The Red Lion Country Pub & Dining in Tendring - Phone Number, Reservations, Reviews

We visited prior to booking to check that the menu was suitable for our dietary needs and tastes. As it is a busy holiday area and the weather was good we made a reservation for Friday 26th July. On arrival we were taken aback that the restaurant area was not set up. Just tables in disarray on a filthy dirty carpet. The bar server was pleasant and swiftly got our drinks. After that everything went downhill. We ordered Lamb chops but were told they were out of stock. Therefore the second choice of mixed grill was also not available.we then tried Chicken and Leek pie - none. In exasperation we said OK Fish and Chips - sorry none! How can a pub with food not have stock of basics at the start of probably one of the weekends that would be the busiest, especially as we had booked? We asked twice for the manager "Kim" to come and talk to us and said we were prepared to wait but twice she refused. Absolutely disgraceful way to treat customers and terrible to leave her staff to deal with her inadequacy. Never ever will we go again.

Sunday bbq amazing as always. Music from amazing Jo. I love her voice. An excellent afternoon and evening with friends. Definitely recommend. 5☆

Really tasty meal for the 6 of us, warm welcome good service. Recommend it.

Whent here with my brother in law Roy and candy very good welcome from the locals and excellent food and the spicy prawns are great 👍 hopefully get down soon 😋 😀 😉 👍

A beautiful pub and lovely friendly staff I wouldn't change anytin it's all perfect

Nice little old country pub in good location. Tasty food is reasonably priced. Staff are friendly and welcoming. Dog friendly, large beer garden and car park.

Watch out for the vegan menu not being vegan. Allergen alerts also don't seem to be paid attention to.

Beautiful pub in a lovely little village, the Sunday lunch is definitely one of the best I've had with a top notch guiness to boot..! Lovely beer garden with good music being played, wish this place was my local...!

Stone cold turkey absolutely 🥽 ng &smothered in warm gravy no way to serve poultry which should be piping hot !! We now have diarrhea!!

What a fantastic place! Went with my partner and kids - lovely food, great service and a great beer garden! Highly recommend! Update - visted again a year later and still the great service we've grown to expect when visiting family down south. Tried out the "cool runnings" shots, bloody delicious!

Lovely atmosphere. Brilliant bar staff that go the extra mile, even when pub is busy. And the Sunday roast dinner, is probably the best in Essex,

Lovely village pub with very good food and service. Well worth a visit.

Great pub, lovely staff, top landlord - well worth a visit

Food good ,hot, quality and plenty of it nothing seems to much for staff host friendly and helpful they had a new coffee machine coffee was bad but they replaced it new lot was better overal very satisfied

Great pub with great service and the best roast dinner I have had in a pub for a very long time.

Basic but good and wholesome... not flash but fine. Want a pint and a bite to eat.. visit the red lion

Super staff, excellent service and lovely food. Good value for money. Highly recommend.

We ate a late lunch here today. My husband had scampi and fries and pronounced both the best he's had in a long while. I had cod and chips. The chips were great. The batter on the cod however was very dark, bordering on burned but the fish inside was fine. Service friendly and good. Price reasonable.

This pub food i wold not give to my bog

I am so sorry to leave this review because all the people working there were absolutely lovely. However, the food was awful. Worst roast dinner I ever had in my life, uncooked, flavourless, chewy. Please change the cook and the business will pick up!!!

Absolutely lovely food stunning environment and the service was brilliant and friendly!

Had a lovely evening with the crowd and Darren. Very friendly and polite. Have come back this evening just the same atmosphere this time just a little background music ,very much suiting our mood,just perfect. Thank you Darren and crew.

A super place to spend an evening......friendly proffesional management...Great beer garden

My dad is friends with the owner and he is really nice amazing guy and every Sunday he does a barbecue

Didn't eat ,just called in for drinks ,nice outside space

The food was great. We had a sharing platter. We will be returning one day

Had the chicken leek & bacon pie, which was lovely.

Excellent service Excellent food Excellent meal

Beers all ran out Few food products on that day Young staff tried their best, but out of their depth Poor quality food and endless requests needed

Honestly just drive past. We stopped in for Sunday lunch, we selected either the trio or duo roast dinners, we couldn't easily identify which meat was the lamb or which was the beef. One was extremely tough, we weren't the only table that thought so, I witnessed one patron hacking through theirs and another sent thiers back. The veggies weren't cooked evenly, some were cold and almost raw. The deserts were just as disappointing, a very unique version of Eton Mess. The service was enthusiastic but slow and inadequate.

First visit nice clean friendly pub,

Excellent food,excellent service...very clean premises. Would highly recommend.

Very pleasant pub, nice and helpful staff, good food at a reasonable price. Great place for meeting friends for lunch

Run like a pub restaurant should be run, great food and atmosphere with the occasional live music, spot on.

Discovered this lovely restaurant/bar the other day. Food was incredible ! I went for the curried goat. It was sensational. Staff very friendly. Guys. You need to check this place out.

We had a few drinks here nice place quiet

Booked a table for 12, very good meal, all good ingredients freshly prepared. Helpful and polite staff. Recommend.

Great pub. Wonderful atmosphere. Very friendly staff and customers.

Nice food. Quit small portions though.

Great Sunday afternoon. Yerk food was great, and the live music too

Waited over an hour for part of the meal to arrive. People came in after us and got served. Expensive and not worth the visit.9

Waited over an hour for awful food and service. Don’t waste your time!!!

Lovely Korean Chicken. Just been done up ready for summer, Lovely big pub garden

We went here as we had enjoyed a delightful meal and evening when the previous owners had been in charge. We returned with the same expectations, they were soon lowered . We had the Korean style chicken and a chicken burger both meals were mediocre, the chicken was chewy and overcooked . It did not seem fresh , the previous owners had always welcomed dogs with a doggy menu , the new owners still welcome dogs but no doggy menu , why wouldn't you keep the doggy menu if you claim to welcome 4 legged friends ? After finding out there was no doggy menu staff managed to fix up some gammon for our puppy. Overall the service and food was bland , we didn't feel the need to stay for dessert and wasn't worth the £33 check. It was a shame as we had spoken so highly of the pub during the previous owners management. This means that unfortunately we feel no need to return.

Poor food quality Food cold Tiny steaks, pasta from Lidl Over priced. Need to review cooking

Overall a 5, I didn't eat here but the food I saw being served looked lovely. A dog friendly pub. The guiness was excellent!!

Very nice place to go and have a meal

Great food, a cut above the average pub standard lovely atmosphere and spotless clean, allowed the dog into the bar too,

The new owners are very welcoming. Family run pub. Very inviting atmosphere. Food is amazing with lots of choice and large portions. They informed me there was lots of entertainment coming in the future. Looking forward to it

Fantastic food and very friendly family, they welcome dogs snd even have dog treats , the garden is huge with lots of seating , cant wait for the music events they have planned for the summer

Will be my new local, great pub

Awful place. It was our first time eating here. We took our family, the first time, a table of 8. The food was luke warm, the chicken was processed meat and they served up the wrong meats. We asked for the meat to be changed, they again brought out the wrong meat. We then had a guy in a tracksuit approach us and ask what the problem was. He was very confrontational and argumentative. I told him the food was warm and we got the wrong meat, he told us, well you should have said something. I told him we did say something and was given the wrong meat for a third time and why did he assume we didn't say anything. We got no answer and he just walked off. How rude. It turns out he is the chef. He had no kitchen whites on and a major attitude and with luke warm food, don't go here! There was no drinks or wine menu, the coffee machine wasn't working either, a roast dinner is £19, even more if you more than 1 meat and we were then charged an extra £4 for a side of vegetables! Everything about the pub is not good, what a disappointment!

Food was fantastic. Servies was brilliant. Atmosphere was nice and very relaxed. Would definitely recommend and I will be going again..

Great pub, good food and friendly staff

The Staff were very welcoming, giving an excellent service with a nicely presented buffet of mixed delights, most enjoyable.

Last week we had a wake at the Pub. Buffet food was excellent,staff really attentive,and made all our family,and friends feel welcome,and nothing too much trouble . Thank you so much to all staff. We will certainly be back again.

Our family booked the Red Lion for a wake and the staff, food and service were excellent. They couldn’t do enough for us especially considering there were over 100 people in attendance. It has recently been taken over by a lovely new family so will definitely be returning & will use again for any other occasions.

Really well presented buffet for a family event with great choices excellent service and atmosphere

This week the pub catered for a Wake. I can't fault the help provided beforehand, the service on the day, and the quality of the food provided. THANK YOU! Personal favourite was the homemade Sausage Rolls.. although I ate far too many 😉

Had a meal in the pub and a week later attended a Wake. Food was excellent and the staff were really friendly and helpful

Had a wake here, it was absolutely superb, both the food and service. They also declined a £50 tip that was offered as a thank you

Had a funeral wake there. Food plentiful and lovely. Staff very friendly

An excellent evening. Super food. Well priced and well recommended

My wife and I just had a superb beef roast at the Red lion pub this afternoon 29/01/23 which we felt was all cooked to a high standard, and was enjoyed in a relaxed atmosphere with very friendly staff Highly recommend this lovely family run pub👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 Steve & Debbie

Early days for the new team but we enjoyed our generous meal.

Fantastic meal at the Red Lion tonight. The staff and atmosphere is brilliant. Highly recommend. Even if you didn’t want to have a meal, a great place to socialise.

Went for lunch, very limited menu , burger , steak , fish n chips or liver . The waitress brought the menus over on 4 chalk boards (you could see the old menu where it wasn't clean ) you could see they struggled to carry 4 boards to every table . Food was OK

Great to see pub open again staff really friendly. Food was lovely definitely be visiting more often.

Great family country pub lovely open fire very friendly staff was a lovely afternoon and food was great

Avoid. All food was extremely over cooked. Scampi and prawns burned. Don’t expect what you see on the menu to be what you get. Squid was a piece 5cm square cut into 4 strips and coated in batter for 8£. Don’t bother going. Oh, and their website has been hacked and they haven’t noticed. Massively overpriced. Roasted cauliflower is actually burned cauli florets (tiny) on cous cous and raisins.

Enjoyed our Sunday lunch very pleased to Find somewhere that wasn't finishing service early afternoon

Lovely area to sit outside. Had a buffer board off the menu. Great choices and plenty of it. Short staff meant a little wait but not a problem.

Absolutely gorgeous food well worth the wait and tasted very fresh. The staff are very lovely and they have a menu for dogs as well as a barrel for the water with lots of doggy treats underneath. Live music every Friday a lovely place to chill and have the most delicious food.👍

Good food,impressed with the dog menu,superb service!!!must visit

Menu looked lovely, as did the building and the garden, we were greeted warmly by who I think is the owner/manager, so it's such a shame this Pub couldn't actually deliver. After 15 minutes from our initial order we were told, what we had had ordered wasn't available on a Sunday...why is it on the menu's we were handed and why did the waitress take the order? We chose two new meals for the adults as the kids meals were apparently available...15 minutes after that when enquiring when the "bread while you wait" was likely to arrive, we were told once again that they had run out of what was ordered. 30 minutes in and we hadn't even managed to place an order....By this point the kids were staving (bread would have helped had it ever turned up) and everyone was pretty miserable. Cancelling the order we asked for a bill for the drinks we had whilst waiting for the starter that never arrived and the food that was unavailable, after 10 minutes the waitress hadn't returned so went inside to pay. At this point I had to tell them what drinks I'd had ! The menu looks amazing, but if this pub can't deliver it's just words on a page....running out of some food is acceptable, waiting a quater of an hour to tell us so we can can reorder, twice, isn't.

Lady serving drinks at bar did not acknowledge us, or crack a smile. When I asked to order food the waiter said they were only doing bookings. I said I'd tried to phone repeatedly and he said the phone isn't working, you have to come in to book! Really? The atmosphere wasn't like it used to be.

Absolutely rubbish, if i could give less than one star i most certainly would!!! No beers, half the menu was not available and this was half an hour after opening!! And after an hour and a half wait, the food that did turn up was either wrong or cold, never, I repeat never go to this pub for food!!!!! And the service was buy a pubescent child who should not be allowed anywhere near customers until she has at least been shown how to take an order correctly, no condiments were offered when the pathetic attempt at food did eventually turned up. Avoid this place at all costs!!!! You have been warned!!

Will where do I start.. When we got there had to wait for a booked table only to see a room with 7 tables and only 2 in use There was no coffee or cider and when it came time to order food they handed us a list (pictured) of items they had sold out of and we overheard another table being told many desserts were also sold out. Ordered meals about 1.30pm 2x plain steak&chips with peas 1x fish&chips 1x hamburger 1x scampi&chips.. About 2.40pm 1x steak came covered in garlic no peas (despite stating he had a garlic allergy) then about 10 minutes afterwards the scampi and fish came, chips had been over cooked and cold, fish was undercooked and cold.. sent back was told "I'll find out what went wrong " noone came back.. Half an hour later still nothing called them over asked where is the other steak and the burger was... got up about 20 minutes later still no burger or steak and my fish didn't come back or an apology.. Was the worst experience I have had in a long time.. If nothing the staff was OK they ate the steaks even the one that didn't make it to the table and you could see they were cooked to medium-rare at best (we ordered well-done) 😡🤬

Tried hard to book a table for dinner this evening but nobody answered the phone between 11.30 and 18.00, when we decided to go there to try our luck, only to be greeted with a totally unenthusiastic and insincere member of the hospitality staff who informed us that, due to problems with the gas supply, no food was available. As a former waitress/restaurant manager, all I can say is: up your game or call it quits. We went to The Ship and had a lovely meal, and were treated appropriately as returning customers.

Visited Monday afternoon, No food available due to gas supply problem, perhaps you could have made sandwiches or salads to offer

Board outside advertised "Brunch 11am - 3pm Sat + Sun". Arrived on Sunday at 11.30 and asked for a menu, to be told "that's not till next weekend mate". Thanks for your help.

Only us eating on a Saturday lunch time. Food was OK and service friendly and speedy. Not as good as it used to be, hope they can compete with the ship in future as they have in the past.

We were the only people in on a Saturday lunch time, nothing wrong with the food and service was good BUT not as good as it was and certainly not giving The Ship the competition it has in the past.

Booked Christmas Dinner here and left £60 deposit. Dinner has been cancelled and have been told that they are not responsible for my deposit as the food has been taken over by somebody else. This is legally nonsense of course but the chances of getting the deposit back is slim. If you don't want to be scammed, avoid this place at all costs.

What a shame. Beautiful old pub inside. But who ever is managing the place doesn't care, which is what you experience. :(

Recently revamped and new landlord. Live music when we popped in for a drink, ended up staying the evening! Welcoming barman. Will be going back when the kitchen is open.

Bit disappointed Most of the menu sold out. Drink the same. Nice steak spoiled by fries.could have been homemade chips.

Ordered medium well steak but they give me rare didn’t bother to ask a replacement because they already serve the steak late.

Great Italian food and tasty real ale

Just taken over by an Italian couple which now serves traditional Italian dishes that are excellent.

Really enjoyed the meal the staff really friendly and polite made sure our dog got an extra sausage

This is my local pub and it's one that has changed hands a few times and they've never put a finger wrong, they've always been friendly and put everything into their work. Today we visited after a bad experience at another pub. I rang 10 mins before we arrived on a Sunday at lunch time and they were amazing they said they had a table for two. We got there and all I can say is the new people who now work their were so accommodating and the service and food was amazing!! They do amazing roast! 10/10

We went here today , for our sons birthday meal. Had a good time , food lovely, friendly staff.my husband is in a wheelchair,the staff moved tables around no problems.wheelchair Access is at the side.we have booked our 25th wedding anniversary meal here.

Had a meal here for my daughters birthday which was 👌 staff friendly

Only stopped for a drink but its seems a really nice place and I will definitely go back.

Not familiar with the area we came across this lovely pub and enjoyed a meal in the garden with our two babies and dog. The staff couldn't have been more accommodating! We will definitely come back here when visiting again.

Went for Sunday roast lovely meal very friendly staff

We visited today and the Sunday roast was absolutely amazing - perfectly cooked meats, fluffy roasties and so much food we didn't need dessert. The pub has a lovely environment, very cosy and welcoming, as well as friendly and accommodating staff, especially Nick. Prices are also great for everything you get! Will definatly visit again very soon!

Nice friendly pub with good honest food.

I would deffinatly visit again food was so delicious