The best restaurants serving British food in Copford and West Stanway Colchester East of England

Sadly I have to leave a negative review. I had been here before and it had been good so I recommended it for our friends pre-Christmas get together. We booked ages ago, paid £10 deposit each and pre-booked our menu choices several weeks ago too. The starters took over 45 minutes to arrive, the mains took a while after that, leaving those who did not have starters without food for well over an hour. People who seemed to walk in and order next to us had their starters and mains well before we did. The food was ok, but the vegetables were just luke warm. The veggie choice had two brussel sprouts with it as well as a very small portion of what looked like shredded cabbage but tasted of fennel and a few tiny dots of beetroot. One friend had a starter of mackerel pate on what she described as an untoasted crumpet. They didn't have "the right cream" for an Irish coffee. It was quite embarrassing as we had recommended it. All in all not good this time round.

The waitress/bar staff was very friendly; atmosphere cosy and food was delicious. My daughter doesn’t usually eat desserts but was tempted by the trifle baked alaska and throughly enjoyed it too. I would have liked a slightly larger portion of mash potatoes with my steak and ale pie and slightly more onion rings with the steaks and burgers. 2 onion rings is not really much at all. Even 3 would have been a lot better.

Went for a christmas meal - very very disappointed 😞

Staff are helpful and polite, food is well cooked, fresh, and plenty of it and just a nice place to sit and have some good food with family/ friends.

Possibly the worst café on the planet, maybe even this galaxy, drinks that never arrived, food that took so long to arrive that I saw young boys grow into long trousers and staff that make it so obvious that they do not want to be there I’m surprised they don’t put up as sign advertising that customers will seriously inconvenience them. If you are expecting service, courtesy and food, do not go to the Sainsbury’s café at Tollgate.