please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Really busy on a hot July Saturday... Adnams Freewheel as well as Ghost Ship, Mosaic, Broadside, Southwold etc.. We ate here and food was really nice.. Not cheap, but this is Aldeburgh.. you can sit on the wall next to the pebble beach with your drinks.. Aldeburgh has big skies with great light. If you have a camera there are thousand photo opportunities here...
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Lovely small pub with nice nooks and crannies... The front opens to Crabbe street with a small courtyard at rear opening onto the Crag path... I popped in late afternoon with family, and had a nice pint of Ghost ship, but Broadside and Southwold were also on... We caught the pub at that 'in Between' time, but I would imagine this place is busy evenings and lunches... We bought Rock eel from one of the boats for a BBQ... Not many places left like Aldeburgh...
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We stayed here for a few days and rather liked it. Beer(Adnams of course) and food (seafood mostly) were good (we particularly liked the breakfasts. Not the largest full English but very good sausage and bacon) and the staff were friendly enough. We'd probably go back if we're in the area again
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Popped in for a pint of Southwold Bitter last week and it was in excellent condition , could have stayed for more but was driving! Nice dog sitting in it's chair too.
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This has to be the best bar in aldeburgh.Broadside was good and the southwold was on good form.a nice atmosphere and a very friendl pub dog.This will be my drinking hole for the week
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Not a bad pub but over the last year I have been there 6 times and found the Adams Bitter tasted like vinager on 4 visits, was told it was the frost in the cellar. Beware
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A pub from my youth which sadly has lost its way!!!!
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Visited on a Saturday in June - nice pint of Adnam's bitter, seemed friendly enough, if a bit overcrowded. Didn't seem much wrong with the place - maybe something has changed since the previous adverse comments.
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Sadly a long way from the excellent pub I first visited in the early 80s. Beer is overpriced and not well kept. The last few times I've been in (in the vague hope it's improved) it's been virtually empty. Those empty seats ought to be telling them something! As suffolkfan says, try the White Hart instead.
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Fish pie was 40% potato (Smash?), 30% sauce and 30% fish. A dog was barking in the dining room and the window sill was filthy. Not recommended.
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Agree with previous poster (though posting it 3 months later: hope he's been sacked!) Food overpriced (as everywhere in Suffolk) and mediocre. Fortunately the beer is usually OK. Pus like htis are lucky to be tied to such a quality brewery as Adnams, otherwise they would have no redeeming features.
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The Cross Keys looks picturesque from the front, and has a busy seating area (in Summer) behind it facing the beach. All good so far; until you try the beer and food. Quite simply, the WORST pint of Adnams i've ever tasted; cloudy, warm, flat..eugh! The food is just awful, tastes processed, and the whole pub is pervaded by the smell of old cooking oil. We have a 2nd home in Aldeburgh and are in town 10/12 times a year. 2/3 times a year I visit the Cross Keys to check for improvement but just not happening. Added to that the unshaven, dishevelled barman who actually sneers "Is there anything else" when you order your solitary (poor) pint, and it really is a pub best avoided. Try the White Hart in the High Street for a genuine warm welcome from Chris the landlord, decent well-kept beers, and convivial chat with locals and visitors alike.
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Is this the same pub we're all talking about? Went there this weekend with a large mixed crowd of adults and children and couldn't have been made more welcome. Not only was the food fresh, generous and delicious (good enough to appease all our group's gastro-snobs) but we also had the landlord coming over to praise our children for being so well behaved. An absolutely lovely pub.
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From the outside, it looks very appealing. Sadly, the staff were surly and aggressive. The foreign gentleman working behind the bar made my partner and I feel very unwelcome once he found that we had only come in for a drink and not for a meal.
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Some good ale and welcoming staff in here on my visit.
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have been going in periodically, and its not much different. This pub lives on the fact it is extremely old, but its tedious and not really much fun. Haven't bothered risking the food for at least three years or so as the menu hasn't changed and that worries me. Harry the barmaid left some years ago and she was the only fun bit of the pub - though she still works in the high street. I think its a shame this should be a great pub but the landlady/absent landlord really let it down - surly, miserable and overpriced wine
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I used to live and work in Aldeburgh and always remembered the lovely seafood lasagne at the Cross Keys. Last week I visited again and was hoping for a bit of nice pub grub. My partner wanted the cod and chips, which, I was rather unmceremoniously told by the grumpy lady taking the food orders had run out. So I opted for the fish pie and he had the meat lasagne. The fish pie was revolting, the mash topping tasted like Smash and the tiny amount of sauce tasted like Colemans instant parsley sauce. The vegetables were inedible, the cauliflower was brown (which is quite hard to achieve) and stunk of the chiller it had come out of - veg that is not freshly cooked astounds me - there is just no need. The lasagne also was foul by all accounts and we had a thoroughly disappointing meal. I will never go there again. My partner had a pint of Adnams which only has to travel a few miles down the road from Southwold which was cloudy and just not very nice. All in all not a very pleasant experience!
anonymous - 12 Apr 2007 11:12 |
Again been going to aldeburgh for 7 yrs and this was my first port of call the first time. This was a great pub, with good food. Alas the food is now cruddy and second rate. But for us its the hot gossip in regards to the the licensees - which i wont go into here, but suffice it raises an eyebrow and makes my husband return.
This is a kids pub despite being the oldest pub in the village
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On a recent visit to aldeburgh my friends and I embarked on a pub crawl around the town - we happened upon the cross keys full of young people who were very loud this must definately be the Aldeburgh haunt of the young as most seemed to young to have a drink in their hands. The beer was poorly kept and cloudy I did consult the barmaid on this and I was shot down in flames after trying two pints we left with a definate bad taste in the mouth - sorry but this is a review page and not ment to cause offence.
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It's like I died and went to Adnam's heaven..... brilliant place to try the brewery's wares. Good for a mid-week pint, and to munch some decent grub. Interesting array of paraphernalia dotted around the place. Real redeeming feature is that you can potter over the road to enjoy your pint on the sea wall. It's right next to the offshore lifeboat station, which gives you pride of place amongst spectators when the lifeboat is called out.
Weekends are hectic there, and summer holiday weekends means that the place is rammed with boarding school pupils let off the leash.
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"Local" Your comments obviously mark you out as someone who has been thrown out of the pub. I have been visiting this pub for longer than you have lived in Aldeburgh (not really a local are you?). It is not dull. it is not generally uncomfortable. The food is good, the beer is excellent and the staff are both polite and hugely entertaining.
It is in a fantastic position by the beach and is the best pub for miles around (unless your idea of a good night out is rank ale, warm lager and a packet of cheese and onion crisps).
Sloth - 17 Aug 2004 13:18 |
The whole point of my family going to Aldeburgh is the Cross keys.August is very busy with lots of young visitors, Wish I was that young again.Well worth a visit.Great food and very good staff
Robert Stevens - 16 Apr 2004 23:02 |
The Cross Keys is an overpriced, pretentious pub, filled with London 'waff waffs' in their boat shoes, staying either on their yacht or in their fith holiday home.
The pub is small, dull, and generally uncomfortable.
I guarantee you these people who give positive comments have their heads in the clouds.
Beleive me, I know, I've lived in Aldeburgh for for ten years.
Local - 31 Jan 2004 00:18 |
What a find.Everyones dream of a great seaside pub.Adnams beer,great food especially the fresh dressed crab.full of interesting.The night we were there 10 musicians played mozart in the garden.
well worth a visit.
.
Rachel Stevens - 29 Jul 2003 22:01 |
In the off-season it is a laid-back friendly pub >> but alas in summer you can not move for the under-age drinkers and uni under-grads. But hey, when you serve Adnams .. who's complaining
Rob - 27 Jun 2003 12:21 |
I great pub massively busy in the summer months and quiet and relaxed in the winter. Greta hospitality and atmosphere
jamie - 24 Jun 2003 17:55 |
Top pub! good grub, great beer and entertaining staff and regulars.
Sloth - 17 Jun 2003 13:11 |
Adnams-serving Suffolk pub. Good mix of regulars, including local lifeboat crew. Beer garden backs onto beach. Is the essence of Aldeburgh which can be quite a cool seaside town in a laidback way.
Jenn - 25 Nov 2002 13:48 |
