The best restaurants in East of England

Did a last minute booking for lunch as I was leaving the country and wanted fish and chips for a last time. Great service, great food and they were more than happy to change things around to cater for my veggie, gluten free family member.

I had a proper dinner with lamb ribs, some cold and hot mezes, a couple of beers. Paid £34 and worths every penny. You can taste the high quality ingrediants when you keep eating.

Had lunch here and then came back for the evening BBQ summer event. The lunch and BBQ were very well done. The service at both were good. Having lunch by the river was nice.

You have to try the Yorkshire pudding wrap! One of us had beef, the other turkey. It arrived cut in half so we were able to have a beef and turkey each. Yum!!

The third time I have eaten there in the hope that it had improved. Food ok, however the noise from the bar & the swearing did not impress. It is not a place I would go for a special occasion or take a lady. The staff were pleasant but no one seemed to care about the language from the bar.

The ambiance and quirkiness was wonderful and the cakes we had where good but oh the coffee. I ordered a cafetiere for one and was actually gobsmacked to see the server pour coffee from the filter machine into the cafetiere, the coffee had obviously been standing for some time judging by the taste. My wife did not believe me, so I attempted to find coffee grounds in the bottom of the cafetiere. Will not be visiting again.

Visited for the first time on a very busy Saturday evening this interesting restaurant in a very attractive small town just of the high street. Its a modern bar/restaurant with an area outside for eating too with free parking. The staff are very friendly and the service was attentive the whole evening. The Asian menu offers main meals or tapas with the best of ingredients used.

First visit and stumbled against it looking for a decent restaurant and it definitely didn’t disappoint. The whole experience was lovely and the food gave us a taste of Greece we have missed due to Covid.

This is the 2nd visit. Both times amazing. Friendly staff friendly cats. Food and drink was brilliant also the nostalgic items on show brought me back to my childhood. Recommend coming here

We booked for the New Year's Eve buffet (a party of 4) to celebrate my birthday. Before booking and paying the total bill in advance, I checked that there would be vegetarian choices and that we could bring our 2 well behaved dogs with us. I was also told that we could bring our own bottle of wine. I asked if we could have a corner table so that we could be out of the way with the dogs. When we arrived at 1.55pm for the 2pm sitting the 'Closed' sign was on the door. After a couple of minutes we opened the door and asked if we may come in and the reply was an abrupt "Have you booked?" No hello any or other welcome. We stood waiting to be shown to our table then overheard a staff member saying to another customer "Sit where you like". We chose a table in the corner which had 5 chairs around it, at which point a staff member said "We are fully booked so if you sit there you will have 2 other people sitting with you. (Strange as there were only 5 chairs). I then asked her where we should sit and was told on a table for 4. As we were about to sit at a table for 4 we were told that we couldn't sit there as they were expecting a party of 10 and the lady proceeded to push the table we were going to sit at, up against another table. I find it incredible that there was a booking for a party of 10, yet no table had been prepared for them. We then sat at the only other table for 4, which was very close to the buffet table, and not really ideal. A lady offered us drinks but we said that we had a bottle of wine and 4 glasses were brought to the table. By 2.10pm nothing had been said, so one of our party asked if we could help ourselves to food and were told "Yes". None of the plates were labelled "V" so it was impossible to tell what was vegetarian, and I had to ask. I was appalled to discover that the vegetarian items were on the same plates mixed up with meat and fish items. This really is unacceptable and makes me wonder about the standards applied in the kitchen regards to cross contamintion of utensils and preparation surfaces. The vegetarian quiche was on the same plate and touching quiche containing bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches had ham ones piled on top of them, and egg vol-u-vents were on the same plate as fish ones. People were using the same tongs to pick up meat and then cheese. Our table was so close to the buffet table that at one point we actually had a ladies bottom resting on our table. As I was eating a piece of quiche my friend stopped me to point out that there was a hair in it. She took the piece of quiche to a member of staff who actually laughed and took it from her. There was no apology whatsoever. Although fully booked, the table for 5 where we wanted to sit remained unoccupied, as did another table by the window which would have been far more comfortable for us. As there was no table service, and the food was already prepared the staff were sitting/standing around. Yet, there was no interaction at all. No-one came to the table to ask if everything was ok, no Happy New Year, no friendly chat whatsoever. It gave the impression that as they had received their money up front that was their job done. I can honestly say I have never felt so unwelcome in a local tea room before. The previous owners always had a smile and a warm welcome. I believe it is fair to give the management the opportunity to respond, so I sent a private message to Petals to express my disappointment. Unfortunately I did not receive the courtesy of an acknowledgment or reply. Needless to say I would not return, but hope that my comments regarding cross contamination will be taken note of for the sake of other vegetarian/vegan customers.

We had a lovely Sunday afternoon here. The pork belly bites to start were amazing and the roasts were delicious, piping hot and obviously home cooked. We didn't have room for dessert but they looked so good we wished we could! The staff were really friendly, even though they were clearly very busy and under pressure the service was spot on.

The landlady Andrea here is amazing she’s not only kind and polite and helpful she will go above and beyond to help you she also helps the local community and has a charity called harwich angels football team I love going here there is also a lovely hall on the back of this which has a bar which u can also hire :) for anything the food buffet is 10/10 It’s amazing atmosphere here I can’t really find a fault with her at all well she is a West Ham fan but she’s the nicest hammer I have ever met MUCH LOVE JASON

Booked a table for 2 last night. When we sat down we were told it was their last night before closing so the menu was limited! Why weren't we told before we booked?! Literally 5 dishes left on the menu. Poor quality. Unprofessional staff, treating the place like a youth centre. No wonder it's closing down.

Took my wife, elderly father and son for a bite to eat and a pint on Saturday afternoon. Busy but prompt and friendly service with a good range of beer. Traditional pub food on offer with other options - I had the chicken fajitas, dad had the steak and ale pie,!my wife had the ribs and my son had scampi - all food nice and hot, plenty of it and genuinely tasty. Highly recommend - thanks for looking after us

Chilled atmosphere , attentive staff, lamb shank was very good , so was the Seafood Bouillabaisse. Popular are the fluffy pizzas.