The Cricketers, Mill Green in Brentwood

Love this pub. Cosy, good, homemade food, dog friendly in bar, friendly.

We ate out last night at The Cricketers and I have to say the food was absolutely outstanding. The steak was beautifully cooked, medium with a lovely bbq topped crust just so tender and beautifully cooked. The mushroom cream sauce was out of this world with a beautiful sharp edge of mustard, just so good finished off with crunchy onion rings. Five stars for such amazing place, staff and food, we would highly recommend.

Delicious burger BBQ style Crispy fries and nice staff. Relaxed on the terrace after a lovely walk in the woods

5 star review is for Charlotte, who was super friendly and lovely. Food was great!

Amazing unlimited brunch. The food was amazing and great atmosphere. Such friendly staff and lovely people.

Nice stop off for lunch today. Good job we booked, as others were being turned away as fully booked on Saturday lunchtime. Good choices of starters, main and dessert, plus they also do wood fired pizza at the weekend now. I had the seafood main and Eton mess dessert. Both lovely. Reasonable prices for what is on offer. Nice place in a quiet wooded area not far from the main A12 a few miles away.

Nice pub, good food & ale ... 🍺

Great local pub in a beautiful location, good selection of beers and lovely food. Good sized beer garden with a play area for the kids.

Just left after a really nice roast beef dinner but such a shame, service so slow. Actually not once was we asked to order I had to call over a waiter each time first for drinks, dinner, dessert menu then gave that up as no one returned to take order so approached bar to pay. I don’t expect fast food but felt like we were forgotten. That was over one and half hours.

Great venue for Sunday Lunch or just an afternoon drink in the beer garden. Great choice of beers, spirits and wine.

Love this place staff food and atmosphere

Called in on a Saturday lunchtime. The prawn satay starter was delightful. The children's fish fingers and chips were a big hit as was the steak. The Thai chicken burger was dry, it just needed some relish to lift it. The Caesar salad was tasty but too many outside lettuce leaves. Would have preferred fewer leaves with some nicer, sweeter inner leaves. Would recommend. Have been back for Sunday lunch which was excellent. There is also a lovely outdoor play area for the little ones.

Lovely setting, very well kept grounds. Loved the electric bikes 🚲

Lovely out of the way place with great food and service. Would recommend whole heartedly

Unfortunately I had a very poor experience on my most recent visit. I had booked a table a week before, and upon arriving we were told they were too busy to take our order and unable to say when we could order. We then went to the pizza 'hut' at the back to order from there instead and were told the wait was 1 hours too. Disgruntled, we ordered anyway and waited 1hr 05 for our food. We were then completely forgotten about, no one came to clear our plates, ask us if we wanted another drink (we only had one from when we initially sat down) and nor did they give us the dessert menu. I went up to the bar to pay myself and leave. A very, very disappointing experience and no apology from the staff or manager. This was a booking, not a walk in, and you should have had adequate kitchen staff. I have worked in restaurants since I was 16, and I'd have had the common sense to apologise to a customer and perhaps offer them a drink or tea/coffee on the house to try to make up for the poor service. Small gestures go a long way to make customers happy and there's much to be learnt here. A very poor experience. The stars I have left on this review are for the previous times I visited where the service wasn't quite as poor.

Lovey atmosphere in the pub, nice decor and a warm, cosy feel. Staff were friendly but a little inattentive. We paid the the 12.5% service charge that was automatically added to the bill but that did feel a but steep for the level of service we received. The food was ok. For £21.50 for roast beef, I was expecting a really good roast. The two thin slices of beef that (despite what the menu said) were not served pink, seemed a little mean. The tiramisu was ok. Would like to return to see if today was just a blip.

Ok but could be better. The service was slow but welcoming

Ordered an aperol spritz. Got this. £11. What a joke.

Valentines night dinner. Lovely experience, great service, great food and a nice vibe. Not pretentious which for this area is a superb selling point!!

Lovely meal on mothering Sunday. The complimentary fizz was a lovely touch

lovely spacious many roomed pub gastro cuisine nice service

If your in ingatestone and fancy a lovely Sunday roast this is a great place to go

Lovely place but food not great. Tiny portions and Risotto without rice !

Food was lovely, service friendly but slow as busy.Parking at a premium ended out in main road where a fiesta was stuck in the mud .Would go again worth a visit

We were disappointed with our visit to The Cricketers, especially having seen such positive reviews. While the manager was pleasant, generally the service was quite slow and inattentive. For the meal, the ingredients were fresh and the roast potatoes were a highlight, but everything tasted very salty and would have benefited from a lighter touch in the cooking. The location and atmosphere were nice, but for our money there are other pubs in the area we would be more likely to revisit.

Will be returning. Lovely food with attentive staff. Warm and welcoming. Thankyou.

We visited The Cricketers for their Festive Set Menu which was £33 for two courses and £38 for three. For the quality of the food and quantity this represented good value. We thoroughly enjoyed our lunch, the food was delicious and plentiful. The atmosphere was very Christmassy with the log burner and pub nicely decorated for Christmas. All the guests seemed to be having a lovely time. Service was excellent. Easy parking behind this pub which is a Victorian gem and well worth a visit.

Lovely place very empty but think because the weather was bad

Had a birthday dinner on Saturday evening, staff were very attentive the menu selection was tremendous the food was actually Michelin star quality I haven’t had such a beautiful meal in a very long time. Thoroughly recommend The Cricketers even the chef came out to ask us how we’d enjoyed the food and our experience, perfect for a local meal.

Lovely high quality food good selection of beers,ales Lovely friendly staff reasonable price. Will definitely visit again

Lovely garden Elsie our dog enjoyed it. Service very good staff great.

Fantastic food and fantastic service! We went on a Wednesday lunch which although I felt it had a fairly small menu all the food was top quality. I loved this rather than more options creating quantity over quality and there is another menu outside of the lunch hours, so I look forward to trying that in the future too. We didn't find it hard at all to make a choice as all the food sounded delicious and was something for everyone. Definitely would return!

What can I say. Had a table booked for my wife and me but she was not well so turned up on my own. I had a Lamb roast which was one of the best and I took a takeaway back for my wife. I’ll tell you that the service was as good if not better than I have anywhere else. Thank you for the superb meal and sensational service Ps I’ll bring the plate back during the week 😀

The only comment about the food is that the menu for vegetarians/vegans is a little bit narrow and not very imaginative. Otherwise, the quality was great and it was really good value for money. The venue is very pleasant and has a fair sized car park and WiFi. Staff were great and the server had a sense of humour that we appreciated.

Just had drinks. Lovely pub in the countryside. Friendly staff and Dog friendly.

Dare I say 10/10! Found by chance between Ingatestone and my route to Writtle, charming front and rear gardened country pub like they used to be, with great and friendly bar staff and waitresses, offering great selection of lunch options that were 4/4 dishes excellent also £20 two courses price! Steak & caramelised onion sandwich with the chunkiest of tasty chips, slow roast pork with crushed potato, green and jus’ and to follow best brownie I ever tried (I never eat any chocolate cake or variant usually) matched to a sexy fruit crumble and custard, not the ordinary by any means! Keep up the good work guys and prices to match, we’ll definitely be back and highly recommend! ®️Iky

It's a nice dog friendly pub, but i prefer having a drink here rather than coming for food. Staff are friendly and ambient surroundings, i just dont think the food is that great.

Great spot. Nice service and tasty food. Gets busy so book ahead.

I had a great experience when I stopped here for dinner. The staff were friendly and efficient, and I was able to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine. The waitress even offered to refill my water bottle before I continued my journey. I might now make it a habit to have lunch whilst out on a cycle ride. The roast was decent, the staff were friendly and efficient, and the decor was nice. I was especially impressed by the music they were playing outside while everyone sat there in the sun - they really created a great atmosphere!

Service was far to slow. Shame nice pub in a nice setting.

Fabulous Sunday roast with my family. Really friendly and attentive service to accommodate 8 adults and 4 children. We sat at a long table in the bar area. Couldn’t fault it and will definitely be back.

Loved it.Great menu,great food good selection of wines and beer

Food was good. Service average at best. Glass on the floor that embedded itself in my shoe and fortunately not that of the yappy dog. Yappy dog on the table across the room kinda spoiled the ambience. Take your dog by all means, but preferably only if it's all behaved. In two minds whether to visit again due to service and dog noise.

My favourite pub close to Ingatestone. It's got a really good atmosphere and a perfect checkpoint for your Sunday country walk

Lovely location. Lovely staff. Food okay 👍

Lovely Sunday lunch! Good servings, meat cooked perfectly.

We had a wedding reception for 20 people at the Cricketers and we were very impressed. We met with Jo beforehand to discuss our requirements and she was very helpful and professional. The service on the day was great and the food was abundant and delicious. Jo and staff did a great job in making the day special and we would have no hesitation in recommending The Cricketers for your event.

We had a lovely Sunday roast lunch with giant Yorkshire puddings! Friendly service and lovely pub. Dog friendly bar too. We had to pay £5 deposit per head for making a table reservation (which gets taken off the bill). Lots of parking and great outdoor space too.

Nice relaxed atmosphere excellent service and great food.

This is a first class pub with dining at the bar or in the restaurant. We chose the latter last night and had the most enjoyable dinner out for many a year. Food exquisitely cooked and delicious. Wine list sensible and interesting. Service without compare. The whole dinner for two was both very good value for money and better than our experience of other restaurants including the Ivy.

Really friendly atmosphere, great service and the food was incredible! Will definitely go back

Nice Staff. Food was a typical pub affair , nothing to write home about but perfectly fine for an easy lunch ..

Lovely pub in a beautiful surroundings. Good food and great staff

Great place to meet up for a walk

The food was absolutely terrible. Sunday lunch lamb and beef was inedible. A replacement meal was given and the lamb was completely different to the previous. One of our party couldn’t eat over half of their meal. The meat was cheap, gristly and chewy. We have eaten here numerous times before and food was good. Totally let down today. One male senior member of staff was extremely rude and dismissive actually shaking his head at his colleagues when he thought we wasn’t looking. Such a shame as this used to be such a nice pub and restaurant. We will not be visiting again.

Love this pub. Brilliant food fantastic atmosphere

Amazing food and brilliant atmosphere.

Fantastic Sunday lunch. Extremely friendly staff

Very disappointing, on arrival we thought we’d found a gem the waiter was friendly and helpful, but then the food arrived….. courgette chips were brown soggy and salty not pleasant at all. No comment was made when he retrieved basically an uneaten starter. My husbands starter was supposed to be sardines in a breadcrumb with chilli sauce. Over fried sardines again not pleasant calves liver was a disaster it stated it would be served pink on the menu! As he put the plate down both the liver and piece of bacon were black!!! Grey inside very unpalatable. I had chicken and mushroom linguine which was ok but not inspiring. The bill was requested and we told them to take off the £7 service charge. Don’t bother with this place!!!!!!

If Carlsberg made country pubs, this would be it. Away from the hustle and bustle, a truly gorgeous pub with lovely food, lovely front and rear gardens.

Lovely pub, nice outside area. Reasonable prices. Happily visit again. And delicious looking food . We will try it out next time we visit. Great quiet location. Friendly staff.

Only 3 stars due to the cheap, and uncomfortable to use, cutlery. Plus the lack of cushions on the wooden seats in the outside eating area. Excellent and attentive Staff but the dinning experience was let sadly down by the above details.

The food was amazing and we been served by lovely waitress (young, blond girl) unfortunately she been shouted at on front of us by what I believe was another waitress, lady in her forty’s dark hair (very unprofessional and rude) I don’t understand why back garden is closed for food as the front garden it’s small and everyone seat on top of each other.

Lovely place. Great food, very nice staff. I got a bad migraine when I was there, they gave me some paracetamol which I'll be forever grateful for!

Nice pub. Nice atmosphere. Shame about the food. Ordered a mushroom risotto. It came out looked Nice but when I tried it the rice was very crunchy, it Left a dry flowery taste in your mouth. Spoke to the barmaid. Very polite and apologetic. Said would gey a fresh one made... hmmmm. A few moments later. Another dish came.. this time the bowl was really hot. Which was odd as first bowl wasn't. Still crunchy raw rice. Risotto should be soft and plump not dry and powdery. Picked the mushroom out. But left the rest. Shame really. Beer was good and nice pub but only had 6 other people in considering its a Thursday night at 8pm . Of to mcdonald's now for some food.

I love the food at the Cricks and I am not easy to please. We have dined with family of 16 and smaller groups. The food is best in our area. Staff a joy, Thank you

Sunday lunch, The beef was cooked exactly as it should be, nice & red in the middle. But it was a cheap cut of Silverside. The leather soles of my shoes would have been more tender. Staff need better training (serving across people sitting at the table) such a shame, lovely place ☹️

Nice food served here very friendly atmosphere & attentive staff.

Great in every way. We had been there for sunday lunch on a couple of occassions which were excellent when we noticed they do a clay pidgeon experience. My wife and daughter thought that would be a great idea for my birthday. They booked it for myself and my two son to go on Thursday last week and we had the best time. Amazing experience, fantastic value and the men who took us Rupert and Gary were top guys. Friendly and experienced with the sport. The day started with breakfast at the pub. They then take you to the range were we had a safety talk and instructions then the shoot itself. Some friendly competition with my boys. We then returned to the pub for a 3 course lunch which was amazing. All this for £85 a head. Everything about the day was fantastic from breakfast to shooting to the lunch and all the staff were really friendly and welcoming. Would highly recommend as a birthday treat with a difference. We enjoyed it so much we cannot wait to book up for another visit very soon.

My first time here but not my last for definite. What a lovely meal my pork was so thick I couldn't believe I was in a pub the service was superb we are booking again this weekend 100% a lovely place

Nice staff, good food. I attended a party here with a buffet and have to say they made the best sausage rolls I've ever tasted!

Lovely retirement party here last night. Comfortable relaxing atmosphere, good food and great range of beers. Staff were busy all night and all very friendly. Will return for a family meal.

What a shame! 6 people dining. 3 didn't eat theirs. As with other reviews, the mushroom risotto was awful. It was literally inedible. The Skate wings were covered in a batter that was SO salty, it ruined the whole plate. The medium-well steak arrived still mooing. My brother couldn't eat anything, with it all swimming in blood. My haddock was ok (a little over cooked, but at that point I felt the need to stay quiet). The liver and bacon, again, was just OK. Calves liver should NEVER be overcooked. That is a crime. The food wasn't the main problem here though, surprisingly .... The attitude of the server was appalling. Even worse, I do believe he is the manager or even the owner! Shockingly rude. My guests were irritated and not backward with expressing their complaints. Their moans and groans were met with shrugs and a total 'so what' response. I am not a fan of public outbursts, therefore, I had a quiet chat with James and he saved the day. He was polite, understanding and a real troubleshooter. He is wasted there. Sadly, we will not return.

What a shambles, booked a table for 15:30, arrived on time to be told the table wasn't ready, we sat and waited till 16:05 still no one told as what was happening, so we left and went to a vintage Inn restaurant instead. Don't think we will return to such a chaotic restaurant.

Good food, good beer, friendly atmosphere.

Great pub, indoor and plenty of outdoor seating at the front and rear of the pub. Friendly staff, nice decor, warm and cosy.

Fantastic Rissoto and banofie pie highly recommend

Excellent Sunday lunch. Good staff polite & friendly

Nice sandwiches, lively pub atmosphere.

Fab location, fab food and a cosy pub. Just the right place after a ramble in the local countryside.

The setting in lovely, with very warm and friendly staff. Food was great and my wife loved the vegan option

Gone down a lot in my estimations. Staff seem to not be happy to have a crowd in.

Absolutely amazing food! Had a really nice time here. The pub is warm and cosy and a great place to stop by after a 6 mile jaunt around Mill Green. I recommend this place to anyone.

This place is almost unrecognisable to 15 years ago, full makeover. It's fairly pricey but you'll see why when you visit. They have events at different festive times and it's a good place to stop off for a drink when on a walk, like we did.

quite expensive food good but could be better for the price

Excellent food and service will visit again.

AMAZING pizza, friendly and very accommodating staff, we will be back

Lovely place with fantastic staff, early doors on a Friday evening.

Great food and friendly staff but service was quite slow

No indoor dining (only Al Fresco) which I suppose is due to Covid but every other place that I've been to recently still allows you to eat inside! Was charged over £24.00 for 1 Cider and 1 J2O, went inside to query this with the bar staff who admitted the 'error' and refunded the money but how many other customers have they successfully ripped off. Decided not to order food and left. Will definitely not be returning 😠

Lovely location. Some dishes in the party good some not so especially for the price.

When We first arrived the waiter was very vague about if we could come in and if they had any seats- any who he found us a seat in the back garden. What he didn’t mention was we could only order pizza in the back garden this was only mentioned after we had ordered our drinks and got comfortable. We asked to be moved to a place where we could order a roast, 5 minutes passed and a waitress came over explaining we could actually in fact have a roast in the back garden- great! Another 5 minutes passed and the same waitress came back and kindly and in a friendly manor explained that they were actually shutting the back and could we move to the front garden, a lot of faff but no worries! Moved to the front and in fact was much nicer and we were in the sun. Asked to have our order taken, 10 minutes passed, asked again and was then immediately served by a very friendly waitress, we ordered 2 roasts. Roasts arrived about 40 minutes later (a little on the long side) by this time we were starving. Tucked in to the roasts… vegetables and roast potatoes very undercooked and lacked any flavour whatsoever, however, the meat was delicious and Yorkshire puddings also very tasty. The whole meal was let down by the tasteless veg, potatoes and red wine jus. We had also asked for extra gravy on the side which was forgotten but swiftly brought to us when mentioned which was great. Overall the scenery was lovely and a really beautiful pub, the staff were friendly and accommodating but honestly I wouldn’t return for a roast due to the quality of the food, for the amount we paid we were very disappointed. The rest of the Menu looked lovely so we may be back one day in the future to try those options as we really would like to like this venue.

Love the setting Mill Green is a lovely part of the world great to have this pub in this village

Visited on 26th Jun 21 - staff are very attentive, nothing too much trouble. Brought our pooch along with us and he was looked after too with water and we ordered the fish fingers for him to enjoy… lucky he got them as we nearly ate them ourselves. Freshly home made, melt in your mouth fish. We had King Prawn starter, locally sauced prawns, large and meaty and a must fir all prawn lovers. Seafood platter for main and, it’s one of the best we’ve had. This is not a pub restaurant but a restaurant that has a pub. Finally, the owner of the premises was very attentive asking guests their opinions - when does that ever happen!! Very impressed and will be back again. 😊

Great food, excellent staff, a fantastic lunch in the sunshine.

Interesting menu items, good selection of beers and wines, lots of outdoor seating, efficient staff! Thanks!

Even though we had to wait 2 and a half hour for our pizza but it was worth it. Staff were friendly and they gave us free crisps because we had to wait for our food that long.

Always friendly. Always delicious. A beautiful old pub in lovely surrounding. Generous and excellent quality food. Another fantastic lunch again today. Thank you all at the Crix.

Very dog friendly pub and staff. Delicious food and thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon here.

Nice drinks garden and pizza. Reasonably priced and tasty. Very English not very Italian toppings. Good enough though for a casual meet for drinks and a bit to eat. Also serve a few cocktails which was a nice surprise