The best restaurants in East of England

I've been visiting the Alexandra Arms on and off for over three years, and unfortunately, one member of staff, Raphael, has consistently made visits unpleasant. He's regularly rude and dismissive to patrons, which I’ve witnessed on multiple occasions. Yesterday was the last straw. I was at the pub with about 20 friends and my 2-year-old daughter, who had been quietly and calmly enjoying the meal. After eating, she wanted to stretch her legs and explore a little, as toddlers naturally do. I accompanied her and ensured she wasn’t disturbing anyone. After just a couple of minutes, Raphael approached me in an unnecessarily rude and aggressive tone, insisting that my daughter must remain in her highchair. No flexibility, no explanation — just a harsh demand. What made it worse was that another young child was also walking around with their parent and they weren’t told off. With no other option, we all left and took our business to another pub nearby. Raphael's behaviour isn’t just unpleasant — it’s bad for business. I hope the management takes this seriously and considers how much customer goodwill is being lost.

The is food is always good and not too heavy on pocket.

The food is absolutely amazing I had a lovely time. The service is a 10/10 they were friendly and very welcoming. We couldn’t finish all the food and we got it to go it was that good. I am absolutely going again

Dressed crab was fine but the salad very disappointing, more of a garnish. Coffee was good. Lack of customer toilets was an issue and for that reason I would not visit again or recommend to other people.

Absolutely amazing food with the best service. We didn’t feel rushed at all. The food was was delicious. The best itialian food in Hertfordshire. That’s from two Italian visiting food lovers. We will return.

Ordered food and wine. We left so much. The patstas Brava were undercooked. Just cubed potatoes with a little paprika on.The mac & cheese was lumpy. The hummus was acceptable possibly the best my friend has had in this country. The garlic chips were obviously reheated as they were swimming in oil- not butter , we had to put the chips in il. After that they were nasty. The bang bang cauliflower looked like it has been reincarnated. I think it had been brought from Norse road. 🤭 Unfortunately as this was my first time here I wouldn’t be able to recommend this place to anyone who enjoys food.

Nice tea room, tucked away on the main seafront behind the upside down house. It was busy but we eventually found a table big enough for all 6 of us, Good selection of hot and cold meals and small portions for the 2 children. Between us we had a cheese ploughman’s, a full English, an egg mayo sandwich, and a cream tea for the adults, chicken nuggets and chips and a burger for the children. Quick polite service, the food was freshly made/cooked and was very tasty. Lots of cheese on the ploughman’s. Also had 2 pots of tea with spare pots of hot water for more than enough drinks, we stayed there until closing time as the weather was atrocious. Friendly attentive staff but I couldn’t understand a single word they said (very strong Norfolk accent) Definitely recommended

Food is always on point! Staff are amazing and friendly! Very competitively priced! Can be a little busy at times but take that as a positive because obviously must be excellent if they are busy! Card or cash accepted & an amazing selection of drinks! 10/10

Fantastic meal with attentive, helpful staff. We both had chicken tikka hasina which was cooked to perfection; charred on the outside, tender and tasty inside. Busy Wednesday evening, but service smooth and efficient. Highly recommended

Lovely village pub with local ales and beer garden. Plenty of parking spaces for visitors. Very friendly helpful staff.

It was our first time at Flat Iron and honestly, it was fantastic both service and food wise! We were super impressed by the server's thorough knowledge and effort to check the dishes for the allergen concern because we never had such excellent care particularly as it's not a quite common allergen. The flat iron, chips and green salad were so delicious and despite its size, it was super filling. Super cozy atmosphere too. Will go back again!

I’m not the biggest fan of kebabs because they’re not usually wry good, however this chicken kebab was amazing, chilli sauce lovely Chicken big and juicy salad was lovely, the wedges are a little plain but cooked well and hot

Good food and a great atmosphere. Tess and her team make you very welcome. Recommended without doubt.

We were very disappointed that again, on our second visit to Okka for lunch, the front of house staff showed an incredible lack of awareness of my wife's Gluten and Dairy intolerances despite having made this clear when booking a table and then at the point of giving our order and finally at the moment the food was delivered to the table. We made it very clear to the server that the choice of dishes from the set 2 course menu for my wife needed to be both Dairy and Gluten free and checked with her if this was understood. On the arrival of the food it became immediately clear (fortunately) that they had completely ignored this request and had a served up the meal complete with a standard pitta bread and rice cooked with butter. When this was pointed out to the waiter he looked completely nonplussed and had to be told to go back to the kitchen to confirm that the pitta was GF and the rice was simply plainly cooked without dairy. The plate was eventually returned without both rice and pitta and without any apology for getting it wrong. After 10 minutes a side plate of GF bread was brought to the table BUT STUPIDLY COMPLETE WITH A PACK OF FULL DAIRY BUTTER! So sorry but this lack of understanding of even the simplest allergen requirements, both front of house in the kitchen causes grave concern and the lack of training needs to be urgently addressed by the management before serious harm occurs to a customer.

Good choice of well cooked dishes.