The best restaurants serving British food in South Hanningfield, Stock and Margaretting Chelmsford East of England

Small but beautifully appointed restaurant and high quality food at reasonable prices. Very friendly and attentive staff too.

Murder Mystery at Downham Hall- Lets start with a positive. The venue is beautiful with plenty of parking. A group of 13 of us booked and paid deposit to attend Agatha Christie Murder Mystery evening in January. A limited menu was sent, and enquiries made if an alternative plain starter could be provided for member of the group and was told no as the venue will be catering for 60+ guests and cannot deviate from the set menu. Even the request for bread as starter was denied. Full payment was requested a week before the event which I feared being an indication that the food may not be ‘up to much’. On arrival we along with other guests were seated in the Orangery (conservatory) as the main dining room was full. This room was cold and the radiators off, with only a small warm plug-in radiator. Once informed, the manager turned on all the radiators which warmed quickly. Drink order taken and served. The Orangery was noisy with no soft furnishings to absorb guest’s chatter. Food was served, the starters being met with mixed reviews but generally fine. The main course on the other hand was unacceptable. A small amount of couscous with a couple of tiny bits of lamb on top in the middle of a plate. When asked where the rest of it was, we were informed that is it. Several members of our party sent the food back with requests for more meat, which was granted but of course no vegetables given. The dessert was a delight, and everyone enjoyed their trifle or jaffa cake dessert. During dinner the mystery element of the evening started with two actors entering the room, a male informing us he is the handyman and a very loud female, with a fake foreign accent and a stethoscope around her neck who demanded guests to shake maracas and hold a toy dog in their hand for ‘healing’, all very bizarre and to be honest her voice was so high pitched and cutting, you just hoped she would be the murder victim. Several other actors proceeded to enter the room and talk to various guests but with the acoustics of the room, nothing could clearly be heard. The actors also had the difficult job of performing in both dining areas, which were not even next door to each other. All this resulted in none of our party really knowing what we were meant to do, who the murder victim was and to be honest we just gave up trying. The early exit of another large table of people before the conclusion indicated we were not the only ones who had given up trying. The evening rounded off nicely with the waitress getting verbally annoyed with the group when we requested to pay for our drinks individually. She left the room so the manager had to come to take our payments. Overall, we felt a little ‘ripped off’ with the £55 per person payment and had hoped for a better experience. We will not be returning to any future events.

Was my first visit with friends for late Sunday lunch. Staff were friendly and attentive. The Sunday Roast was delicious, as were the desserts. I had roast beef and my friend had lamb. Highly recommend you try this venue for your culinary needs. Will definitely be returning. Was very busy (we were there over couple of hours and I quickly sneaked couple of pics when certain areas were clear for a moment or two) Can imagine this place will be very busy in the summer too! Great position with plenty of parking.

Nice food and even better service.

Took my OH for his birthday along with 2 of our friends. The waitress was really helpful finding out about a couple of dishes on the menu and was very friendly. We had some rustic bread and olives then beef bourguignon which was about as rich and delicious and you can get, 2 plates of sea bass which was gorgeous apparently and the jerk vegan stew, which went down well. Followed by Baileys crème brûlée, (very subtle), fudge brownie and sticky toffee pudding. The service throughout the meal was great and we would be happy to go back again.

The rocky road (nuts) was a Christmas take and it was very yummy thanks Nicola would highly recommend maybe the adult cake next time ( Irish cream cake ) regards Roy.

Living in Suffolk, I’ve been to this pub a few times as it’s a good halfway point to meet friends and family in Surrey/Sussex. We recently enjoyed a Sunday lunch at the pub with friends, including a toddler. My roast pork was excellent, and being gluten intolerant I was intrigued to try my wife’s fish and chips, which the menu said was gluten free as standard. It was the best gluten free batter I’ve tried, so will definitely be having it on a future visit. The food certainly isn’t cheap, but the quality justifies the price. Service was very attentive and our friends’ little girl was well looked after.

We all feel welcomed and by our local bar staff and our manager Pete who have made us all very welcome in a warm friendly pub. The Christmas lunch that was cooked by the kitchen team, including Sam and Alex was great!

It’s a nice little pub with a huge garden so great for summer! However, I took my 91 year old Nan and it was a bit claustrophobic for her, the seats were in were a bit low for the table as well and she’s diddy now so it was hard for her to eat her meal. The food was nice, wouldn’t say it’s the best roast I’ve had but worth a try, I had the pork which was nice some parts a bit tougher and Nan had chicken which was nice! Staff were lovely and polite 😊

A hidden gem and great place for some great food. Took the kids who had great fun in the adventure playground. Loved the reservoir view and fresh air.

The OKH is our local, and, as regulars, it has been one of our favourite dog friendly pubs for some time. Based on our last few visits though we’ve found that there have been too many menu options unavailable and that the food quality has deteriorated significantly. Our last visit was in mid December with a group of friends in the private room. It all started well, the staff, despite their young age, were helpful and friendly as always but on this occasion they were clearly not adequately supervised. Despite ordering around 7pm on a Saturday night, there were at least three unavailable main menu options. One of these was a standard burger. How can a pub run out of a staple from the freezer? One of our party was offered two children’s burgers instead. These arrived dry and completely over-cooked. Some mains were fine, others were pretty awful. Service was very slow. This was a group birthday celebration. The pub was supposed to be open until 11 but at 10:15 we were told they were closing shortly and were asked to leave within 15-20 minutes. We were made to feel very uncomfortable and the staff kept looking into the room to see if we were packing up. So disappointing because we’ve had some great times at the OKH but this and a couple of previous experiences haven’t been great. We’ll give it another go in January but if nothing changes I’m afraid it will be our last visit. It’s a shame because we want to support our local but no one seemed willing to take our comments on board when we raised the issues with them 🙁