The best restaurants in East of England

This is the second visit to this establishment. Upon arrival, the parking was easy although busy. As you enter the restaurant, you have a sign asking people to wait here to be seated. Problem he is... it is a confined space for four people, and if I was sitting on the table opposite the door, I'd get annoyed with people hanging over my table. My advice is to remove the sign and get people to the bar! Thankfully, our attention was drawn to the bar. The lady confirmed our booking and advised us where we were sitting. I decided to get drinks at the bar as this would speed things up and save staff a job, which I don't mind. After getting our drinks and sitting down at the table, we began enjoying family time. The young lad was on the ball with asking for our order, we kindly asked for another 5 mins, and he was spot-on. Good eye contact and confident when speaking to us, he was knowledgeable about the options that were available with the food. As conversation flowed, a couple of drinks glasses were empty. Although the young lad was seen taking orders at another table, the women servers were following each other with nothing in their hands! This frustrates me because it's an opportunity to sell more drinks. Anyway, we caught the attention of the blonde lady to kindly took our drinks order. When she asked if there was anything else, I asked for the WiFi code. She said she'd get the code. (Trip Advisor sticker on the door window advising free wifi). Our conversation continued, and drinks seemed to take a little longer than expected. I could see they might have had a busy spurt. Our drinks eventually arrived after about 5 mins. I suddenly discovered our food was given to the wrong table, who had sat down 10 minutes prior to getting their food. The blonde server brought out the pie, and that's when the mistake was identified. The two chaps were happy with the food option whilst one was taken back to the kitchen. I just hope the integrity of kitchen staff as I had seen the meal had been placed down in front of the customer and cutlery used in the meal. I truly didn't want to experience what might be happening in the kitchen. We eventually got our food, and I didn't like the idea of the food coming out, as you can imagine. Although the food was very good, the potatoes were not. There was no check on the table during our meal. When the plates were removed to did point out that the potatoes were not right for the meal although cooked well. I'm guessing the wrong type or quality of the potato wasn't right. Very bizarrely, after giving the feedback, I noticed the chef walk back into the kitchen. His gaze was on our table said it all. However, I would have welcomed him to come to the table as it would drive up standards and quality, making the overall success. We chose to skip deserts because, overall, the expectations were met. Four drinks and 3 or 4 desserts down on revenue. I only give feedback as a way to improve the customer experience. If you have guests round for an evening meal, you'd want it to be a pleasant experience. Most businesses fail because they forget the minor details that make it an especially experience.

We (3 of us) had booked a table in the restaurant on 21/8. When we arrived we were told the restaurant was closed due to unexpected staff shortage. This wasn’t anyone’s fault but, when we said we had pre-booked, the staff were really accommodating despite being very busy. The food was as delicious as always and served with a smile despite the very difficult circumstances in which the staff found themselves. After a few stressful weeks in the family we really needed a treat and we were so grateful that they didn’t let us down (which would’ve been understandable). Absolutely would recommend this place 😁, excellent food and excellent customer service. Huge thank you to the staff who were there on that day.

Excellent service, quick off the grill, rice in the box chicken on top bosh job done. Chicken is seasoned well, rice is always well cooked. £5 for half chicken and chips? You can’t complain at that. Well done Madina grill. Supplying quality food for a cheap price to different community’s

We had a very long wait for our lunch, when it arrived the quiche was so well done my uncle couldn't cut through the pastry there was no compensation. My ham salad was absolutely gorgeous.... I reviewed the cafe before we arrived and I think it's now looking tired and needs a more happy atmosphere. I think the crab take aways are probably the most popular

Visited with my brother and his wife on recommendation. Absolutely delicious and excellent service. Staff were lovely, we had two cocktails Pornstar Martini and French Martini and they were ace. Steak was cooked to perfection (ribeye cooked medium rare) the peppercorn sauce was the best I have ever had anywhere had been made from scratch. Kids meal was great an absolute gem of a place will go again! Would recomend

Such a lovely place. The food, the atmosphere and the staff never fail to impress. We visit on a regular basis and it truly relaxes me to just sit there taking in the atmosphere and enjoying the food.

After doing the Roche valley walk we stopped for lunch delicious lasagna great triple cooked chips plus ploughman's superb 👌

Have never had food at this pub so hard to comment. But lovely pub, with nice atmosphere and super friendly staff! Would really recommend 😊

Great meal with good service and friendly staff.

Had an awsome meal here this evening Great staff highly recommended

Yummy meal didn’t matter that it was slightly late. Massive portions too!

We headed out for a late lunch in harpenden feeling hopeful for a nice meal unfortunately we were given food that you wouldn’t even get in a back street cafe. Dry, very small portion of lamb ‘skewers’ that could have been cooked on a tooth pick. Frozen chips that were not cooked properly. My other half chose the overcooked steak that was like an Aldi pork chop with peppercorn sauce that had seen better days. My little boy chose the children’s chicken goujons that were over cooked and horrible with a size of frozen under cooked chips. The entire meal was disappointing and we had to make food when we got in as we were still hungry. The bill came out £60 and I said to the young waiter no fault of his own I’m sorry but the food was terrible so the manager told him to tell us he took £15 off the bill. The manager didn’t come over to us to talk himself. We left feeling disappointed, awkward and hungry! Never again.

brought my Aunt here for Sunday lunch - we both had the carvery. There were 5 different meats on offer: lamb/beef/turkey/pork and gammon - all looked delicious, and we were given plenty of it. The variety of veg was amazing, and the roast potatoes were to die for! Our drinks waiter Roman was friendly and attentive, without being annoying, and Jane the Chef was also very friendly and helpful. A very pleasant experience that will be repeated.

Great portions of good quality food. They fitted us in late on which we were grateful for. I had a burger with chilli which was very tasty. Reasonably priced for the area

The service was poor. The tables were not set. Then the food came 2 beef roast, 1 lamb roast and 1 fish and chips.The roasts were over cooked and looked like they had been cooked the previous day. The fish and batter were undercooked. The batter was pale almost white. We got £15 reduction on the lamb but did not cause a fuss as we were entertaining. It was all really inedible.