. I easily booked online so table reserved for 1 and a half hours.

food was amazing served by sarah who was really lively and bubbly made the experience so much better will definitely return

Had a lovely time at the running horse for lunch today, food was amazing and so was Sarah who welcomed us very warmly

Great Sunday lunch good service

Super friendly staff who were very efficient

Lovely family dinner and great value for money. The young lady on the bar was very polite and friendly

Lovely staff who go beyond for their customers. I left my bracelet and the waitress who was on tonight 10/6/24 thought very quickly and called me so I could return for it. She was waiting outside to give it to me I was so impressed . very good food too. Will definitely eat here again

We are in the area for two weeks holiday and uses this everyday for lunch, Good food, excellent service from the staff and good prices.

Just such a lovely place, enthusiastic staff, clean , food is excellent, hot fresh , many could take a leaf out of the running horses book, many thanks jazz and Beth

Food and services are spot on Arron and Sarah are absolutely fantastic folk and always make us feel very welcome!

It’s a very nice and relaxing place and molly is the sweetest server she is extremely polite and helpful

Really good food great staff excellent prices

It was a family get together for my birthday. We were a group of 5 with 2 vegetarians included. We were warmly welcomed, I had booked so no problems. Shown to our table and settled in. When we had made our choices of food my wife went to the bar and ordered drinks and our E drinks came as ordered. The food arrived swiftly after. All our selections were great. Well prepared and presented. Your chips were greatly praised by all of us. The service was very good, and polite. The food all tasted delicious and we had no problems whatsoever. I have no doubt, we will be back soon. Thank you to our servers, we didn’t get their names, but they are a great team, and did your eatery proud.

Well done kitchen, Lovely food for our Sunday roast. Fast service food lovely. Very busy, Grace was amazing and very helpful.

Great food and drinks at a good price

Food wasn't bad, but the self serve app said things were out of stock that weren't. When we ordered a chilli with nachos, it arrived without nachos and only at that point were we told they were out of nachos. Eating guacamole and sour cream is a bit challenging with rice. Better communication would have helped! Otherwise good.

Appalling service, we have used the Running Horse before so knew what we should have expected, we took the time to write the order down on a note pad before going to the bar to order, for our party of eight, when the food arrived we were one dinner missing, we asked a member of staff who then went to the kitchen and came back out walked past out table with no explanation to us, after some time we asked another member of staff who snapped back with a "YES I know", we also asked for sauce that was slammed down on the table as if it was a massive inconvenience, the dinner arrived after we had all finished, with no apology, I work in customer service and think all the staff need customer service training in how to handle situations like this in a more positive and apologetic way.

Great place great staff and great defence discount

We arrived early and we were welcomed and taken to our table.. We then waited to order drinks and we knew what we wanted ordered together. Drinks came but had to wait for roast and when it did come the beaf was tough with some of it inedible hence why I left it.We then had to wait some time to order desert and coffee. Staff very good but in general not up to normal standards.

Good Pub Grub. Good size portions and quick service. Prices were reasonable as well and family friendly. To critique - the beef was a little dry in the roast so if I was to go again I’d chose the chicken. Other than that, good Sunday meal.

Lovely meal as usual, always made to feel welcome by Donna and the team , always our go to place 😀

Decent menu Decent food Decent service Reasonably priced. Table was sticky Initials had been carved in the table by previous customers! My meal was served in a dish on a plate that was not clean. The Sundae was served without a dish underneath (which would have carried the spoon and helped prevent sundae perhaps dropping on the table) Decent. 3 Star Wouldn't rush back

Great value pub grub , unfortunately we had a slight issue but got resolved straight away so almost 5 stars .

Really lovely meal, and amazing service by Charlie. Nothing was too much trouble. Will definitely be returning!